Guy Reams (00:01.122)
This is day two 40 evaluation of decision-making, which is better six out of 10 decisions or two out of three decisions. I used to think the best leaders were those who had the higher percentage of good decisions each day. Naturally 67 % quality decision-making should be better than 60%. Right? So I would have picked the manager who was careful in making decisions and made fewer mistakes.
But the older I get, the more I appreciate simply making more good decisions, period. In this case, the six out of 10 option is better. Even though it's only 60 % accuracy, that leader made three times more good decisions than the one who had just made two good ones. In a quick phrase, the leader who makes more decisions faster is usually better than the leader who's meticulous and gets marginally better average results.
Notice that in both examples, the success rate is above 50%. A wise person told me once that his goal as a leader was to simply make sure that he got at least half of his decisions right. That's a helpful litmus test. Move as fast as you can, make decisions as quickly as you can, but when you start making more bad decisions than good ones, then it's time to slow down. This has become a general rule for me.
Though I have no formal way of tracking this, it helps me gauge whether my week has been effective or not. At the end of each day, or like today at the end of the week, I reflect on my decisions. It's a simple exercise. How many major decisions did I make? How many are still hanging out there waiting on me to act? How many did I pull the trigger on? That's my first test.
If I didn't make that many decisions or only got to a few, then I really have to ask myself, what was I doing with my time? If you are not making decisions constantly and frequently, you are not really leading. Quit pretending to be a leader and go back to following. Leaders make decisions. Followers, well, they follow. The second thing I reflect on is the quality of my decisions. How many of them worked out? Do I regret any of them? What were the consequences? Was I just being too hasty?
Guy Reams (02:23.936)
All of these questions feed into my mindset of aiming to get the most out of my decisions right. Not all of them, but most of them. And I accept that some decisions will inevitably be wrong or unfortunate. As long as I'm not sinking the boat, so to speak, I can live with that. At the end of the day, more good decisions are always better than a few perfectly analyzed ones. You move forward by moving, not by waiting to be perfect.