Decision making is a key component to our lives and a daily element of successful leadership. The quality of decisions and the ability to make one (as opposed to being continually un-decided) shapes our lives and our careers.
I’ve personally honed my decision making skills by the following:
1) A lot of practice making decisions and not being stifled by indecision (remember NOT making a decision is still making a decision, you just had no input into the outcome).
2) Learning to focus on the 80/20, the 20% of the facts that are actually relevant to the effectiveness of the decision, quickly discounting the red herrings and fluff.
3) Finally, the most important thing I’ve learned is to trust my intuition. While I generally have little time to make a decision and nearly always have to make it based on not enough information and not enough time, the gut reflex will generally get me there, even if I have little empirical data to support the instinct. I’ve learned to take a moment and ensure I’m making a decision from a place that is positive, won’t have any large unintended negative impacts and that feels genuine to myself.
This article from Deepak Chopra discusses how to make great decisions.
https://www.deepakchopra.com/blog/view/1412/_the_secret_to_making_good_decisions