Decision-making Step 3: Identify the Alternatives

While there are no hard and fast rules for decision-making, following the 5-step decision-making process will help you make tough decisions better and faster. The purpose of the decision-making process is ultimately to achieve certain outcomes, to satisfy a need, or to solve a problem. When you’ve set your Most Important Goal (MIG) in step 2, you should be ready to move along the decision-making process to identify alternatives and explore your options. This is by far the most exciting step as it is all about choices and new possibilities.

Making decisions is one of the most important skills we need to be successful in business, especially important for management and leadership. It requires the ability to play out possible scenarios and weigh the benefits and the risks of each. Successful people have the foresight to make decisions based on where they want to be. Often in life, possibilities come when we least expect them. Every decision is a fresh start, a chance to choose a new direction, but only if we are willing to welcome new ideas, to keep an open mind, and to take action for the creation of something new. In essence, decision-making is the ability to see possibilities, expand choices, and embrace change. It’s important to recognize that what is possible, may not necessarily come easy to us, and almost always, getting there is different than how we imagined things would be. But we will always learn some valuable lessons.

Once a problem has been clearly identified, all alternative solutions need to be identified as well. This is the brainstorming step. There’s very rarely a single solution to a complex problem. Try and generate as many options, and combinations of options, as possible. Be creative and think outside of the box. I encourage my clients to come up with as many ideas as possible, even those that might seem a bit crazy at first. Accept even the unlikely options without criticism. Allow yourself the intellectual freedom to ponder and explore your secret yearnings, the unconventional wisdom, and all the “what ifs.” The free flow of ideas can help you get unstuck and find creative solutions. It is sometimes the most unlikely option that proves to be the most beneficial. Here are three steps to effective brainstorming:

1. Gathering Information

• What is/isn’t relevant to the decision?
• What do you need to know to make the decision?

2. Expanding Choices

• What different views may be possible?
• What alternatives are available to you?

3. Developing Options

• Be creative and adopt a positive mindset.
• Ask “what if” questions.
• How would you like the outcome to be?

The following are 4 effective techniques for brainstorming:

1. Tele-Storming

Imagine you are in a different time and place. Would your approach change if you were facing the problem while in your dream vacation destination rather than at work? What would have been your approach be if you had to face this issue 5 years ago or at a time in your life when you could take a lot more risk? Try and view the situation from an alternate time and perspective.

2. Pretend Storming

Imagine someone else dealing with this problem – your boss, your second cousin twice removed, a successful role model, etc. Put yourself in someone else’s shoes to see things from a brand new perspective.

3. Super-storming

Imagine you had a superpower. How would having that special talent change your approach? Try on as many superpowers as possible to test out many different approaches.

And a more classic approach to try out

4. Mind Mapping

Write or draw a goal, a question, or a problem in the center of a piece of paper. Then branch out into subtopics creating as many ideas as possible. For more information: www.mindmapping.com.

When gathering information before making a decision, you need to look both internally (through the process of self-assessment) and externally (using other resources.) As you collect information and brainstorm ideas, you’ll begin to identify several possible alternatives, or paths of action. In this step, you need to list all possible and desirable alternatives. This is a crucial step in the decision-making and any planning process. When you complete this step, you should be ready to move on to step 4 and weigh these options.

Decision-making Step 2: Goal Setting

While there are no hard and fast rules for decision-making, following the 5-step decision-making process will help you make tough decisions better and faster. The purpose of the decision-making process is ultimately to achieve certain outcomes, to satisfy a need, or to solve a problem. When you’ve completed the self-assessment in step 1, you should be ready to move along the decision-making process and set your goal for the ideal future. When it comes down to it, at the end of the day, every major decision in our professional or personal life is an opportunity to push ourselves harder and to set a goal to change things for the better.
   
When faced with big decisions, we need to set big goals. They are crucial to accomplishing great things. Making an important decision should be within the context of our career and life planning; each decision needs to align to the framework for our life blueprint. Setting goals is the way to keep our long-term vision in our line of sight and fuel our motivation to take the necessary actions in the short-term. It helps us manage our resources to make the most with what we have. In every decision we make, we need to consider our Most Important Goal (MIG); that one goal that when achieved, makes all the difference in our life.

When you set any goal, make sure it motivates you. Make sure you focus on the passion, the vision, and the meaning of the goal to you. If the outcome is not meaningful or relevant given the big picture, it’s not likely you’d stay committed and put in the work to make things happen. Every goal needs to align to your values and priorities. Without clear focus as to why you are doing what you are doing, it’d be hard for you to muster the sense of urgency to take action. When you don’t have the right motivation, you won’t be able to fully commit to your goal. You’ll wind up putting things off and avoiding the tasks that you need to accomplish to make the goal a reality, which in turn will result in disappointment. Ultimately you’d find yourself sliding down that slippery slope of self-negativity, which inevitably weakens self-confident, performance, and the chances of success.

