One key area I need to work on is being decisive. I think this should be the next soft skill that I master, after working for so long on Reliability (and Trust).
Some thoughts:
I would define decisiveness as the ability to make a decision quickly when there are many unknown variables.
I think it’s a good idea to practice decisiveness in one’s everyday life and see it translate to more important decisions. For example, I should be the one to pick where we are going for dinner, or what song to play in the car.
One reason Why am I exceptional is because I have developed an insane ability to gather resources and information—fast. I’ve massaged this skill overtime to become so good at it, that I no longer need days or weeks to understand all the variables in a problem. Usually now it’s just some minutes or hours. However, when making a decision I often see myself putting it off because I believe that more information may become available in the future. This counteracts the good skills I have worked hard to have now!
Another reason that I find myself not wanting to make decisions is the fear of being wrong. More importantly, the fear of being responsible for being wrong. It is true that you can gain a reputation for being good at making decisions or being bad. This directly affects how people see you as a leader, and so it’s important to put thought into the decisions you are willing to risk this on. What I’ve come to realize though is that we typically trust the least experienced decision makers the least, regardless of their success rate. Think of your family. Who makes the most decisions? Are they always correct? Would you still trust them to make the next big decision. I know I would.
Naturally, to become more decisive, I feel I need to seek some framework in which I can adapt my life to become more decisive. Realistically, this only feeds the problem. I would become less decisive myself in choosing how I make decisions! The only real solution is stepping up to bat as often as I can, learning from the wrong decisions, and getting a good feel for when a decision is not worth making while still entertaining as much decisional risk as I can.