10 Strategies for better decision making

We live in an environment where misinformation is rampant, and the lines between fact and fiction are sometimes blurred. I recently saw a newspaper article which stated truth is what you believe it is. What do you think? (Hint: I am not a Samurai warrior, but believing that I am does not make me correct). Pew Research Center concluded that many believe America is experiencing a crisis in facts and truth. PEW Research Center; July 2019; Trust and Distrust in America

As a leader, who is constantly making decisions, I have a practical off-the-wall question for you: What strategy do you intentionally employ to ensure the information you use to make a decision is correct, and the decision you make is the right one?  As a faith-based leader, you have divine help.

10 Strategies for Better Decision Making:

1. Consult the Holy Spirit through prayer.  Have faith that God will guide you to the correct information and help you make the right decisions. This does not only apply for your personal life, but also your professional life. You have to trust in God, and allow Him to guide your decisions (Prov 3:5-6).

2. Increase Your Emotional Intelligence. The more emotionally attached you are to a decision, the more difficult it is to be objective and stick to the facts.  Remember to let the peace of God rule your heart (Col 3:15). 

3. Manage your stress level. Learned how to destress to help you more effectively evaluate data. Do this by personalizing God’s promise that instead of worrying, bring your needs to Him, and His peace will come over you (Phil 4:6-7).  

4. Evaluate your data. While point #1 above says to trust God, you want to evaluate all data you receive for accuracy. It will do you well to remember that not everyone is as diligent as they need to be and may share inaccurate data with you. Faith is great, but as James 2:26 says, “faith without works is dead” (KJV).

5. Listen to your toughest critique. Exceptional leaders do not see their critique as pain but as a possibility. It is not the possibility of loss, but the possibility for growth. They will drive you to be diligent and accountable.

6. Practice Inclusive Leadership.  It will ensure you get diverse thoughts and input to your decision. The more diverse the input the more divergent the process can be. Some incorrectly assume this is an issue, but it means you will have better information to converge on the best decision. 

7. Leverage your expert resources. Exceptional leaders know how to lean on their experts to bring the best data to the table.  Gal 6:3 reminds us “If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves” (NIV). 

8. Empower your people to get their jobs done right. They can do a better job contributing to the decision process if they have the needed resources to get their jobs done right. 

9. Separate the signal from the noise. Tune out the noise (other’s non-helpful thoughts, opinions, emotions, and politics) whether you are in a state of divergence or converging on a decision. Focus on the signal (your objective, strategy, or need) within the noise to stay on the path.  

10. Exercise diligence and probe. As a leader, do your homework and become familiar enough with the situation to probe and ask the right questions to uncover the quality of the information you are receiving. Experience plays a significant role in your judgment of the data you receive.

Exceptional leaders use strategies such as their faith in God to increase the probability of making decisions by using the correct data; especially in our current environment of rampant misinformation.