What are some of the most common errors and mistakes people make when making a decision as a group?

Both overconfidence and lack of confidence can cause decision-making mistakes.

The key to positive decision-making is having the ability to slow down and recognize what is most important and most helpful to a situation. However, more often than not, individuals guide their decision-making process with emotions, impulsiveness, and reactivity, especially in heightened or tense situations. This ultimately results in satisfying a short-term need or stopping the process within a comfort level, rather than aligning with long-term goals or creative visions. If an individual is overconfident or lacks confidence, they tend to make poor decisions.

This article will break down four key mistakes individuals make when making important business decisions – and how you can avoid them.

[ Do you make thoughtful decisions? Read also: 4 styles of decision-making: A leader's guide. ]

1. Acting on impulse during decision-making

As humans, we have an instinctual need to solve problems quickly, especially when pain (emotional, physical, financial, etc) is involved. This means that too often we allow for knee jerk decisions to be made without careful consideration. Specifically, when emotions are involved we are more likely to act on how we feel rather than with logic.

I think one of the worst things you can do is make a decision too quickly. Take some time to let your subconscious rollover your options before jumping to any one decision or conclusion. It’s completely okay to tell someone that you need a day to think about what is being asked, and dive a little deeper to make a better, more educated decision.

Why this is a decision-making mistake:

Making an impulsive decision without thoroughly thinking it through has the potential to derail you from the path of achieving your long-term goals. Even more poignant is the fact that impulsive decisions can result in unintended consequences that can cause a business unnecessary grief.

How to avoid it:

• Do your best to avoid being pressured into making quick “trigger” decisions, even under the influence of authoritative figures or people with whom you have close relationships.
• Identify the types of situations where you are most likely to make impulsive decisions and commit to being more cautious and self-aware when you find yourself in one.
• Always ask for time to process what is being asked of you, but be mindful to avoid procrastinating. Waiting until the last minute to approach the subject will also result in decisions being made under pressure and with a lack of thought.

2. Only listening to those who agree with you

It’s natural for humans to want to be right. This is why individuals prefer to interact with those who share similar opinions rather than with those who challenge their thinking process. When it comes to decision-making, seeking advice and opinions only from those who share the same views as your own can be a detrimental mistake.

To justify our own choices, we seek out information that supports our existing instinct.

This is what is referred to as confirmation bias. Essentially, in search of justification for our own choices, we seek out information that supports our existing instinct or point of view, while avoiding information that contradicts it. Leaders need to ask themselves, are they gathering information to help them make a smart choice — or are they looking for evidence and support that confirms what they already think and want to do? Listening to differing opinions allows leaders to view the situation from another perspective and ultimately leads to a better decision.

Why this is a decision-making mistake:

Failing to acknowledge that there are other sides to a situation than what one person sees, and failing to acknowledge that a bias towards a certain solution may exist, hinders leaders from making a decision that would be most beneficial. If a better solution exists but a leader is blind to looking past their assumptions, they are not doing their due diligence as a leader to examine all possible options before making a decision.

How to avoid it:

It is always important to surround yourself with a strong team of advisors or individuals you trust. Keep a roster of like-minded individuals that can challenge your thought process and help you think in different ways. This guarantees that you will be seeing all sides of the situation and gaining different perspectives before making the final decision.

It’s not uncommon to hear people say that everyone makes mistakes. Although this seems to be common knowledge, there is still very little grace for those in positions of leadership who make mistakes on the job. Many mistakes that leaders make are simple issues that could have been handled differently if the leader was more aware ahead of time.

With that in mind, I want to talk about some of the frequent mistakes that are made by team leaders and how you can avoid making them yourself.

How Mistakes Can Influence Your Leadership

In many circumstances, it’s possible to learn from making mistakes. However, experience can be a hard teacher and a very unforgiving mentor. Taking the wrong steps might be harmless on a number of occasions, but it can also be toxic to your career, your ambitions, and your personal life.

The biggest problem with learning from experience alone is that you may not find out you were making a mistake until it’s been going on for years or it’s too late to change. Maybe you will become a better leader afterwards, but you may have lost an opportunity that you otherwise would have kept if you had avoided that mistake entirely.

