Nine times out of ten, fear paralyzes a leader who needs to make a mission-critical decision.
Fear of "making the wrong decision" ... which means different things for different people. Which of these resonate with you?
Fear of triggering some sort of catastrophe as a result.
Fear of spoken or unspoken judgment from people you respect.
Fear of appearing foolish for your assumptions that led to the decision.
Fear of being wildly successful as a result of a spectacular, visionary decision.
What paralyzes us is often not the desire to "get it right," though that's what we might say in our teams and to leadership. No, we keep ourselves stuck in pain of fear. This distinction matters because you can't solve for a desire to get it right. It's superficial. You need to surface and address the underlying fear holding you back.
How to surface your underlying fear of making the wrong decision
Imagine you made a "wrong" decision. Tell me what that looks like. Who knows YOU were the one who made the decision? Who witnesses the aftermath? Who is affected by the poor decision, and what outcomes are they experiencing? What do those people think of you? What do they say about you?
Then tell me the "so what" - meaning, how do you FEEL about each of those things? Indifferent? Sheepish? Ashamed? Defensive? Amused?
Chances are, the strongest, most uncomfortable emotion you have (watch your body posture... do you physically cringe a little when you think about it?) is a clue to what the underlying fear of making the wrong decision actually is for you.
From that, you can begin to analyze WHY you are afraid of that particular thing, and start to get out of paralysis.
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