Setting a goal is essentially inspiring yourself to aim for things you never thought possible. But a MIG requires daily commitment to take the steps and see the progress towards achieving it. Goals are like stories: they have a beginning and an ending. But their power is in the plot in between. When you make a decision to change and set your goal, you start your journey to a new destination. There are many paths to the top of the mountain and many ways to walk those paths. The trail is long and winding with many forks along the way. The beauty of the story lies in the journey; what we learn to appreciate is the steep climb up to the top of the mountain. Success is not in reaching the goal but rather in becoming the person who climbed all the way up.

Goals should be set in writing. The physical act of writing down a goal makes it real. Your MIG is your hope for the best. Then it needs to be broken into smaller, achievable milestones. By specifying the individual steps, you can track your progress towards your MIG. Do something every day to get closer to achieving your MIG. Hitting the smaller milestones will keep you motivated to get to the finish line. Here’s how:

1. Write down your MIG
2. Write down the actions you commit to take daily.
3. Create your mid-term milestones 

Most likely, this isn’t the first time you’ve heard someone talk about SMART Goals, and it’s definitely not going to be the last: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely. But I’d like to propose a new perspective. Choose SMART goals that are - 

Scary: if you are not scared, your goal is not important or big enough.
Motivating: if you are not buzzing with enthusiasm, your goal is not meaningful enough.
Actionable: if you don’t create daily action steps, your goal is not enticing enough.
Rewarding: if you don’t care about the consequences, your goal is not beneficial enough.
True: if you are not true to yourself, nothing ever will be enough.

To successfully complete step 2, create your SMART goals. A quick Google search should yield many different templates for your goals. There’s no right or wrong template to use. Choose one based on your personal preference. The following two have been found useful by my clients over the years:

Goal setting Basics offers more than 20 Free Goal Setting Worksheets by www.goalsettingbasics.com
 
Smart Goals Guide offers 8 Free Goal Setting Templates www.smart-goals-guide.com
 
Goal-setting is a crucial step in the decision-making and any planning process. When you complete this step, you should be ready to move on to step 3 and explore your options.

Decision-making Step 1: Self-Assessment

While there are no hard and fast rules for decision-making, following the 5-step process outlined in my last blog (The Quick Decision-making Guide) will help you make tough decisions better and faster.

From the moment we wake up in the morning until we fall asleep at night, we are faced with countless decisions, most of which are routine and relatively inconsequential. Those decisions fall into our easy choices category such as which oatmeal brand to buy. However, there are choices that can potentially take us to a whole new path. These types of transformational decisions require making changes affecting not only our life but other people’s lives as well. We’ve all heard the motivational quote that every success starts with the decision to try. And the decision to try starts with a choice to change the status quo, to bridge the gap between what is and what needs to be. While the choices are hard, these “fork in the road” moments are a gift. They are precious opportunities for us to uncover new things about ourselves as we contemplate choices and new possibilities.

The first step in the decision-making process starts as soon as you realize that you need to make an important decision that is likely to change your life. You will then need to identify the nature and purpose of the decision in order to resolve a specific problem. Once the problem is accurately defined, the following three questions should yield a better understanding of the situation and increase self-awareness:

1. Why should the problem be solved? How important is it to solve the problem?
2. What is the opportunity?
3. What is the risk?

Awareness doesn’t mean we necessarily know where things are going, but rather that we want things to be better than they are today. Choices are about actively selecting between alternatives, making the best investment of our resources such as time, money, and energy to get to where we want to be. To do so, we need to search inside ourselves and get clear on what is meaningful and important to us.

Being at crossroads can be stressful and confusing. As a career coach, I’ve learned that clients who report being “stuck” and unable to make a decision often struggle with articulating what they really want and thus can’t pursue any options because none “feel right.” The heart wrenching deliberation is typically a sign that the true desire has not been addressed. So when you find yourself “stuck” as you think about what’s not working for you, be sure to also think about what you really want, what really appeals to you. If you dig deeper and do some internal excavating, you will get a clear view, and the right path would slowly appear.

But as soon as we get clarity we need to get over a major fear factor: uncertainty. When we have all the facts and take little to no risk, there’s no need for making a decision. We basically need to follow a proven and reliable operating procedure and keep walking the beaten path. Making big important transformative decisions involves taking a risk, a leap of faith, choosing to change without fully knowing where the road will take us or what the consequences will be. Fear of making the “wrong” decision or failing to achieve a desired goal is the enemy of pursuing dreams. Through my work as a career coach, I have become intimately familiar with avoidance, procrastination, and mind-numbing paralysis.

