All great leaders exhibit one common quality. The ability to make decisions. More often than not, without complete information they manage uncertainty and risk.
Now, I don’t know if you’re a fan of Star Trek or not, but Enterprise Captain, Jean-Luc Picard exemplifies the qualities of great leadership.
These are four components you need clarity on when making decisions.
Transcript
This is Rashid Kotwal.
This is the first of a 3 part series on how to make better decisions as a leader.
All great leaders exhibit one common quality. The ability to make decisions. And more often than not, without complete information they manage uncertainty and risk.
Now, I don’t know if you’re a fan of Star Trek or not, but Enterprise Captain, Jean-Luc Picard exemplifies the qualities of a great leader.
These are four components you need clarity on when making decisions.
One. You must have a clear vision.
When you know who you are, what you are and where you want to go, you’ll have a clear compass to guide you.
Star Trek’s vision is to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.
Two. Know your core values. Values which define who you are as a person and an organisation. What matters most to you.
Star Trek’s prime directive is based on a core value of non interference of other civilisations’ development.
Three. What’s your core focus? What do you excel at? What don’t you want to do? Align these decisions along those lines.
Do you have medium, 3 year and long term 10 year targets? How will this decision impact on achieving them?
Now while your values, core focus and targets guide your decisions, nothing beats taking time out to just think.
Whether it’s 30 minutes a day, a couple of quiet hours a week or half a day a month uninterrupted time out of the office, taking a step back and elevating yourself out of the day to day grind will help you see more clearly. Trust me, this is where your best ideas will come from and you’ll make far better decisions.
When doing this thinking, I strongly recommend you find somewhere peaceful where you can relax and let ideas flow and gain clarity.
Ditch the phone, the tablet, the laptop. Use a pen and paper to access different neural pathways. That coupled with a different environment will allow different perspectives to come in.
Okay, that’s it for this video.
In our next video I’ll continue with the ten commandments for good decision making, followed by a three part process for doing so.
Look out for them.
Till next time, this is Rashid Kotwal. And as always, please leave your comment below this video.