Common Mistakes for Team Leaders

My point with this article is to help you avoid some of the most common leadership mistakes by making you aware of them and helping you sidestep the issues as they come. These are the 5 most common mistakes that team leaders make:

1. Making Uninformed Decisions or Emotional Decisions

Decision-making is a logical process in a business environment. Whereas you might base a personal decision off of your emotions or incomplete information, a business decision needs more thought and more energy put into it. When you get information about anything that will influence a decision, it’s best to look for more information on the topic before you actually finalize a decision.

For example, if you are deciding which company trucks to buy you need to consult the drivers, clients, company records, and other sources of information instead of simply talking with the salesperson and finding an option that sounds good from your point of view. Different viewpoints and extra knowledge can help you to make better choices for the good of the company.

Equally as important is to avoid making decisions at work based on your emotions. No one should be hired or fired based on emotions, and no company decisions should be made because of your feelings on the issue. It’s important to make the distinction between values and emotions because while values might make you feel a certain emotion about a situation they will not cause the same rash decision-making as emotions. Think logically and be able to show your team the rationale and reasons behind your choice.

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2. Completing Unfinished Projects for Yourself

If you’ve delegated a task to your team and they send it back to you unfinished, poorly done, or not quite correct then you need to resist the urge to fix it up on your own. This is okay to do in certain circumstances, such as when a deadline is looming close and there’s no time to spare or if you have given instructions to you want to edit the project before it’s submitted fully.

However, you should not accept work that’s not done correctly or is not finished entirely, unless there has been some communication about it beforehand and you came to and understanding with the employees. When you delegate tasks, you should expect them to be completely properly. If you spend all your time going back over work that your team has done or finished up unfinished projects, you won’t have enough spare time left for your own work.

Part of being a leader is delegating tasks and expecting that work to be done with excellence. Otherwise, you aren’t really leading your team at all.

3. Shying Away from Healthy Conflict

Conflict is a natural part of healthy human interactions. You cannot expect your team to operate at its best if they are not allowed to have conflicts of any kind. The trick is to keep things from getting out of hand and this can be done by creating a culture where healthy conflict is accepted. Allowing healthy conflicts to take place so that employees can express their different viewpoints, opinions and discuss the merits of their ideas over others’ ideas. 

4. Acting without Help Consistently

It’s unhealthy for you to run to a mentor or superior for every decision that must be made, but it’s also a bad choice to act alone on everything. When you need help, seek it out. This helps to set the standard for your employees as well, letting them know that it’s okay to ask for help when necessary in the workplace. No one is perfect!

5. Allowing Too Much Team Autonomy

Autonomous teams are those that can operate on their own without too much supervision. Empowerment is a wonderful thing in most workplaces, but it’s also not something you should expect from every employee unless they have proven themselves. Unfortunately, not everyone on your team is going to be a self-motivated, dedicated worker that will get everything done on time without supervision.

Because of this, it’s a mistake not to check up on progress, get consistent reports, and make sure everything is running smoothly. Don’t expect employees to come to you every time they have problems or to check in and let you know how their work is coming along. Instead, do the legwork and go find out for yourself how your employees are doing.

Recovering from Making a Mistake

Mistakes don’t have to be fatal to your career. If you acknowledge that you made a mistake, take responsibility for it, and learn how to avoid that mistake again in the future then you will be able to recover well and will usually regain employee trust also. On the other hand, acting like it wasn’t a big deal, failing to acknowledge the mistake, or passing on the blame will ruin your standing with employees and will not help you progress past your mistake. Learn how to handle it well when you do mess up.

Conclusion

It’s common to make mistakes, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t learn about mistakes that are frequently made and try to avoid them for yourself. After all, if you can side-step a puddle in the road, isn’t that better than simply walking through it? Learn from this list of mistakes and pay attention so that you can correct yourself before you make any of these common mistakes.

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Total Team Building specialise in teams…we facilitate a range of team building activities that help build team morale, trust, leadership & communication within a team. For more information about how Total Team Building can help you contact us today.

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