Our emotions can be a great asset in keeping us safe. We can count on our automatic responses any time we face danger. This has probably saved us over the years when slamming on the breaks or ducking to avoid danger. But because emotions are our instinctive protective response, they are fallible. Fear can also keep us from daring to try new things. Fear is a sign that something important is at stake. Address the fear head-on and move forward - see my blog from Feb. 9 "Is Fear Holding You Back?".

But change is hard, and I’ve learned that at times there’s a disconnect between what we say we want and the effort we put into making it happen. Identifying and stating our desires may not be easy, but commitment to action is even harder. Thus, step one is crucial for the success of the decision-making process. It calls for an honest self-reflection not only about what we want but also about the possibility of changing, whether we are truly willing to change our behaviors and habits. Would the long-term positives outweigh the short-term cost? When faced with a potentially transformational choice, define which path will help you live more authentically. To move forward, you need to find clarity on your long-term aspirations.

So where do you start? Start by writing about the decision you need to make. Define the problem. Identify the gap between the current situation and the ideal situation.

When you are ready to confront the problem and make a decision, use the following 2 techniques to better assess the situation:

1. The Inquisitive Child Technique (the Six Sigma 5 Whys tool): start by creating a clear problem statement, and then work backwards asking “why” until you reach the root cause of the problem.

Example:
 
Problem statement: I was passed over for a promotion.

• Why? I am often late for work.
• Why? I get up too late.
• Why? I don’t sleep well.
• Why? I am stressed about work.
• Why? My boss always criticizes me.
• Why? I sometimes make sloppy mistakes.
• Why? I hate what I do.

2. The Imaginary Friend Technique: ask yourself what advice you’d give a friend in your situation.

These two techniques work well together: first identify the root cause problem at the core of the decision you need to make, and then start to problem-solve as you contemplate the advice you’d give someone else in a similar situation.

Successful decision-making involves a deep self-assessment to better understanding strengths, interests, drivers, values, and personal traits. The following are online self-assessment tools my clients have found helpful over the years. Please note: assessment tools work best when administered and interpreted by a certified professional in the relevant tool. However, the free online versions can provide meaningful insights.

1. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

This is one of the most well-known assessment tools. The 93 questions help identify personality preferences to inform decisions toward desired outcomes. This one is $49.95. But there are many other options.

http://www.mbtionline.com/

Free Tools

1. The Big Five Assessment

This tool consists of 50 items you must rate on a five point scale to identify your work and learning preference out of five personality traits.

http://personality-testing.info/tests/IPIP-BFFM/

2. The Keirsey Temperament Sorter -II (KTS®-II)

This tool contains 71 questions intended to measure how you communicate and what your actions you tend to take.

http://www.keirsey.com/sorter/register.aspx

3. The MAPP Career Assessment

The free version of this career test has been taken by more than 8 million people around the world. The purpose of this tool is to identify true career motivations (what you like to do) and top vocational areas (jobs that might be a good fit.)
You may choose to upgrade to other MAPP Career Packages.

http://www.assessment.com/
 
4. MyPlan.com

Here you’ll find a variety of career assessment tests. The Career Values Assessment Test is free. It can help uncover what is really important to you at work. The Career Personality Test, Career Interest Inventory, and Career Skills Profiler are available at under $10 per test. The complete package can be purchased for $19.95. You would get a list of jobs rank-ordered to match your style.

http://www.myplan.com

Self-assessment is the first and most important step in the decision-making and any planning process. Ultimately, the knowledge you gain through self-assessment will be most helpful in guiding your choices and personal and professional development. When you complete this step, you should be ready to move to step 2 and reflect on your ideal future outcome and set your goal.

The Quick Decision-making Guide: A 5-Step Process

In my practice, I help clients make important career decisions. Effective decision-making skills are essential for career success. Yet, while many valuable life skills are taught in high school and college, teaching decision-making skills is often neglected. How many of us can say we’ve been taught decision-making principles and have been given tools and best practices as we were facing difficult life or career decisions?

Decision-making is a thriving area of research, and its concepts can be taught. But effective decision-making, like any other skill, requires active and continuous practice. We need to look at our own decision-making process, get familiar with our bias and fear, and learn from our experience to hone the skills and refine our process. We make hundreds of decisions each day. But when facing high stakes situations, making decisions is never easy. There are three key ingredients to decision-making: choices, possible consequences, and actions.

