This is my second week at Lagos Business School. The week has been so eventful, and in this article which is my second blog post, I intend to share with you one of the things I learnt from MBA program on the course of the week, and this is about decision-making.
When it comes to decision-making, the first thing to keep in mind is that decision-making is very important in the life of every human. To be human is to be ready to be make choices and decisions. Even our indecision is itself is a decision. In other words, when we choose not to choose, we are already making a choice or decision. Our life is shaped and guided by the decisions we make. As such, the path that our life takes depends largely on the quality of our decision-making.
Every stage of our life as human beings involves one decision or the other. It is either we are making decisions about our career, relationship, finance, immigration or business. In fact, the list is endless. These decisions do not simply affect us alone but also affect those around us- our friends, family members, colleagues and associates. Thus, making good decision is one way to meet one’s responsibilities and achieve one’s personal and professional goals.
The quality of the decisions we make depends on the level of our cognitive ability. This is because decision-making is a result of mental operation. Decisions are not made out of mere sentiments and feelings. Decisions that are products of our instinctive, reflexive, unconscious and intuitive thought are often filled with biases and stereotypes, and in most cases, the conclusions reached are hasty and erroneous. Our decision is said to be good when it is informed, logical, critical, coherent, sensible, rule-governed, and in accord with right reason.
As students of management and future leaders, we will be required to make a lot of business decisions. To this end, we have to keep in mind that decision-making is a skill. As such, we can always improve on the art. The very first step to enhancing our decision-making skills is to try to keep an open mind. We have to understand that we do not know it all. We need to complement our own opinion with the opinions from others. Also, our decision must focus on what is important. We must make sure that we have all the relevant information needed before we can begin to make a decision about anything. Again, we must try to understand the situation we are analyzing in context. Doing this entails identifying and collecting all relevant information. In making business decisions, our decision must be based on facts and not mere inductive assumptions or extrapolations.
To sum up, I would like to leave us the six important strategies that must be followed for an effective decision-making especially in the business world. The first step is to try and have a good grasp of the situation you want to address. The second step is to identify the problem. This is followed by an understanding of the main objective of the problem. Without understanding the objective of the problem, it will be difficult to reach a good conclusion. When you have identified the objective, you then weigh the options or alternatives available, evaluate the options against the criteria and then take action. If we are faithful to these steps, our decision will always be sound and logical.
#MBA21
