Effective decision making in an important part of any successful business. That’s not to say if you make a “bad” decision it is a failure. Decisions are made. Some are positive, some are negative. Sometimes the negative decisions made turn out to be successful in the end as you can learn from mistakes and move forwards. Remember everyone makes mistakes!

We have looked at the Sub-units above on the decision-making process but how do make effective decisions?

Even if you do not have any management experience these skills can be learned. We will look in more detail at these skills in sub-unit 4.

Decisions need to be made we all know that. In business these decisions can make a major impact on the success of the business, your team around you or even you personally. You therefore need to be committed to the decision personally and be able to persuade others of its merits. There are things that can prevent effective decision making such as:

1. Not enough information: If you do not have enough information, it can feel like you are making a decision without any basis.
2. Too much information: Sometimes too much information can delay decision making and you can have conflicting information.
3. Too many people: Making decisions is difficult. Everyone has their own views and values. Whilst it is important to know what those views are and why they are important, it is essential for one person to take responsibility for making the overall decision.
4. Emotional attachments: People are often lead by emotions. Decisions sometimes tend to involve change which is something some people struggle with.
5. No emotional attachment: Sometimes it is difficult to make a decision because you just don`t care one way or another. This is where the steps above will help you make an informed and calculated decision.

Many of these issues can be overcome by using a structured decision-making process as we have seen in the previous units.