Part 1 of 5 – Introduction and Self-Awareness
“The better my decision-making, the better my company”. CEOs and business owners uniformly agree with this assertion. There is no shortage of articles and books describing, comparing, discussing and analyzing what factors encompass or impact decision-making. There are laundry lists of personality traits, behavioral competencies, situational considerations, and context/timing examples where a great man enters precisely at the right moment and makes the perfect decision. But what can you, as an individual do to actually improve your decision-making skills?
I advocate improvement lies through three connected principles:
- Continuously deepening self awareness advances the process of clearer introspection
- Honest and truthful introspection removes bias from the ego, improving objectivity
- Objectivity enhances decision-making
Ultimately, great decisions lead to great results. This is what business leaders are paid to deliver. The goal of introspection is changing the arc of time. Life lessons are learned slowly, sometimes painfully, over time. But with accurate introspection you grow and learn more quickly.
Self -Awareness
My core premise is that the deeper and better you understand yourself, i.e. self-awareness, the more your executive skills flourish. I advocate reflection, looking within, and analyzing oneself is complementary to, not a substitute for, life experience. Experience by itself is inadequate. We are all too familiar with managers who tout “experience” as their primary qualification. No one is arguing experience isn’t useful. To have witnessed and worked with scenarios that are analogous and draw parallels is valuable. Yet we also recognize that business issues are usually singular and unique even if one previously encountered similar situations. The particular complexities, nuances, and environment dictate its own idiosyncratic solution.
One of the (too few!) benefits of aging is reflecting back and grasping life patterns and themes. But besides “experience” there are several pathways to acquire self knowledge.
- Personality tests that are interpreted by a licensed and experienced behavioral scientist are illuminating. This is especially true when you undergo several assessments over the years and common themes emerge.
- The ubiquitous “360º” popular in the corporate world is a process whereby peers, subordinates, bosses and business partners rate an executive on a number of traits, attributes, performance skills. Validity occurs when feedback from diverse sources forms a pattern or correlates.
- Being open to meaningful dialogues from trusted people and advisors. Trusted, insightful friends who you open up to and who provide honest feedback because they trust in the power of the relationship is one of life’s real pluses.
- Reading meaningful and impactful books, newspapers and articles that cause you to think about life. Watching political talk shows and talk radio that challenges your own beliefs and values. These considerations can translate into behavior and management practices as you formulate a view of the nature of mankind.
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