Have you adopted a decision-making process that works well for you? If you have, I’d love to hear about it. If not, read on. As a leader, your next best action is based on making a decision as to what that action will be. How do you arrive at that decision?

I’ve been reading Peter Drucker’s The Practice of Management (HarperBusiness, 2010 reissue). In it, Drucker devotes a chapter to decision making. His thoughts on the topic are interesting, and he states that managers typically—and erroneously—focus on finding the right answer during the decision-making process rather than finding the right question. Beyond that, he notes that the most difficult yet critical part of the process is to put into action whatever was decided.

That sounds like a no-brainer, but I’ve seen people spend hours or days or week trying to make a decision only for that outcome to go nowhere.

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