The Challenges of Being a Decision Maker

As an entrepreneur and CEO, I’m faced with important decisions every day.

No matter what leadership position you may find yourself in, making decisions is a daily reality for us all. But, without direct feedback, how do we know that we’re making the right decisions? If the result wasn’t what we expected, how do we know if our thinking was flawed or if it was just bad luck?

A simple tactic I recently discovered to review my decision-making abilities is a decision journal—thanks to Miriam Meima with Startup Digest Leadership & Resiliency for bringing this helpful resource to my attention. All you need to do to create a decision journal is document your important decisions and the logic behind them and review your journal every few months.

Not sure how a decision journal will help you?

By writing down our decisions and the reasons for making them, we avoid the natural tendency to adjust our memory of that decision. This allows us to accurately judge our own decision-making process and abilities.

As business leaders, it’s imperative for us to self-assess our own decisions accurately so that we can learn from our mistakes and improve. A decision journal is a simple habit you can institute today to grow your abilities as an effective business leader.

As a leader in your organization, what techniques have you found useful for your decision-making process?

Read more about keeping a decision journal in Farnam Street's article, and be sure to download the handy PDF template to get started off on the right foot!