Better decisions. Faster
Use something you’ve already learned a long time ago, to make better business- and life decisions now
Life is full of choices and we are constantly making decisions. Some decisions are relatively simple: cappuccino or latte? Worst case: I regret my choice and buy a new one. $5 wasted.
Other decisions are complex and have potential consequences for yourself, your employees or your family. Should I agree to sell my company to this massive conglomerate? Or should I seek investment and try to grow the business? While simple choices can be fun, exciting and empowering, research shows that complex decisions are often a source of significant stress.
Some complex decisions we essentially can avoid: we don’t have to make an educated choice about our utility company. Usually there is a default supplier and we can just stay with them. However, when leading a teams a company or an organization there will be plenty of complex decisions that you must make.
In my coaching work with startup founders and business leaders we have often used a process like this, to help untangle the complexity and make a good decision.
1: the first thing you must do is to recognize the situation as a decision. This may seem self-evident in the coffee example but having worked with real leaders in the real world I know that this is not always easy. Complex decisions are often tangled up with a significant amount of sense of obligation. In other words: Because the leaders feels a lot of “I should do x” it camouflages the decision and makes it look like a given.
One startup founder I worked with was in the process of selling her 40 person company to a big corporation. She talked me through all the different scenarios for about an hour. She kept talking about it as something inevitable that would happen to her — until I told her to pause, looked her in the eye and said “it’s your company right? Correct me if I’m wrong but can they buy it without you accepting?”
Her sense of responsibility to her employees prevented her from even recognizing this opportunity as a choice that she alone could make.
The point is not to run from your responsibilities but to recognize what is within your control and what is outside of your control.
2: Once you have recognized that it’s a choice, bring out some paper and pen or an iPad with the Paper app. Spend 10 minutes learning to write and draw. It’s easy because you know it already, you’ve simply forgotten that you once made a choice to believe that person who told you that you couldn’t. Most likely that person is yourself. Make a new decision now to once again believe that you can.
3: Reflect — use the top-right corner of the page to answer this “what is it really that I want in the end and why?” Do you want to make money? Why? Do you want to build a healthy company that will live beyond you? Why?
4: Draw the decision tree and various scenarios for each. Be clear about what are choices you can make and what are potential outcomes that are not up to you. You may have to draw a few different versions before you get clarity. If you try to start with “should I sell?” you may realize that since there is actually not a concrete offer to buy just yet, the real question is not to sell or not, but to either invest your time in making a deal happen or invest your time and effort in something else.
5: Talk it through with someone. Once you have your decision diagrams laid out you can test your assumptions by talking in through with someone else. You can do it with a trusted business partner, an employee, a friend, your mother — just be aware that they each have their own biases and they may not even realize this fully. Your mother was always proud of what you did buy she also secretly found your entrepreneurial life a bit too risky compared to having a real job, and she may be unknowingly biased towards a sale that will allow you to cash in and build a financial cushion.
