Everyone suffers from decision fatigue from time to time. However, for managers, this can be very annoying. It can also lead to lower performance.
Many managers balk at making choices. They do not dare to make a decision, often due to an uneasy feeling: not having all the necessary information.
We also often go overboard with micromanagement because we want to understand our choices in detail. This is especially common among managers who specialized in a particular area before advancing into a management role.
We also want to keep everyone on our team and all other external stakeholders satisfied, which can also cause decision stress. In this blog, we share a number of tips we have found in practice that can help you alleviate your decision stress.
Are you a 'maximizer' or 'satisficer'?
When discussing choice stress, it is important to first find out what kind of person you are. Self-knowledge is, in many cases, already part of the solution. We distinguish two types of people: the 'maximizers' and the 'satisficers'.
Maximizers are always looking for the best solution and continue to search for it continuously. Satisficers are satisfied with a good solution to the problem encountered, but are not looking for the best possible solution.
Not entirely surprisingly, research from Swarthmore College in California showed that satisficers are happier in life. For managers, it is important to have access to a healthy dose of satisficer; otherwise, making choices becomes very difficult.
Of course, that does not mean you should make unfounded decisions. Here are a few tips.
Accept that the perfect choice does not always exist
No matter how difficult it is, we must accept that the perfect choice does not always exist. Too much perfectionism can result in you endlessly weighing the pros and cons.
Especially in your role as a manager, it is often important to make a well-considered choice based on the information at your disposal. That is not always perfect; deal with it.
Be informed
Delegating is and always will be difficult. When you feel you do not know or understand certain details, it results in an unsatisfying and stressful feeling.
And yet it is an important quality for managers to be able to put aside their own discomfort and trust the information that others provide.
Acknowledge that there are specialists active in your company with more, better, and more complete information. Get informed, be vulnerable.
Reduce your options
The problem with making decisions is often that the options only expand as more information becomes available. An inverted funnel, in other words. However, the key to making sound decisions is to reduce your options as much as possible.
Determine your starting points in advance and test all options against those starting points. If there is no 100% match, cross the option off your list until you are left with only 1 or 2.
Dare to make decisions, choices are rarely final
As mentioned, we often hesitate enormously before making the final decision; out of fear of doing it wrong, or causing something that has a lasting negative impact. However, the choices you make are rarely final or irreversible.
Therefore, do not overestimate the impact of your management decisions.
Dare to make the decision, even if you do not have all the required information. Fully in line with the increasingly popular agile project methodologies, most of your decisions can still be converted to agile if necessary.
Want to know more about our range of management training courses ? Then take a quick look at our website and/or contact us.