While there are no hard and fast rules for decision-making, the following 5 steps can provide an effective and timely decision-making process.

Step 1: Self-assessment – when you know something’s got to change and you need to make a decision.

• Key question: What is not working well for me at work or in my life?

Step 2: Set your goal – reflect about the ideal future outcome.

• Key question: How would I like the situation to be?

Step 3: Identify the alternatives – explore your options.

• Key Question: What are my possible choices?

Step 4: Weigh your options – consider the consequences.

• Key Question: What are the likely outcomes of each of the choices?

Step 5: Make a choice – commit to action.

• Key Question: What SPECIFIC actions will I commit to?

Taking action is often the overlooked ingredient for professional and personal growth. If no new action is taken, a decision hasn’t really been made, and no significant change will occur. Progress is impossible without change.

Be sure to check out my next blogs for more on this topic. 

Celebrating a New Year for Trees: What a Tree Can Teach Us

Let us celebrate life, growth, and the beauty of the turning seasons. And let’s remember to keep our heart and mind open to allow good things to come in. As the Chinese proverb goes: “If you keep a green tree in your heart, perhaps the singing bird will come.” The Jewish holiday Tu B’shevat begins today at sundown. It is a holiday that marks the birthday of the trees. To get into the holiday spirit, I’d like to share the poem Advice from a Tree, which is one of my favorite poems. I received it beautifully printed and framed as a gift, and it seems to captures all the advice I’ll ever need as learned from the wisdom of a tree.

Advice from a Tree

Dear Friend,
Stand Tall and Proud
Sink your roots deeply into the Earth
Reflect the light of a greater source
Think long term
Go out on a limb
Remember your place among all living beings
Embrace with joy the changing seasons
For each yields its own abundance
The Energy and Birth of Spring
The Growth and Contentment of Summer
The Wisdom to let go of leaves in the Fall
The Rest and Quiet Renewal of Winter
Feel the wind and the sun
And delight in their presence
Look up at the moon that shines down upon you
And the mystery of the stars at night.
Seek nourishment from the good things in life
Simple pleasures
Earth, fresh air, light
Be content with your natural beauty
Drink plenty of water
Let your limbs sway and dance in the breezes
Be flexible
Remember your roots
Enjoy the view!
~ Ilan Shamir

Let us celebrate life, growth, and the beauty of the turning seasons. And let’s remember to keep our heart and mind open to allow good things to come in. As the Chinese proverb goes: “If you keep a green tree in your heart, perhaps the singing bird will come.” 

Is Fear Holding You Back? 4 Steps to Befriend Your Inner Demons & Take the Leap

What are you seeking to accomplish in your career? What big goals do you wish to achieve? What is holding you back from these professional goals and dreams? Are you stuck tangled up in the clutches of fear? Often, when it comes to chasing our goals, we allow fear to keep us from taking risks and taking the leap. If you were fearless, what would you make happen in your career or in your life?

In all the years I’ve spent helping people set and achieve goals, I have only very rarely encountered a lazy person. Sure, there are times when people get lazy and don’t get things done, but when it comes to BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals), it is typically fear that’s the root of procrastination and inaction.

Fear is our own inner demon waiting to rear its ugly head and speak to us in a constant inner chatter narrating our deepest shame, guilt, and insecurities as soon as we feel the winds of change around us and at the mere sight of new possibilities. Fear will use any opportunity to claim our attention to alert us to real and perceived threats and dangers. Now, even when the threats are real, fear is a choice, as are hope and optimism.

When we sense a threat, our brain reacts instantly, and we tend to respond in fight, flight, or avoidance mode. When we see a dragon we can run away screaming, decide to slay the dragon and fight it to the bitter end, or freeze into inaction burying our head in the sand. But there is a more constructive way to face our fear – befriend it. Here’s how:

1.    Identify the need

What do you want to achieve, and what is important to you about fulfilling this goal? Is it really a “must have” in your life? What are your success criteria? What would you gain by achieving your goal? What would you need to change? What would you need to give up or lose in order to achieve this goal? Are you willing to pay the price?

2.    Identify the fear

We experience fear when something is important and the stakes are high. Fear focuses our attention on problems, anything and everything that can go wrong. Fear is a great teacher. When we name our fear and recognize our avoidance behaviors, we can use fear as a springboard for action. As Yoda says: “named must your fear be before banish it you can.” Get specific about what you're afraid of. What is holding you back? What choices are you avoiding? What are you not ready to change, yet?

