WHAT IS YOUR DECISION-MAKING STYLE?

By: Nick Tasler

Best-selling author, Nick Tasler, reveals how to start making winning decisions about your career, your people and your strategy.

Great decisions require two things: a map and a G.P.S. Most organizations understand the power of good decisions so they train their people to use a standard decision-making process, problem-solving or critical thinking model. That model is your map.

But have you ever identified from which direction you’re coming from? If I were leaving from Minneapolis and you were leaving from Atlanta we’d both need to take two very different paths to get to Chicago, wouldn’t we? That’s true even if we were using identical, company-issued maps. That’s why shopping mall directories always tell us “You are here.” That’s also why a Global Positioning System is quickly replacing the road atlas as the must-have navigation tool.

So does your organization’s problem-solving model come equipped with G.P.S.? If not, many of your people might be getting lost, even if you’ve taught them how to use a perfectly good map.

Factoring You into Your Decisions
Everyone comes from one of two basic directions when approaching a decision. In other words some of us come from the east and others of us come from the west. That direction depends on your innate decision-making style. Take the brief quiz below to give you a ballpark estimate of your style.

1. a) I do my best work when I have to make quick decisions
b) I do my best work when I have plenty of time to think through my options

2. a) I would choose a 100% chance of winning $1,000
b) I would choose a 50% chance of winning $2,000

3. a) I thoroughly analyze before making a decision
b) I make quick decisions even if I don’t have all the facts

4. a) I thoroughly examine the consequences before trying something new
b) I’m usually one of the first people to try something new

5. a) I choose my words carefully
b) I say what’s on my mind without much thought

6. a) I usually go for it when I see something I want
b) I closely examine the risks before making a choice

7. a) I am quicker to jump on new opportunities than most people
b) I prefer to think things through before pursuing new opportunities

8. a) I rely more on gut instinct
b) I rely more on research and evidence

If you answered mostly “a” then you probably have a Risk Managing style of decision making. Three out of four people like to consider every option closely and will almost always choose the safer bird-in-the-hand option.

On the other hand, if you answered mostly “b” then you might be the one out of four people who are Potential Seekers. You pay attention to risk, but it’s not nearly as important to you as the potential for reward.

You can be a great decision maker with either style. The first step is understanding from which direction you’re coming from, and whether you naturally pay more attention to risk or to reward. Because that style is literally shaping the decisions that shape your future.

Find Nick's book "The Impulse Factor" @:
http://www.amazon.com/Impulse-Factor-Innovative-Approach-Decision/dp/1439157278

The One Asset Every Effective Leader Must Have

By: Nick Tasler

It’s not charisma. It’s not intelligence, either. It’s not even integrity. It’s a skill that all of us have, but surprisingly few of us know how to maximize.

What is the one thing all effective leaders have in common? That’s the multi-billion dollar question posed virtually every day from Minneapolis to Mumbai by store managers and sales associates to the top brass in the C-suites.

To find out, let’s do a quick experiment. Take a few seconds to imagine the most effective leader you’ve ever worked with. Get a clear image of that person in your mind. Was that leader bold or sensitive? Were they known for being charismatic or soft-spoken? Were they visionary or pragmatic? Were they book-smart or streetwise?

An effective leader can be any one of those things, can’t they? The only thing every effective leader does is make good decisions—good people decisions and good strategy decisions. Here’s why: Other people—whether they are hourly sales associates, corporate team members or company shareholders—won’t follow somebody whose choices lead to dead ends. Without good decisions, no amount of charisma or honest intentions can save a leader from failure.

How to Start Making Better Decisions
The good news is that anyone can become a better decision-maker by better understanding the two key elements that produce a decision: the person and the situation. Think of it like this: Person x Situation = Decision.

Most decision-making experts focus on identifying how people make decisions in different situations. For example, if people are given a choice between one bird in the hand or two birds in the bush, we know from common sense and decades of research that most people will—you guessed it—take a bird in the hand. Sounds right, doesn’t it?

The problem is that “people” don’t make your decisions, you do. So, it doesn’t matter that three out of four people will choose a bird in the hand, if you’re the fourth person who dove headfirst into the bush. It doesn’t matter if three out of four people are reluctant to open that new store in Shanghai or invest in that new social media channel if you’re the fourth one who already signed the lease and uploaded your avatar on TheNewNewThing.com.

What matters is that you understand how you tend to make decisions, as well as how you leverage that tendency for the best results. You not only need to know whether you’ll make the decision or not, but also how you’ll tend to execute it, how you’ll tend to adjust during the process, and how you’ll learn from it in order to make an even better decision the next time.

