Evolution taught us to adjust permanently to our environment to survive. However, survival demands the ability to make good decisions, often given only a short time.
Have you ever wondered how you make decisions at work, as a leader or at home? What makes you think a given option is better than the other one? What internal processes are inside your mind, and what influences them the most? Is it your gut, learned lessons or the need to adapt to your environment?
In fact, it is a mixture of everything. Making decisions is a cognitive ability affected by intelligence, automatic and controlled thinking, reasoning and individual limitations and bias.
We make decisions every single day. Some are easy-made, and others are more serious and therefore confront us with our fears and limitations, causing insecurity.
Metaphorically, you can think of decision-making processes like using your PC. If you run a lot of CPU-heavy programs, like video editing programs, photoshop etc., you will soon get to the point where your PC runs slowly. At this point, you must realise that your PC has limited capacity – the same is true for your brain capacity.
Your brain uses several tools to make decision-making processes more effortless, but there are also downsides.
Problems when making decisions
Gigerenzer and Gaissmaier implied that the processes of judgement and decision-making must function so that we can deal efficiently with uncertainty. However, we all handle uncertainty differently, involving bias and mindsets, which can lead to suboptimal or even „bad“ outcomes.
Let’s mention two common categories of errors here:
- Cognitive biases
- Distress
Cognitive Bias: Seemingly great logic that actually proves wrong
We tend to rely unconsciously on false beliefs, mindsets and cognitive biases (errors). At first glance, these tools make sense to us and others as well.
Mental sets, for example, make us stick to solutions that have worked in the past when trying to solve a problem. Biases are heuristics that seem logical at first glimpse. We trust these tools as they are part of our worldview and belief system. This is how things work in our life; we will only change these beliefs when we question ourselves or life confronts us.
I met a lot of CEOs and leaders who seldom question their ways of thinking and decision-making. We live in a world where growth, productivity and status are highly valued; therefore, people are busily demonstrating their own excellence and power. I recall many conversations where great business owners have been so fixed on what they wanted to say that they had no ear for anything else. So there was no real conversation; instead, I found myself in a circle of people desperately looking for the next power demonstration opportunity.
In the end, not questioning ourselves and setting our foundations merely on biases can be dangerous and sabotaging.
Distress: Dealing with uncertainty and fear
Here I want to address the downside of focusing more on handling uncertainty than on the problem itself. Uncertainty and fear is an essential evolutionary feeling, as it turns us into survival modus and saves our lives in emergencies.
However, as it is impossible to have all the information and knowledge available in every decision-making process, we are constantly confronted with a certain level of uncertainty. Uncertainty is like a whole in the system that we want to stuff in.
As soon as it triggers fear, we would do nearly everything to make this whole disappear, and this is where our well-being (unconsciously) gets priority. Relieving ourselves from fear and uncertainty gets more attention than the problem itself. Possible outcomes can be…
- shifting responsibility onto others to preserve one’s own authority;
- Making decisions that strengthen our status, position and power; this way, the feeling of uncertainty is „healed“, as others perceive us as confident and educated;
- Not deciding at all (flight reaction).
Furthermore, we want to focus on those things that help us make good decisions. Therefore we want to free our brains from fear, helplessness, doubt and distress. This way, we can get a bird’s eye view of the problem.
As soon as significant uncertainty, fear and self-doubt come into the game, our working memory is busily dealing with those stimuli, hindering us from assessing possible options.
To elaborate further on the computer and CPU metaphor, imagine you want to play a video game on your PC. Still, it constantly freezes while simultaneously rendering a video in the background. The CPU can not serve all the requests as its capacity is limited. As a result, it needs a lot more time for the video and can not provide you with the gaming experience you wish for. Quality and quantity both decrease.
„How should I behave in this situation?“, „What would my boss do?“, „How could I know what to do?“, „What are the others expecting of me?“, „I am not 100% sure about my decision.“.
