7 Essential Skills to Help you Make Better Decisions

Business decisions you make can have far-reaching consequences. Decision-making is necessary for almost every area of business. There are everyday decisions that don’t take much thinking. Then there are major decisions that can take weeks and even months of consideration.

Every decision has consequences. With some decisions, the results can be immediate. However, the effects of other choices may only be felt after a long time. For example, making the right decisions can result in greater business success, increased revenue, or hiring the best person for the job. But poor choices can have a devastating effect.

What are the essential skills to develop to make better decisions? This article explores what you need to do to enhance leadership skills by improving your decision-making.

What Skills Help with Decision-Making?

Making decisions requires bringing together several individual skills. You need to process information to choose between two or more options. In most circumstances, many factors influence your decision.

To illustrate, suppose you decide to buy some apples. Several things influence your decision on which apples to buy. First, you may have in mind buying your favourite type of apple. But then you may look at their appearance. Then you probably examine each apple to see if the skin is damaged or there’s bruising. Then you might smell the apple to know if it’s sweet or not. After that, you may check the price to ensure you’re getting a good deal.

When it comes to making decisions for your business, the consequences are probably more important than shopping for fruit. But the processes are similar.

Seven Essential Skills to Make Better Decisions

What are the necessary skills to develop that help make better decisions? Here are seven skills to improve your decision-making process.

1. Problem-solving skills

Problem-solving skills are vital in making excellent decisions. Usually, these skills are required to resolve problematic or unexpected situations. Or your business may be facing significant challenges. Typically, plenty of research and analysis is necessary to come with solutions to a particular problem.

2. Leadership skills help make better decisions

Developing better leadership skills help to influence the outcome of decisions. Good leaders motivate others to work towards goals after a decision has been made. To develop the necessary leadership skills, take time to build strong relationships with co-workers. This helps create a cohesive team that ensures that good, or even poor decisions, result in the best possible outcome.

3. Intuition

Past experiences can affect how you make decisions. Learning to trust your ‘gut’ instinct can help you make the best decision in some circumstances. Research suggests that the brain plays a significant role in your ‘gut reaction’. Using your intuition helps make decisions when there are many unknown variables to consider. Sometimes, you can make your decisions based on your intuition.

4. Reasoning skills

Learning how to reason is the opposite of making intuitive decisions. For some tough choices, you need to remove emotions from the equation. This skill set is vital when you know all the relevant points of data. You are in a position to weigh up the pros and cons of each factor to arrive at the best decision. Making decisions based on reason requires knowing exactly all the issues and knowing your ultimate goal.

5. Emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence is a vital skill to make decisions based on facts and your intuition. Emotions are usually involved in decision-making. But emotionally intelligent leaders learn which emotions to leave out if they have nothing to do with the decision. For example, suppose you arrive at work angry because of heavy traffic on your commute. You could make some poor decisions if you don’t remove your frustration from the decision-making process.

6. Time management skills

Knowing how to manage time is a critical decision-making skill. Some important decisions may take time to make. If this is the case, time management skills help you schedule enough time to consider all the options. You won’t leave things until the last minute, risking making a hasty decision with devastating consequences.

7. Organizational skills

Being well organized is a crucial skill to make some of the best decisions. Organizational decision-making means starting with your long-term goals in mind. Then you arrange all the information you can gather to assess your options. You may also need to get feedback from others if you must arrive at a consensus-based decision.

Skills to Help Make Better Decisions

Making excellent decisions requires bringing several skills together. There is no right or wrong decision in some cases, but a few options to choose from. Once you have made what you feel is the best decision, work hard to achieve the desired results, and keep your long-term objectives in mind. This will help to avoid setbacks and second-guessing your choices.