Effective decision making begins with knowing what you value and what is important to you. What you value, want, and need motivates you to take action. When you make choices that are not in line with your values, you will feel uneasy and incongruent with your choices – off track. When you make choices that are aligned with your values, you are at ease, satisfied, and fulfilled with the direction you are going.
According to the Free Dictionary online, value means “relating to or consisting of principles or standards”. Take a look around you; you will notice that everyone has different values. They have different standards. Everyone does not place value on the same things; therefore, the world is full of abundance because not everyone wants or desires the same things. Making decisions based on what you value is referred to as value-based decision making.
Do you find it hard to make decisions? Do you narrow down your choices and still find it hard to make a decision? Are you often influenced by other people’s opinions and later regret you did not listen to your gut instinct? Decision making can be made easy when you know yourself and what you value. Self-awareness is the cornerstone of decision making. Our values influence our thoughts and feeling and impact the decisions we make. Every decision we make takes us closer to or farther away from creating our desired future or outcomes.
What a person values is different than what they believe to be true. Beliefs are formed from out interactions and experiences of what we believe to be true. Many assumptions and judgments may be made that have no truth to them. Values are part of your core; the person who you are.
“If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.” – Albert Einstein
To become a Value-Based decision maker or leader, follow these steps:
- Identify what is important to you. Values include generosity, respect, truth, honesty, gratitude, freedom, integrity, wisdom, responsibility, and accountability. There are much What is most important to you?
- Prioritize your values. You may value many things. Determine your top 5 values that you base your decisions on. These are non-negotiables,
- Recognize your emotions and the emotions of others. How you feel or how others are feeling can impact the decisions you make. Challenge any assumptions or judgments you may be making. Don’t be afraid to question or clarify what you are thinking.
- Gather the facts. You want to gather enough information that you feel good about the decision you are making. Do you need to speak to someone or research more information?
- Compare to similar situations and reflect on what worked, what did not, and what you needed to do differently. What are your options? What alternative exist? What are the consequences of the options or alternatives?
- Focus on the facts versus your emotions. When you have all the information you need, decision-making should be much quicker and easier.
- Make your decision. Adjust your course of action if required. You may need to make new decisions. Repeat this process as necessary to guide you to achieve the results you want.
The most effective decisions are based on values versus one person’s belief. Values define a standard or a code of honor to abide by. Beliefs are based on experiences. If a person’s decision making is solely based on their beliefs, the decisions that are made will only be as good as the situations and experiences that they have been exposed to. Values are who you are – know yourself and what is important to you!
DEBRA KASOWSKI, BScN CEC is an award-winning best-selling author, transformational speaker, blogger, and Certified Executive Coach. She has a heart of a teacher and is certified in Appreciative Inquiry and Emotional Intelligence. Her writing has been published in a variety of print and online magazines. Debra Kasowski International helps executives, entrepreneurs, and organizations boost their productivity, performance, and profits. It all starts with people and passion. Sign up the Success Secrets Newsletter and get your free mp3 download today! www.debrakasowski.com
better first impressions- When you are speaking positive and you are excited about your day versus someone who’s got slouched posture saying “Hi, how are you?” (say it in the Eeyore voice from Winnie the Pooh). Do not put that energy out there. You don’t want to be around them. You start to repel is like a magnet. You just want to walk away from that negative energy.
Get Rid of or Cut the Drama I don’t like drama. One of the things that I’m telling about the drama part is, if something is not broken – with a relationship or you have some negative thoughts about something. Don’t jump in and start accusing somebody of something and getting into petty fights. A lot of the disagreements the people get into are over the little things that really don’t have a lot of significant. If you just open up the conversation, you find out that it’s not as difficult or a conflict as you what you thought it was.
Set Meaningful Goals. Many people out there don’t set goals. Only the top to 3% of people, set goals on a regular basis. When you set goals for yourself, you want to use the SMART goal method which is: S – Specific, M- Measurable, A- Achievable, R- Realistic, and T for Timely. When you use this, what you trying to do is be specific, what is it that you want to achieve, what you want to achieve and by when the timestamp because without that it becomes a wish; it becomes a dream. It something that you’re not actually working toward so we will be able to measure it; give it a timestamp as to when you might want to do this by. It’s commitment. The next one is achievable. Is this achievable within the time frame that you are trying to do this? Is this something you can actually do? Is this realistic? Is it something you can do within the time frame you provided for yourself?R is for realistic. People say why not lose weight in 24 hours. As you can see that’s not very realistic unless you’ve undergone some type of surgery. It’s about thinking about if it is realistic in the time frame. Maybe you need to adjust your time frame or test it out and then re-adjust- it happens. Timely, we want to be able to measure it. We want to go back to the time date stamp as to when you’re going to achieve it. Some people set goals that you cannot actually measure it’s not something they can measure per se.What I like to recommend is using a rating scale of 0 to 10, 0 (lowest point) is about how you’re feeling about a subject and 10 is that you are at the top of your game. Let’s say you are at a 5/10, and then you decide what actions you are going to take to go from a 5 to a 7/10 two weeks from now. Thinking about those strategies and what you need to have in place and who you need to connect with. These are how we say to breakdown and chunk down your goals. You have to really stop and think about all the things that can help you get to where you want to go. Work backward, so if you know where you’re going in the time frame, what are the steps you need to take? Break it down into smaller pieces thinking about the resources, how much time you need to a lot to it, and how much money might need to go into it. What are the resources? What is your grit power? What is the work that you need to put in to get this done? Maybe you are going to achieve it earlier and need to set a new goal to up your game or you might need to adjust some of the strategies.
Sometimes, we have to make sacrifices based on what is important to us and what our priorities are. You might end up taking a staycation instead of a jet-setting vacation while trying to save money toward your goals. You might eat in versus eat out regularly with friends. You might take evening classes instead of going out for a drink after work. Whatever that might be for yourself but where your focus goes is where you able to manage those things so that you can work toward the goals that you want to achieve.