If you let questions like these consume your brain CPU, you will probably make a suboptimal, bad or no decision. (Maybe you are lucky and make a good one, but let’s calculate luck out of the equation 😉)
How to free your mind for a better decision-making process
You stand in front of a problem. The decision is yours to make. Currently, you focus 50% of your attention on the issue, 25% on your feelings of uncertainty and fear, and 15% on cognitive biases.
As you need to decide soon, you might welcome short-term strategies that help you with the existing, pressing problem and long-term growth habits that allow you to prepare for similar situations.
This makes sense, as time pressure limits your available resources, tho you need to find easy and quick ways to focus attention. You can set up multiple plans to improve decision-making processes in the long run.
Short-term strategies for better decision-making
You may currently face a situation where you must make a serious decision. To some extent, your feelings of uncertainty, fear and doubt are triggered, which takes away your focus.
Here I invite you to use a quick tool that prepares you mentally and emotionally for making decisions:
Step 1: Take a deep breath and formulate your problem in one sentence.
Step 2: How does this problem make you feel? Describe it in one word and accept your feelings.
Step 3: What is the worst outcome you can imagine now?
Step 4: Focus on the worst-case scenario pictured in step 3. Give it some attention and then accept it.
Step 5: After accepting the worst-possible outcome try reframing your negative feelings. Our challenges carry uncovered opportunities that help us keep a positive attitude.
Step 6: By now, you should have regained your mental clarity. At this point, you are ready to search for the best possible solution and alternative.
Preparing for decisions in the long run by Self-Leadership
I am absolutely a self-leadership and personal growth enthusiast. For me, self-development is the key to every kind of success in life. Not the only key you need, but an essential one. It’s the engine that pushes you on your way to a happy, fulfilled life.
Every time you catch yourself being heavily busy with self-questioning, -comparing, -doubt and uncertainty, take a deep breath and become aware that you are limiting yourself. The same is true the opposite way: engaging with heightened self-confidence and -confirmation is a self-limiting behaviour too.
If you belong to the group of self-doubters, you will most likely feel addressed reading these lines. But, unfortunately, the self-confirmers are harder nuts to crack.
As I mentioned, our society and working environment do not value hesitating leaders. In business, hesitation, uncertainty and openness about problems and feelings are all signs of weaknesses to which others respond with stereotypes and judgements.
Therefore many of us try to cope by being extraordinarily emotional or the other way around: extraordinarily distanced from others and our feelings. The message and process are often apparent:
being over-emotional
„If others don’t accept me being emotional, I will be over-emotional in response to make them see me.“
= „I want you to see me and accept the emotional part of me.“
= „I want to feel accepted by myself and others.“
in contrast to being emotionally numb
„Being emotional is a weakness. As I believe this and want to conform to others, I will distance myself from my emotions.“
= „I am annoyed by people who show emotions, as I don’t allow myself to feel.“
= „If I can’t be myself, you can’t be either.“
Both are vicious circles as we mostly get the opposite reaction from our environment as we would need to heel.
To live our authentic potential, we must raise awareness of our motivations, emotions, beliefs, mindsets and learned behaviour.
You can be a great leader, even by being emotional and open about your fears. Learning to manage your emotions allows you to set healthy boundaries and regulate your feelings in certain situations.
Summing up how to establish good decision-making strategies
- Decision-making and problem-solving involve uncertainty, fear and doubt to some extent.
- These negative feelings consume brain capacity, so we struggle to focus on finding the best solution.
- Bias, learned behaviour, negative emotions, and beliefs might lead to suboptimal or bad decisions, as our subjective perception distorts the actual situation.
- We aim to focus as much brain capacity and attention on solving the problem and making a decision as possible.
- For this, we can use immediate, short-term decision-making strategies (tools).
- Besides the immediate tools, we should constantly work on our self-awareness and growth to develop a personality that is likely to make good decisions in most situations.
