10 Common Decision-Making Mistakes

The senior management team of a well-established organization has decided to relocate the business.

Without consulting any key stakeholders within the company, it has found a new office on the other side of the city that it believes fits the organization's needs better, and has signed the lease. But the team hasn't sufficiently taken into account whether the move is suitable for employees, and it becomes apparent after the decision is made that it's not.

The office has been at its current location for many years – most of the staff are local and have a short commute to work. As the new site is far away, with no decent public transport links, many people decide to leave. This causes a lot of disruption, and productivity and morale plummet among the remaining employees.

This example shows how overlooking one element of making an important decision can have huge consequences for a business. In this article, we look at 10 common decision-making mistakes, in no particular order, and we provide some insights and tools to help you improve your skills.

Mistake 1: Procrastinating

When you push your decision to the back of your mind and do other, less important tasks, or seek distractions such as making cups of coffee, you're probably procrastinating   . Putting off making a decision can worsen your situation, and burying your head in the sand won't make it go away!...