If you want your leadership to have an impact, use this to make better decisions
Mastering the art and science of decision-making allows us to experience breakthrough growth. As leaders, the more accurate our decisions, the more adept we become at steering our organization towards greatness.
Being a master at decision-making means knowing exactly what needs to be done and the right timing for making our choices. But for most, this state of perfect clarity is a utopia. In reality, decision-making comes with a lot of pressure and confusion, especially when the stakes are high.
It isn’t uncommon for us to feel tormented by our choices. We grapple with the fear of regret and self-doubt. We overthink, overanalyze, and second guess our best instincts. Our sense of inner peace vanishes as we wrangle with our options.
This all happens for two simple reasons: We are dealing with too much information and ignoring our intuition.
Know more with less information
When we hesitate to make a decision, the story we tell ourselves is that we don’t have enough information to act on. But that is rarely the case.
We pull information from a variety of sources in order to make our decisions. In addition to pondering our own thoughts and past experiences, our personal worries and fears also join the decision committee in order to influence the outcome.
And let’s not forget the heaps of information that come at us from the outside world—all those who inundate us with their opinions, feelings, and ideas about what needs to happen.
Excess information is a distraction. It generates internal noise in our minds which makes it a lot more difficult for us to discern the truth about where we need to go next.
Intuit the truth
The real challenge we face in decision-making is figuring out how to get rid of the information that doesn’t serve us while retaining the ideas that do.
It may seem like an obvious point to make, but the ultimate decision-maker is always you—not the information. Within each of us, there is a still, fearless place that knows precisely what we want. When we enter this space, we get to experience instant clarity.
This place is known as our intuition. It is the source of our genius and is capable of seeing far beyond the hurdles on our path. The purpose of our intuition is to guide us towards expansive decision-making—making choices that bring us more of what we want.
Intuition is a superpower. As a tool, it is capable of sorting through all of the bits of information we receive. We don’t have to run the risk of blocking out valuable ideas. Instead, we can take any information that flows into our awareness and use our intuition to instantly discern what is true and useful from what isn’t.
This gives us permission to stop hoarding information. We can release the build-up that clutters our minds, spirals us into confusion, and ultimately holds us back from acting on our best knowledge.
Our intuition is also our navigation system. It alerts us when there is trouble ahead, tells us how to navigate our roadblocks, and lets us know when we are in the right or wrong place.
Even if you don’t consider yourself to be intuitive, you have, at the very least, experienced it as moments of clarity in your life. At some point, you have found yourself buried under mounds of information, and subsequently broken through it with a sudden, crystal clear knowing of your next step.
Most of us have had accidental encounters with our intuition—and don’t realize that we can use this gift more deliberately to navigate all of our decisions, big and small. Our intuition is our built-in course corrector that keeps us on the path to success at every step of the way.
Become an intuitive leader
When it comes to boosting your leadership skills, your intuition is your best asset for steering people to higher ground.
As a leader, you have a greater responsibility to seek the truth—and to transcend the influences of ego, fear, and other distorted information that comes at you from the outside world.
What distinguishes you as a leader from others in your organization is the impact of your decisions: The choices you make ultimately have wider ripple effects, for better or for worse. Therefore, your leadership decisions have to hold a lot of integrity, meaning that your choices must consistently reflect who you are on a fundamental level. As you access more of your intuitive knowing—the source of your truth—you stay connected with the decisions that align with your true nature.
Here are some questions to help you boost the integrity of your decision-making:
After all, leadership isn’t just a job title. It’s a role that you continue to carve out for yourself through each and every one of your decisions.
Bianca Dove is a corporate coach and advisor who teaches leaders how to create the impact they want on the world.
(14)
