
And make sure you ask because you genuinely want input, not just for the show of it. Be open-minded and seek out help and advice wherever you think it is appropriate. Asking colleagues and team members for information and opinions is not a sign of management weakness, it’s a sign of maturity and willingness to learn. Assess whether common business strategies apply to your unique situation.Ī good manager doesn’t just rely on their own opinions.Always check if the business data you’re using is current and objective.Gather complete and the latest performance data to support your decisions.Find out if a suggested course of action is supported by data.Is there any evidence to support your gut feel? Here are some of the things you can do to incorporate EBM into your decision making: But while instinct-based decisions have merit, the experiences you may have had when working for other organisations may not necessarily apply to the situation you’re facing.Įvidence-based management or EBM uses scientific evidence to inform decisions, if you’re not sure about trusting your instincts too much. It might be tempting to use your judgement or base decisions on past experiences, familiarity, or intuition. Make sure you weigh up other critical factors, such as your decision making style and the type of decision you need to make. However new managers should tread carefully before taking the plunge and trusting their intuition too much. Our actions are informed and controlled by a complex combination of emotion, instinct, social influences and the human brain. Humans do not analyse the costs and benefits of every action. The basic insight drawn from behavioural economics is that behaviour is not guided by pure logic. Recent thinking on how people make decisions contrasts rational processes with a less structured intuitive decision making which places more emphasis on feelings, perceptions and judgements, rather than facts and analysis.Īn emerging research base in the behavioural sciences suggests that intuitive decision making is more prevalent than we may have thought. In this context, an understanding of intuitive decision making approaches is useful. In many situations, decisions have to be made with incomplete and/or insufficient information. However, there is often a wide range of factors which determine our decisions, many of which are not rational. One of the principle assumptions of a rational decision making process is that human beings make rational decisions.
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It helps ensure we consider the full range of factors relating to a decision, in a logical and comprehensive manner. Our own rational decision making model consists of the following steps:įor new managers, the main strength of a rational decision making model is that it provides structure and discipline to the decision making process. A rational approach consists of a sequence of structured steps, designed to rationally develop a desired solution. Especially where the resources impact is high, or the outcome implications are important. Understanding this process is vital to making good decisions.
#Tips for first time manager series#
It is especially important for more complex or important decisions which are best made after undertaking a series of steps. So new managers would be wise to follow a logical, structured decision making process. 2 Follow a Rational Processĭecision making is the process of making a choice between a number of options and committing to a future course of actions. So it’s especially important to continually revisit and reflect on original goals, particularly when working on large or complex projects. However, it’s easy to get so involved in these conversations that you can (all) lose track of the purpose. Your team will feel motivated by their inclusion, and this will help them understand how their contributions affect both the project at hand, and larger organisational objectives. This will help encourage their commitment and ‘buy-in’.

One of the best decisions you can make is to ensure you set goals with your team. Before anything else, make sure you clearly define the goals you’re working towards and to refer to them throughout the task or project. It’s common for managers and team members to lose sight of the goals and purpose of the decision as they’re trying to arrive at a decision or solve a problem.

1 Don’t Lose Sight of Your Goals and Purpose Experienced managers know what it’s like to constantly make decisions, sometimes even under pressure. But what if you’re new to management, possibly leading a team or department for the first time? How do you make the best possible decisions to achieve success? This post shares six decision making tips to help new managers avoid common mistakes and sharpen their decision making skills. Every decision a manager or leader makes will have an impact on their organization’s future.
