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Scaling a business requires agility, and one of the most critical components of that agility is a streamlined decision-making process.
Through my years of experience working with thousands of business leaders and CEOs, I’ve found that many struggle to take even a three-month vacation without fearing their company won’t survive without them. Why? Because they are often the only ones making key decisions.
As a business leader, executive, or CEO, your ability to make accurate and timely decisions is vital to your organization’s success.
What is streamlining?
Streamlining involves simplifying or eliminating unnecessary tasks to improve the efficiency of business processes. This can be achieved through modern techniques, technology, and strategic approaches.
Effective decision-making requires a thorough analysis of the situation, careful consideration of available options, and making the best choice — often under significant pressure.
Why is executive decision-making so crucial?
Executive decision-making is the cornerstone of any successful organization. Whether managing a startup or a large corporation, the ability to make sound decisions can be the difference between success and failure. From the perspective of potential investors, clients or strategic partners, poor decision-making is a red flag that can directly impact your company’s scalability.
Leaders play a pivotal role in this process, setting the organization’s direction and making decisions that will shape its future. A poor decision can have severe consequences. However, there are strategies to enhance decision-making.
At Growth Institute, we focus on making the executive decision-making process seamless. Below, we highlight effective methods and three valuable resources to sharpen your decision-making skills.
Related: How to Master Decision-Making in a World Full of Options
1. High-stakes negotiating
Learning to negotiate ‘without fear’ is essential for making better critical decisions. I honed my negotiation skills with Dr. Victoria Medvec, who works with Fortune 500 companies worldwide. She helps leaders become master negotiators and make swift, sound decisions.
Negotiation is a collaborative process in which parties work together to make mutually beneficial decisions. Dr. Medvec’s insights can help you overcome common negotiation fears, such as:
- “I’m afraid I’ll damage the relationship.”
- “I’m afraid the other side will walk away.”
- “I’m afraid I’ll end up with a bad deal.”
Her methodology emphasizes thorough preparation, understanding your goals, the other party’s needs, and potential outcomes. Dr. Medvec advocates knowing your value and aiming high, cautioning against undervaluing yourself, and recognizing that the initial offer sets the anchor point in negotiations. Understanding and improving your BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement) is essential, as it provides leverage and empowers you to negotiate assertively.
Rather than merely claiming value, Dr. Medvec encourages creating win-win scenarios by identifying opportunities that benefit both parties. Managing fear and anxiety is also key, with strategies to reduce stress and reframe negotiations as collaborative rather than confrontational. Overall, her approach equips negotiators with the tools to approach negotiations and achieve better outcomes confidently.
Related: You Don’t Need All the Right Answers to Lead Through a Crisis — But You Do Need to Learn These 3 Lessons
2. The three+ critical decision-making model by Randy H. Nelson
Randy H. Nelson’s Decision Series is a powerful resource for enhancing executive decision-making.
A. Define Your Role and Responsibilities: The first step is understanding which critical decisions you are prepared to make. Nelson’s book, The Second Decision, guides you in defining your role for the next 3-5 years. Are you meant to be the Leader, the Role-Player, or the Creator?
B. Overcome Entrepreneurial Addiction: The Third Decision focuses on becoming more intentional about your decisions to avoid future regrets. It helps you address the concept of “entrepreneurial addiction” and encourages thoughtful planning for a regret-free entrepreneurial journey.
C. Make Calculated Decisions Faster: The Fourth Decision enables you to make decisions effortlessly through practice. It introduces the concept of Unconscious Competence and the “Baseline” concept, helping you make calculated decisions quickly and confidently.
Related: 7 Ways to Scale Your Small Business and Achieve Long-Term Growth
3. The three disciplines to speed your execution by Verne Harnish
If you’re not executing and making assertive decisions as rapidly as you’d like, it’s due to one of three reasons:
- Priorities (Alignment): You’re either working on the wrong thing or too many things. Our course clarifies priorities, helping you pinpoint what to focus on next.
- Data / Metrics (Clarity and Foresight): You need feedback from customers and employees. The habits you regularly adopt to gain this intel will drive your decisions.
- Meeting Rhythms (Better, Faster Decisions): Data is worthless if you don’t discuss it.
Steelcase, a $4 billion manufacturing giant, implemented the Rockefeller Habits in 2000 and saw a 12x productivity improvement. They still practice these fundamentals daily.
Each of their 4,000 employees is within eyeshot of a simple whiteboard that states their four focus areas — safety, quality, delivery, and cost. The board details actions, data, and priorities so everyone is on the same page. Steelcase employees discuss the data in a seven-minute daily huddle. Rockefeller Habits work best in this case: Make the data visible, then initiate conversations about it.
Discuss your focus and data in a daily huddle. If you want to move faster, pulse faster. Transparency allows you to focus on the brutal facts that drive performance. Start tracking your progress for all to see, and your performance will improve. How will you implement this in your business?
