As a leader and business owner, making decisions can feel like it’s a never-ending task and really plays a mental tug-of-war with you. You go back and forth on weighing every possible outcome until you either delay the decision, delay the decision for weeks, or stress yourself out trying to make the perfect choice.
Does that sound familiar?
Here’s the truth. There’s no such thing as a perfect decision, only a well-informed one. The longer you sit on a decision, the more doubt is going to creep in. However, there are things you can do to overcome this decision paralysis and move your business forward.
Here are 3 Key Strategies for Effective Decision-Making
1. Set Time Limits
To combat overthinking, establish a deadline for making decisions. This approach helps prevent doubt from creeping in and keeps your business moving forward. By setting a time limit, you force yourself to focus on the most critical factors and make a well-informed choice within a reasonable timeframe.
By establishing a forcing function it requires a decision by a specific point in time.
2.Focus on the Next Best Step
Instead of trying to map out the entire journey, concentrate on the immediate next step. This micro-step approach allows you to make progress without feeling overwhelmed by the big picture. By taking small, actionable steps, you create momentum and gain clarity as you move forward.
3.Trust Your Experience
Remember that you have valuable experience and knowledge to draw from. Even if things don’t go exactly as planned, your ability to adapt and learn from outcomes is crucial. Trust in your capacity to handle challenges and make adjustments as needed.
Something else you can try is implementing a scientific approach.
Treat your business decisions like scientific experiments:
- Form a hypothesis about the outcome of your decision.
- Implement your chosen action.
- Observe the results.
- Analyze the outcomes and adjust your approach accordingly.
This method allows you to learn from both successes and setbacks, continuously improving your decision-making process.
Embracing Action and Clarity
Overthinking can significantly slow down your business growth. Instead, focus on taking action, which often leads to greater clarity. By making decisions and moving forward, you create opportunities to learn, adapt, and refine your approach.
There’s no such thing as a perfect decision – only well-informed ones. By setting time limits, focusing on next steps, trusting your experience, and treating your business like a scientific experiment, you can overcome decision paralysis and drive your business toward success.
Ways to Work Together
If you are feeling trapped in your business and not experiencing the freedom you want, here are the two ways we can work together.
One-on-One: Ready to create a business that allows you the freedom you want? We are passionate about our custom solutions and systems for your business. Our approach takes your industry, your unique disposition as a business owner, and your emerging definition of success, and we develop a unique to you plan to move you towards loving your business again. Click the link above to set up a call identify your goals, discuss your current roadblocks, and to ask any questions about working together.
Business Roadmap: This is for the business owner who needs help on what the next thing is to do, and the next 5 steps after that. You don’t need another social media course, email funnel, or sales strategy, but a plan specific to you and your business. You’ll gain clarity on where your business is at, create a plan, you’ll know what to do and what to ignore, along with the resources you need. In the end, you will take that plan and implement, saving you thousands of dollars and years of headache.
A third way, and I know I only said two, but sometimes I can’t help myself. If you are feeling stuck and are in need of resources, reach out. I am happy to point you in the right direction and even provide an asset of my own to help you move forward.
Stephanie German is a business strategist, adjunct professor, and speaker. She holds a master’s degree in organizational leadership and loves giving back to her community in a variety of ways. When she’s not coaching clients or writing about leadership, Stephanie is usually headed to the mountains or the beach with her family, drinking savory wine, or working on the latest project with her husband. Stephanie’s greatest desires are to raise up the next generation of leaders while raising her own children to be strong, independent, and brave. She lives in Fresno, California with her husband Blake and her three spunky daughters, Cara, Kinsey, and Peyton. She is the best-selling author of So Your Boss Can’t Lead?