HH, Sir Godfrey Gregg D.Div

15. Decisive

In 1 Kings 18:21 Elijah cries out, “And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.”

A leader cannot be paralyzed by indecisiveness.

He will take risks rather than do nothing.

He will soak himself in prayer and in the Word and then rest himself in God’s sovereignty as he makes decisions, knowing that he will very likely make some mistakes.

Decisive leaders seek out the appropriate information they need to make good decisions. Decisiveness is the ability to make clear-cut and timely decisions with the appropriate amount of information. In the organization, decisiveness is key to effectively executing plans and achieving goals.

• Practice making decisions quickly. Time how long it takes you to make decisions. Minor decisions–what movie to see or restaurant to choose–should be made in thirty seconds to a minute. Bigger decisions should be made in less than five minutes, even if that decision is to do more information gathering so that a decision of action can be made more effectively. The next time you decide what to eat, time yourself and only give yourself a minute to answer. Once you get used to making decisions rapidly you will realize that clear, firm decision making often results in better decisions and more energy.

• Practice taking a balanced view. Don’t just think about what could go wrong, think about what the benefits of the decision could be. Consider what the worst result could be, and if you can handle that, do it.

•  Engage the members. As you work with others, listen. Work for buy-in and discover issues of which you were unaware. But don’t overplay and try to work too hard for consensus. There comes a time when you quite simply have to move on from the fact-finding and collaboration phase and decide.

• Own the decision. When you make a decision, speak of it with confidence and move forward with bold action. Don’t flip-flop, and then own the results, good or bad.

• Get familiar with your internal GPs. As you gain experience, you build up a wealth of knowledge and insight. That fuels your intuition. Trust it. It will allow you to make reliable, quick decisions when you take the time to listen. Your gut instincts will be right more often than you think.