How good are you at Decision Making?

Did you know that Decision Making is a competency that you can develop? We define the Decision Making competency as, "Analyzing all aspects of a situation to make consistently sound and timely decisions." Who do you know who is highly skilled at Decision Making?

With practice, you can grow and develop this skill just like other "hard skills" you might be good at like cooking, public speaking, employee coaching, or playing golf.

How do I grow as a leader: Decision Making?

Those with a highly developed skill of Decision Making exhibit the following:

• Demonstrates an ability to make thorough decisions in a timely manner.
• Gathers relevant input and develops a rationale for making decisions.
• Evaluates the impact or consequences of decisions before making them.
• Acts decisively once all aspects have been analyzed.
• Focuses on timely decisions after the situations have been completely diagnosed.
• Willing to update decisions if more information becomes available.
• Provides a rationale for decisions when necessary.
• Systematically analyzes information before making a decision.
• Looks at all aspects of a situation including historical components.
• Asks the right questions rather than making assumptions to produce a timely decision.

Behaviorally, it comes more naturally and requires less focus for some of us to effectively make decisions. For the rest of us, it is a skill we may need to invest energy into developing in order to be more effective. Our Driving Forces will reward for some skills and not others. If your job or your environment demands something from you that isn't naturally present in your Behaviors or Driving Forces, you can develop it in your Competencies. 

What about you? How developed are you at the competency of Decision Making? What about the people on your team? Is this something you want your team to be strong in?