3.    Befriend the fear

Remember that being afraid of things going wrong is the wrong way to make things right. Reframe each fear and re-focus attention on solutions and finding a way to make your dreams come true. Challenges and failure are a part of every success story. Turn your fear into power channeling its energy into positive actions. Embrace fear and turn it into an incredible opportunity to challenge and stretch yourself. Flex your resourcefulness muscles and inspire yourself to grow in new ways; it’s a surefire path to success in all areas of your professional and personal life.

4.    Work with the fear

The path to success is action. Now that you’ve named and befriended your fear, proceed to name the choices that will help you reach your goal. Make your fear work for you in creating a sound action plan. Consider the road blocks and identify the steps that will get you closer to your desired future. Do the work. Hard work is not a guarantee of success. Things will either work out, or they won’t, but on the path to success no effort goes to waste. At the very least, it’s good practice. Success comes in many forms. Sometimes you achieve, but you are always learning something from everything you go through. Don’t give up; you may be closer to your goal than you think.

Befriending fear is not about denying the possibility of failure; rather it is about knowing failure is par for the course and trusting that no matter what, things will get better, that we will come out victorious. To befriend and dance with fear means finding a way to achieve the things we thought we couldn’t do. 

Are you a SMART Leader?

Defining a manager is fairly straightforward: a manager manages a group of tasks or people, and often both. But who is leader?

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader” ~ John Quincy Adams

Leadership has nothing to do with a position, title, seniority, authority or pay grade. It’s all about having a clear sense of purpose and being a positive influence. We all have opportunities to exert positive influence over situations and to change things for the better in ways large and small. Simply stated, leadership is a mindset of wanting to make a difference. In people’s terms it’s about wanting to help others become better and grow, seeing talent and ability in others and bringing it out of them, and encouraging others to excel at what they are doing. You are a leader when you are excited to be a part of another person’s journey.

SMART leaders are those who have realized that leadership is about people, not the bottom line. They have mastered the art of building positive interpersonal relationships at work. They care about people, they prioritize people, and they know how to motivate people. At times they keep ahead of the team leading from the front, at other times, they direct from behind letting the strongest team members push ahead, but they always lead from within, from the heart and in the middle. They bring people together, handle relationships with tact and diplomacy, and hold things together.

Five things SMART leaders do: They

SERVE

In the past decade, the term “servant leader” has come into common use signifying the paradigm shift from authoritarian leadership to a participative leadership. Servant leaders actively solicit participation and input, and they go above and beyond to help and support others. SMART leaders always remember that they are serving those they lead, not the other way around. They encourage others to build a culture in which people set aside self-serving behaviors in favor of serving a common agenda.

To serve others is to always be asking “What can I do for you?”

MOTIVATE

Motivational leadership inspires others to perform at their best by giving them a compelling vision and a sense of purpose. The key is to motivate individuals, to get to know each person and find out what makes them tick. People are more engaged and committed to consistent action when they understand why their work is important and how it fits within the bigger picture.

To motivate others is to always be asking “How can I make your work more meaningful?”

AFFIRM

It is human nature to want recognition, praise, and appreciation. And when people feel that their efforts are appreciated and valued, they are likely to go the extra mile. Affirmation needs to be personal and specific. SMART leaders are good observers noticing everything that’s happening around them and recognizing the little things that make things run smoothly. They acknowledge and recognize those who positively contribute to the team and thus set the standard of which all others should aspire to become.

To affirm others is to always be asking “How can I make you feel like a valuable contributor?”

RESPECT all people

Every person has value. All employees deserve to be treated with dignity and civility at their place of work. Team work is grounded in respect. In a respectful environment people are more likely to work harder to accomplish shared goals they believe in. With years of experience conducting employee engagement surveys, I can confidently say that respectful treatment of all employees is one of the most important factors employees list as contributing to job satisfaction. To show respect means to value a person’s perspective, ideas, feelings, time, and privacy.

To respect others is to ask for their input and listen to what they have to say.

TAKE RESPONSIBILITY

At the end of the day, leadership is measured by results. Leadership is about taking responsibility for the quality and timeliness of outcomes. SMART leaders take initiative, yet make decisions carefully and responsibly. They create a work environment in which accountability is a standard operating procedure by setting meaningful goals and measurable metrics. But they also know that leadership isn’t about blame. They are quick to pass the credit and recognize the team’s efforts when things go right, and they step up and claim responsibility when things go wrong. They then lead and direct the focus and efforts to moving forward and fixing the problems.

To take responsibility is to always be asking “How can I make things better?”

SMART leaders aspire to make a difference in other people’s lives by using all the resources available to them in every possible way to help them shine their brightest in achieving great things. Step up and take the reigns as a leader at work and in life and become the kind of leader that people would want to follow.