Are you decisive or do Decision Barriers get in the way?
How aware are you of how you make decisions?
Do you make decisions differently in the midst of a pandemic than you did before Covid 19 descended on the world?
Before the pandemic, did you make decisions differently when they were your decisions about your life than you did when the decisions concerned your clients and their lives or businesses? What has changed now?
Or has the pandemic kept you from much contact with clients and prospects, so you feel out of practice?
What do you want to improve about your decision making now and post covid?
Your normal approach before the pandemic…What did you say to clients and how did you compensate clients when you overlooked key selection factors or, in hindsight, didn’t choose the best approach to problem solving for them? Or did you stay silent and hope clients didn’t notice?
Your approach in the future…how do you intend to react to the issues in the previous question post pandemic?
The following excerpt from “What’s Your Point?” (to be published in 2021) Chapter 6 “What is Communication?” is an opportunity to take a close look at your decision making process.
Exercise: Action NOW Me — Anticipate Decision Barriers
Answer the following questions quickly and in writing (to engage your brain full on) for the most useful results.
- Am I so focused on helping others make decisions that I forget to question how well I make decisions which affect my income and reputation?
- What was behind my hesitation in the last tough decision I made?
- Are the hesitation triggers involved in my other past difficult choices listed below?
Don’t be surprised if you can check off more than one barrier to that decision making. Simple decisions aren’t simple, after all.
Hesitation Triggers & Barriers
- Procrastination
- Lack of commitment to possible outcomes
- Ignoring steps in the creative process
- Undue pressure and arbitrary deadlines
- Out-dated thinking, ingrained habits, and biases
- Impatience
- Fear, conscious and unconscious
- Overconfidence
- Personal agenda
- Financial pressure
- _____________ (What has experience revealed to me?)
- If I improve my decision making approach, can I think of three ways that will enable me to help clients with theirs?
- List three improvements to my support of client decision-making concerns which will be reflected in my bottom line.
- Identify three ways increased decisiveness will help me engage with prospects and clients more effectively.
- Select five ideas for marketing, business development, product design, or service delivery that are inspired by Hesitation Triggers & Barriers.
Do you understand that the more conscious you are of your decision-making habits, the easier it is to anticipate barriers and to achieve success for all concerned?
Re-visit this exercise in the future when faced with significant decisions to make. Compare what you did previously or “normally” with how you now anticipate decision barriers.
Additional resource: Here’s an example of how to help clients by showing them how to deal with hesitancy and negative aspects of decisiveness in the context of your work together. This article is written to help real estate buyers and the real estate professionals who serve them address this topic —”Buyers: Hesitant or Decisive?“
PJ “To facilitate decision making, concentrate on shifting or transforming uninformed thinking into a constructive mindset. With the assistance of your professional expertise, guide prospects and clients so they pivot to an informed point of view.”
© 2020 PJ Wade The Catalyst “What’s Your Point?” (2021)