Let’s be honest – starting and running a successful business is freaking hard work. Long hours, tight budgets, intense pressure. Sacrifice is the name of the game.
With so many high-stakes decisions on your plate daily, you have to strategically choose the right paths that align with your company’s growth goals and values. Easier said than done, of course!
Rash knee-jerk reactions in challenging moments can sabotage all your progress built over months and years. But pressure makes diamonds. Here’s how consciously making smart decisions separates thriving companies from the rest.
Hone Your Leadership Skills
The core of smart decision-making starts with self-awareness of your innate biases and communication preferences. Personalities like energetic extraverts, methodical analysts, or empathetic people pleasers all lead differently.
To expand your versatility, identify gaps in your comfort zone that may inhibit fresh ideas. Take online leadership style quizzes for constructive feedback. Or better yet, ask trusted colleagues where they see room for growth.
Listening openly without defensiveness to critiques gives goldmine insights! If communication misunderstandings keep arising with certain employees, self reflect on why. Adjusting your language, meeting formats, and presentations to resonate across diverse thinking types makes all the difference.
Beyond self work, read biographies of renowned entrepreneurs like Oprah Winfrey, Mark Cuban, Howard Schultz examining key choices that led to their meteoric success. Note their values, communication patterns, and decision making instincts that felt aligned. Consider different leadership perspectives to get your mental juices flowing for alternate ways to handle challenges in your company.
Hire The Full Package Candidate
Personnel decisions determine the trajectory of your business more than any other. Yet they often get rushed based on an impressive resume rather than a candidate’s overall team fit.
Rather than playing a quick flip coin game on applicants, thoughtfully assess their tangible experience and “intangible” people qualities:
- Are they passionate about your company’s purpose?
- How do they interact with different team members?
- What difficult work stories reveal their grit and grace under fire?
- Will high performers be motivated or intimidated by them?
Looking beyond paper qualifications necessitates longer interviews with demanding situational questions that reveal truth. Some entrepreneurial must-haves to assess:
- Resourcefulness – Could they still thrive with extreme budget restrictions if recessions require tightening? How might they get creative?
- Self-starting drive – Are they wired to constantly seek new solutions without requiring micro-management oversight? How have they demonstrated persistence and scrappiness in past jobs?
- Resilience – Do they have resolve with a proven track record for overcoming major rejections, downsizing they weathered, or recovering major losses?
Making the right call is tough without objective tools. Design a consistent scoring system for universally desired attributes that candidates rate on a 1-10 scale backed by real examples. Establish clear baseline thresholds aligned to roles.
Cultivate a Creative Company Culture
Maximum innovation hinges on cultivating an encouraging “risk tolerant” environment where people feel safe brainstorming ideas freely without judgment. Easier said than done with looming deadlines, expectations, and bottom line pressures.
Combat tension bubbles that sabotage creative flow by first modeling the change you want to see. Explicitly reward curiosity by asking “What if we tried ____?” questions without criticizing practicality upfront.
Intentionally carve out low-pressure spaces for blue sky strategy sessions either during slower months, Fridays, or out-of-office at rotating informal locales. Order appetizers while having everyone casually share newest concepts for products, operations, or marketing without needing formal presentations.
Recording crazy proposals without rebuttals empowers introverts reluctant to publicly state ideas until more polished. After compiling contributing insights, rationally pare down keeping constructs with greatest upside that align with budget realities after the fun.
When change acceleration reaches maximum velocity, remind all of first far-fetched concepts once dismissed that manifested later with group persistence. Highlighting long-term vision validated gives ammunition against short-term critics.
Analyze Without Paralysis
Overthinking solutions can paralyze forward momentum when urgency requires pivoting. Limit inner debates by proactively listing pros and cons of each option then circling the top quick win, mediocre safety net, or calculated risk choice.
If no alternative clearly edges out, pick the path aligning closest to your core values and trusted advisors’ majority vote. Or test multiple routes concurrently if budgets and bandwidth allow.
Data informs directions, but remember, perfect certainty is rarely guaranteed when pioneering unseen terrain. At certain points, trusting your entrepreneurial instincts cultivated over the years stays vital over hyperanalyzing every variable.
Learn From Every Failure
When initiatives backfire despite best intentions, resist playing blame game against yourself or others. Comb through processes to identify what specifically broke down in communication, preparation, or resource allocation. Openly discuss how can course correct to prevent repeat issues only without lingering guilt since hindsight blesses everyone with 20/20 vision!
While no foolproof silver bullet formula guarantees 100% optimal outcomes, developing critical thinking capacities better equips any leader to call their next shot more accurately. The more decisions you make and reflective adjustments applied over fails, the sharper your instincts get over time.