How Do You Make a Decision?

10 Guidelines to Consider

If you could list on one hand the most important capabilities in management in an organization or, for that matter, in an individual’s life, it would include making a decision.

Whether it is a big decision or a small decision, the process is the same. The one redeeming feature about decision-making is that if you blow it, if you make a bad decision, you can usually make a new decision.

An executive of Coca Cola ran into an elderly lady just after the company had launched New Coke, a replacement for its traditional, age-old Coca Cola drink. She asked him, “What have you done to my Coca Cola?”

That was the tip of the iceberg. Lots of folks had the same question. So, the launch of New Coke went forward and many other drinks have been created since then, but the traditional Coca Cola drink never went away. They made a new decision; to keep it.

There are no shortcuts in making a quality decision. There are also no guarantees that you will always make a good or at least an appropriate decision; and there is nothing to be gained by letting fear guide the process.

There are 10 questions that I have considered over several decades in decision-making as a CEO and in my personal life whether it be entering into a relationship, purchasing a house or a car or a vacation home, taking a new job, or buying a company.

The list was forged through mistakes and even in my seventies it is tempting to turn my head from what…