Prime Your Mind For Action

By: Nick Tasler

In my last article, I explained why people who believe they control events in their life are such an asset to the companies they work for. Good leaders also wanted to know what about everyone else? How can they get other team members to adopt that same proactive mentality, even during anxious and uncertain times? At least temporarily, you can inspire that grab-the-bull-by-the-horns attitude in just about anyone. A quick experiment illustrates how:

Phase 1: Think about a decision weighing on you right now. It can be any choice that involves asking "should I do X or should I do Y?" For example, should I stay in my current position, or make a lateral leap? Should I go to that training seminar next week or play hooky? Should we invest in that new venture now or wait until next year? Once you have that vexing question in mind, think about a couple of the short- and long-term consequences of both options, and then about some of the challenges you'll face with trying to act on one of those options.

Phase 2: Think about a project you're already working on. Maybe you've already given that new venture a green light and are ready to dig in. Maybe you've decided to go ahead with that systems upgrade you had been putting off. Or maybe you already concluded that you want to try your hand leading a new department. With that project in mind, jot down a few of the steps you'll need to take in order to successfully implement that plan.

Deliberation vs. Implementation
The two phases above represent routine mental exercises we carry out every day—deliberating some choices and implementing others. Had we been monitoring your mood, your self-esteem, and your perceptions of risk during this experiment, we would have likely found you in two very different states of mind. In experiments like these, psychologists Shelley Taylor at UCLA and Peter Gollwitzer at NYU found that when people think about implementing a decision they've already made (Phase 2) it puts them in a far better mood, significantly raises their self-esteem, and makes them feel much more in control of the world around them. In fact, while locked into phase 2—what Taylor and Gollwitzer call the "implementation mindset"—people even believe they are less vulnerable than others to random events like getting mugged, being in a car crash, and falling victim to an earthquake.

When we mentally shift gears from deliberation to implementation, from contemplation to action, it changes more than the just way we see the decision at hand. While mapping out the plan for implementation, we feel more confident and more invincible about ourselves in general. That's because implementation is a cue for our brains to zoom in on how to get the job done and to tune out the self-doubt and vulnerability that inhibit action.

A Mindset is a Powerful Thing to Waste
The implementation mindset stirs up what Shelley Taylor calls "positive illusions," which are somewhat unrealistic, self-serving beliefs. Around 90% of people believe they are just a little more competent, smarter, or kinder than average. "Generally, most people are more optimistic than facts warrant," she observes. Nearly all people hold healthy, positive illusions about themselves some of the time, but Taylor says that's a good thing. That's not just because positive illusions make people feel more chipper. She has found that mild self-aggrandizing can also foster higher creativity and productivity, and help us persist more when tackling challenging goals like, say, weathering a recession.

But positive illusions come and go. When we find ourselves knee-deep in deliberation—agonizing about how we will continue to provide for our families, or how we can retire when the funds in our 401(k) have vanished—positive illusions disappear almost entirely, leaving us feeling much more like pawns than knights. That's why recessions are a double-whammy. Economic ruts are hard enough to pull out of even when we're operating at full steam. But uncertainty about the future also puts employees and managers in a constant state of deliberation—fretting about the consequences of what might happen next, rather than confidently implementing plans of action.

The good news is that, with a little effort, we can kick-start the implementation mindset.

How to Bite Back When Reality Bites
One of history's great mysteries is why George Washington felt so compelled during the first year of the Revolutionary War to meticulously oversee every detail of the renovations on his homestead, Mt. Vernon. Washington knew full well that if he didn't win the war, he almost certainly would be granted a one-way ticket to the hangman's gallows for treason. He also was fully aware that he was getting clobbered. Despite all the stress and anxiety, Washington spent late nights on the front lines writing letters home specifying things like what colors the new curtains should be in the living room.

Washington wasn't delusional. By mapping out his home improvement project, he was fostering the implementation mindset, which then allowed him to persist in the overwhelming war effort. You can do the same thing from the front lines of your battle to beat the recession or meet your growth targets for the coming quarter.

1. Pick a Project You Are Already Thinking About.
As Washington proved, this project doesn't need to have anything to do with your work. It just needs to be a project you have some measure of control over. It could be growing tasty tomatoes, planning a vacation, shaving a few strokes off of your golf game, helping your kids do better in school, or losing 10 pounds.

2. List Five Implementation Steps. Jot down five actions you will take that, if carried out properly, will virtually guarantee success on your project.

3. Identify When, Where, and How. Peter Gollwitzer's research has proved that this last piece is critical, so don't take a shortcut now. Write down when, where and how you intend to take each of the five implementation steps. For example, if your project is "plan a vacation," one step might be: "After dinner tonight, I will look at vacation packages on my laptop." From there, your brain will know what to do.

You can then do the same exercise with your people. To get more bang for your buck, you might want to work with them to select a work-related project that you would both like to see accomplished this quarter. Then coach them on breaking down the implementation steps and identifying the specifics of when, where and how they will carry out these steps. When performed this way—as a coaching exercise focused on a real work project—your reward will be twofold. You'll not only prime your people's minds for action on all their work activities, but also help them to deliver on a specific milestone for the quarter. Everybody wins.

