Avionics News December 2012 - 49

identifies a framework for proceeding through decisions. socks. Rigor just gets in the way, so we make many of This is a safe place to start. But, you also need to these decisions out of indifference, emotion or intuition; know how to reason through your alternatives, or how we simply need to make them and know we can change to integrate accumulated feelings, comments and facts, our minds later if we’ve made a mistake. according to Mooz. This can be a problem, because they This is the key to most of your decisions and your role shouldn’t necessarily bear the same influence in every as a leader: being decisive, according to James Melton, situation. author of Leadership Above & Beyond the Crowd. “It’s His research suggested we use a combination of 10 more important to be decisive than it is to be right,” he decision bases to evaluate every choice. In order of intelsaid. “Action is the key.” lectual rigor, these include indifInaction kills even the best of ference, addiction, faith, emotion, intentions, and you can’t win the intuition, pressure (from power, metaphorical lottery if you don’t Decisions shape your life – peers or perks), doctrine, experts, decide to play. By choosing to facts and probability. not choose, you miss the opporfrom the socks you wear to the This is important, he said, tunity. Certainly, a fear of being because if we use the wrong wrong can stall decisiveness, but house you buy to the moves basis, we exercise the wrong so can making a snap judgment you’re planning at your rationale. Case in point: A group when it dings your confidence. of executives took a retreat to Thoughtfulness is another key shop – so you probably ought the Arizona desert with self-help characteristic of leaders. to be crystal clear about how, guru James Ray that included To make action and thought roasting in a sweat lodge. In spite work together, you need a and why, you make them. of symptoms of heat-related illthird piece: a reasonable deadness, the group was chided by line. Online sales sites, such as Ray to suck it up; three died, and Groupon, have time limits, and Ray was convicted of negligent homicide. As it turned your business choices need one, too. out, his expertise was bogus, and those who had faith in Of course, decisions should be made with the best his charisma made a fatal error by ignoring clear facts information available at the time, but not every one that they had become ill – evidence that should have been requires a market survey. Your judgment determines if given greater weight. Similar disordered reasoning led you have enough to work with by the deadline, and any to both space shuttle disasters, according to Mooz, and is better than shooting from the hip. “I’m not opposed to in more everyday decisions, it leads us to choose a new operating from the gut,” Melton said. car based on emotions instead of facts from reliability In fact, most business people aren’t. Still, your gut reports. When those facts become apparent, we suffer should be attuned to the situation, according to Mooz. buyer’s remorse. Decisions made this way will end wrong more often than The question, then, is when to use what. right, unless they’re grounded in similar experience. This is how police officers and firefighters make quick choicTHINKING FAST es; they’ve been there, done that and have an expertly Most of our daily decisions – what to wear and where tuned sixth sense. to eat – are pretty simple and relatively inconsequential. Indeed, it doesn’t take much analysis to decide on dress Continued on following page
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Avionics News December 2012

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