Leadership Trait of the Day: DECISIVENESS

 I can still here my Basic School instructors “Make a decision lieutenant, any decision.”  “The only bad decision is no decision.”  “Decide and act.  Don’t wait for all the information, you will never get it.”

If there is one leadership trait that the Marine Corps spends a lot of time beating into its officers and enlisted leaders it is decisiveness.  This makes sense when you are talking about a combat environment – trust me, there is not a lot of time to ponder options when someone is shooting at you. 

What about everyday life?  Is decisiveness that important when there aren’t bullets flying around?  Let’s do some brief and unscientific research.  If you google “learning to be decisive” you will get over 12 million hits.  If you google “books on decisiveness” your get only 283,000 hits.  Amazon has scores of books on Decisiveness  So, clearly there are a lot of people who think that decisiveness is important and that there is general lack of decisiveness in our modern American society. 

I happen to be one of them.  We have all seen and experienced a lack of decisiveness – be it in the grocery store, on-line shopping, at a restaurant, or in our business or professional lives.  I actually have a funny story on being in-decisive, one that most anyone who deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan could appreciate.  When I came back from Afghanistan two years ago, I got stuck in Camp Lejeune for a weekend before I could go home to see my family.  So, like any good Marine recently returned home, I really, really wanted a beer.  So I went to beer and liquor store on base.  I then proceeded to spend the next 45 minutes trying to decide what type of beer was going to be my first drink in seven months.  I have never been so wishy-washy in my life, but, I will forgive myself given the circumstances. 

Let’s focus on business and professional life.  How many times have we suffered through an indecisive boss?  How many times have we had to do extra work, or waste time because our supervisor could not decide on a course of action?  How many times have we been frustrated by a boss who could not provide guidance and direction?  There are few things worse than working for a boss who suffers from “paralysis by analysis.” 

Even worse than how an indecisive boss makes us feel personally, we have all seen how an indecisive leadership impacts an organization by destroying trust and confidence.  Subordinates will not trust a leader who does not trust himself.  This ultimately ruins the entire team dynamic. 

On the hand, we have all seen how a sure, decisive leader inspires confidence and builds a stronger team.    

Before discussing how to be more decisive, let’s discuss what Decisiveness is not.  Decisiveness is not being stubborn, arrogant, hasty, or reactive.  It does not mean that you need to live under a principle of “Ready, Fire, Aim.”  Being Decisive does not require snap decisions. 

Decisiveness is the ability to make clear decisions quickly.  Quickly is relative.  You should spend more time shopping for a house than for a pair of shoes.  You should put more thought into what job to take than what movie to go see.  The scope and magnitude of the decision will impact how “quickly” you need to act to be decisive. 

Click through for some tips on how to be more decisive. 

I like you Lee, but you mean a "good Leader."

The Marine Corps emphasizes three things to teach Marines how to be decisive: 1) make decisions without all the information; 2) trust yourself; and 3) do not second guess yourself. 

First, learn to make decisions without all the information.  This is the key for battlefield actions.  You will never have perfect information, no matter how long you wait.  So, you need to take what you have, access it, decide and move on without looking back. 

In today’s life where we all have access to the entire internet it is very difficult to learn when you have enough information.  Take the simple example of going to the movies.  I can pull out my phone and read a review of every one of the 20 movies playing at the multiplex.  Meanwhile, we missed the start of the movie we wanted to see while I spent 25 minutes on my phone. 

This is the classic case of “paralysis by analysis.”  This is the thought that “if I can just get a little more information, I can make the perfect decision.”  Here is the problem: there is no perfect decision, and you can never get all of the information.  This is why step 2 is important.

Second, learn to trust yourself and your instincts.  Because you will never have perfect information, you will need to fill in the gaps and make a decision.  This is where the number one enemy of decisiveness comes into play.  Indecisive people do not trust their instincts their ability to make a decision.  They waffle because they are unsure.  You cannot be decisive unless you trust yourself. 

TRUST YOURSELF!

If this is you, there are steps you can take to learn to trust yourself:

· Visualize your decision and potential outcomes

·  Teach yourself that no decision is the worst decision

·   Learn to listen to your “inner voice.”

·Take a step back and re-examine your options.

The best way to learn to trust yourself is to practice making decisions.  The more decisions you make, the more comfortable you are making them.  Set time limits on your decision making.  This will teach you to have faith in your rapid decision making skills. 

Third, don’t second guess yourself.  This is where many people undermine themselves.  After making a decision and moving forward, they look back and examine their decision in hindsight.  When they realize there was a better option, they doubt themselves.  This is not fair.  You cannot judge yourself based on information you did not have.  Further, by constantly second-guessing you decisions, you will undermine your confidence in your ability to make decisions. 

If you want to look back at your decision and critique it, you need to do so strictly as a learning point.  Not to second guess and doubt yourself.  By examining your decision critically as a learning experience, you will learn how to make better decisions in the future.  This strengthens your faith in yourself and allows you to make better decisions. 

Decisiveness is an easy trait to have.  You just have to decide that you want to have it.