The Time to Implement
When I spoke to Shelley Taylor, she was quick to point out that "positive illusions are rather like fire. They can light your house, or they can burn down your neighbor's house." What she calls "windows of realism" furnished by the deliberation mindset are vital to accurately estimating risks and costs. You could (and indeed many people do) argue that propping open more windows of realism a couple of years ago might have prevented the recession altogether. When you're trying to determine whether or not it's a good idea to embark on a new venture or invest in expensive real estate, the implementation mindset in you or in your people can be very detrimental. It can inspire unwarranted optimism and careless judgments.

But if you're an executive trying to clear the recession malaise from your corporate climate, the windows of realism in your office space are probably open far enough. It's time to implement.

How to Make Good Decisions in Bad Times

By: Nick Tasler

From Detroit to Wall Street to Silicon Valley, it seems that bad executive decisions have become the rule instead of the exception in today's corner offices. Shareholders, employees, politicians and even managers themselves are asking - if not begging - to know why. What is the cause of all these bad decisions, and how can we start making good decisions again?

Bad managerial decisions do not stem from low intelligence. Bad decisions are not rooted in flawed logic, deficient math skills, a poor understanding of business trends or any other of the usual suspects. Bad decisions result from emotional ignorance.

At TalentSmart, we surveyed over 6,000 board members, colleagues and employees from a cross-section of industries that ran the gamut from hospitals to tobacco companies, churches to casinos and everything in between. The key stakeholders of these organizations rated managers on 22 separate leadership skills, including such stalwarts as strategic thinking, focus on results, character and the ability to communicate and articulate vision. When we compared scores on all 22 skills to managers' ability to make good decisions, one in particular stood out: emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence ratings tell us how well managers understand their emotions and regulate their impulses. As it turns out, nearly 70 percent of leaders ranked highly in emotional intelligence were also among the most highly skilled decision makers. Overwhelmingly, it's the managers who are most adept at understanding how others influence their own emotional state; take responsibility for their part in difficult situations; and make the most of bad situations, that are capable of making sound decisions in a timely manner.

In contrast, guess how many of those with a poor grasp of their own emotions ranked among the most skilled decision makers? Zero. In fact, 69 percent of emotionally ignorant leaders ranked among the bottom 15 percent in decision-making skill. Those who fail to handle conflect effectively; refuse to shoulder responsibility for their actions; and remain unaware of their own fear, anger or excitement are dreadfully inept at making decisions.

If emotional intelligence is so critical to a manager's ability to make good decisions, the next logicl question is how emotionally intelligent are most managers?

This is where the story takes a dark turn. In another study a few years ago, we measured the emotional intelligence of hundreds of thousands of workers from janitors to CEOs. We found that emotional intelligence rises steadily as people get promoted up the ranks into middle management. From there, however, emotional intelligence declines precipitously with every rung up the corporate ladder, finally bottoming out with CEOs. It seems that the people least equipped to make good decisions are those we trust to make the most profound decisions. Perhaps this sheds some light on how so many of our businesses have ended up where they are today.

The good news is that emotional ignorance is curable. It doesn't happen overnight, but it can be learned in a couple of months with just a little focused effort. Here's how to get started.

1. Understand Your Emotions as They Happen
Take note of what you are feeling and doing as a situation unfolds so you can learn to harness your emotions in difficult situations. Remember that ignoring emotions doesn't make them magically disappear. Only now after the Wall Street crash are we finally hearing people talk about fear and panic. A year ago, nobody wanted to talk about anything except fed policies and interest rates.

2. Step Away from the Emotional Situation
Keep your finger on the pulse of your emotions and know when to allow yourself the opportunity to step back from the situation. Once you get food at sniffing out your emotions as you feel them, evaluate them objectively. Try picturing the current situation in your head as if it were happening to someone else. What would you recommend that "someone else" to do in order to create the best results?

3. Prepare Yourself for Feelings of Uncertainty
Be definition, every choice you make depends on your estimation of uncertain outcomes. For nearly everyone, that uncertainty feels uncomfortable so expect some anxiety to accompany decisions. Anticipate it and prepare yourself for it by talking through your thoughts and feelings with a third party who may ot be as closely involved with the situation. Then, accept the fact that you may not have complete control over the outcome, but you can control your reaction to it.

Remind yourself to practice these steps everyday for one month each, starting with step one. Set a reminder on your Outlook calendar or jot it down on a sticky note and post it on your bathroom mirror. At the end of the first 30 days, switch the reminder to say, "Step Away From the Emotional Situation," followed by step three in the third month.

About the author: Nick Tasler is the award-winning author of The Impulse Factor: How to harness your impulses and start making better decisions, and is the former director of R&D at global think-tank and consultancy, TalentSmart.