Management Consultant Cites 10 Questions To Ask Before Making A Decision

By: Dr. Gary S. Goodman

Most executives want to seem decisive, as people of action, and certainly not as dawdlers or procrastinators. So, they try to make fast decisions.

Still, rushing into decisions is unwise. Before you pull the trigger on a given matter, consider asking these 10 vital questions:

(1) Must a decision be made? For example, one of your employees has given you his two-week’s notice. Obviously, he has made a decision, and most of us spring to action, calling Human Resources, or starting a replacement campaign on our own. But this presumes that the person’s job must be filled, and the sooner the better. Perhaps you can get along, maybe even better, without someone filling his shoes. Or, you may want to take the time to expand the post, to include other vital duties, and by doing so, you’ll need to attract a different type of recruit.

(2) What is this decision really about? Take the same example. Someone leaves. Why did she depart? Was it for personal or professional reasons? Perhaps the departure is not a prompt to replace the person, but to re-engineer the job, or to alter its compensation, or to reflect upon and possibly to correct your management practices. Until you know what the decision is really about, no action should take place.

(3) Am I the one that should make the decision? Maybe you’re poor at hiring people, overly sympathetic or too hasty. If you’ve decided to replace the person, possibly someone else should do the applicant screening and initial recruiting.

(4) Is there a deadline, and if so, is it necessary? Most deadlines are self-imposed and they can lead to haste and to waste. Consciously determine if there is a deadline and if it’s helpful or harmful.

(5) What additional information do I need before deciding? As Abe Lincoln reportedly said, he would devote four of five hours allotted for felling a tree to sharpening his axe. Make sure your information is sharp, before deciding.

(6) Can this decision be made, incrementally? If you’re thinking of replacing a worker, you might split the task into parts, first determining if you can amass a pool of qualified people. If not, go no further.

(7) Can this decision be reversed, and if so, how easily? If a decision is easy to reverse or to modify, then it can be and perhaps should be made quickly.

(8) What will be the impact on me, and my career if I make a poor decision? Again, the greater the magnitude, the more care that should be taken.

(9) What are all of the obvious consequences of the decision, such as costs, time, effort, and results?

(10) What are some of the potential, unintended consequences? This is hard to assess, but let’s say you’ve decided to take on a replacement worker. This could tie you up in training and monitoring her progress when your calendar is starting to require you to travel more and more. Will you be an effective manager and mentor in those circumstances? Might you easily lose the replacement, as well, and how would this look to your other reports, to your peers, and to your managers? Could the position gain a reputation as a revolving door, and might you be seen as am impossible boss?

By quickly using these questions as a checklist you can increase the odds that your decisions will be good and responsible ones, and have the right impacts.