Month: January 2019

As leaders I believe we all strive to be “effective decision makers”, but what exactly does that mean?  An effective decision maker is one who is objective and recognizes the impact of their bias in the decision making process.  Clearly this requires reflection, focus and ongoing practice. We all are victims of what Chip & Dan Heath refer to as “confirmation bias” in the decision making process.  In essence, we all want to confirm what we initially believe based upon our background, experience and opinions.  Although this desire to confirm our bias may not initially be recognized at a conscious …

On multiple occasions throughout our career we are approached with ideas, proposals, and requests from colleagues, employees, clients and others in and outside of our organization or business.  How do we respond?  How should we respond? The emotionally intelligent way to respond is to listen to the individual, seek any necessary clarifications, validate their enthusiasm, and then ask them to give you a “written proposal”.  Why react in this manner? After careful thought, reflection and planning a new idea might be helpful to implement, but alternatively it may not be feasible or in some situations can be manipulative in nature.  …