Fearless decision-making through understanding yourself as a leader

The role of a leader is to make critical decisions.

And to do this well, a leader needs to understand themself and how best to lead others to success.

Fearless decision-making does not come from a place of certainty; it comes from being able to assess the risks, weigh the options, and act with confidence despite any uncertainty that may be present.

To do this effectively in your own life, you must know more about yourself. Spending time on personal growth will help you find confidence, inner peace, and move forward with your life by making the right decisions at the right time.

Let's look at how you can unearth your leadership qualities to make choices and decisions confidently.

1. Assess your strengths and weaknesses

Understanding yourself as a leader is essential for making decisions without fear. To uncover your strengths and weaknesses, I recommend journaling regularly.

The simple act of writing down your thoughts and day-to-day experiences and then going through them later will help you see patterns in your thinking and behavior.

For example, my business co-founder used his journaling to uncover a mistake he was making in playing golf. It also helped see issues while running his business which he was able to improve.

You can also sit down and make a list of your strongest and weakest traits. It could cover things like your work habits, preferences, productivity levels, relationships, and anything else you can think of.

When you start with a clear understanding of where you're fine on your own and where you need to grow, you'll know to trust making some decisions and when to get help from other people.

2. Lean into uncertainty

Making decisions can be a daunting task. One never knows what the right answer is - if there is one - but that’s okay.

It’s essential to understand that uncertainty is always present when decision-making. By accepting this reality, you can take a deep breath and make your choice to the best of your abilities.

Whether the outcome is good or bad, embrace both with optimism and positivity. Every decision-making process is a valuable learning opportunity. As a self-leader, you have the power to control your narrative and make courageous choices. So, take a step forward, be fearless, and trust yourself whether you're applying for a new job, building a marketing campaign, or investing in a new relationship.

3. Rely on mental models

Mental models are the frameworks used to help you decide on a course of action. They can be thought of as simplified versions of reality that allow us to make sense of complex problems and draw conclusions quickly without overthinking them.

A few examples include:

• The Law of Unintended Consequences
• Occam’s Razor
• The Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule)

By learning about mental models and understanding them, you'll find it easier to make decisions and learn more about yourself in the process.

As you work with mental frameworks, you'll get a guide that shows where your thinking patterns lean. And you can either change your current way of thinking or alter it to grow into a more confident decision-maker.

As a business owner myself, I rely on simple mental models to help me manage my business. One model that I always use is to stick to the core values of my business. This could mean creating features in products that customers want and supporting my employees with benefits.

We'll look at values as a mental model in the next section.

4. Define your values

I recommend reading the book 'Start With Why' by Simon Sinek.

It's a powerful read for anyone who wants to have purpose and find a path to achieving their goals.

The core of this book is to understand what makes you tick i.e your core values.

While you may have heard of this before, I can't understate the importance of realizing your major goals and letting it drive your everyday decision-making.

To understand what your goals are, get ready with a book and a pen or with a document editor on your computer.

Now write about all the major stories in your life that you remember and recall as having a major role in defining you. These can be things that changed you for the better or things that led you to understand what you do not want in life.

You can also include anecdotes from your friends and family if they played a powerful role in your life.

Once you have a collection of major stories, look for underlying themes and list them down. These themes are your core values and you should write them out and place there somewhere visible as a reminder to live by them.

In my business, 'People First' and 'Always Do the Right Thing' are our values that drive everything we do. We think about them when dealing with customer support issues and when we communicate with the public.

Sticking by our values has helped us make decisions we feel good about long after they're implemented. And remembering your values will serve you well when you face difficult decisions.

Over to You

Now that you know more about yourself as a leader, it's time to make fearless decisions and unlock your true potential.

Remember that the key to making confident decisions is understanding yourself first and being able to assess risks while weighing all the options available.

Take the time to assess your strengths and weaknesses, embrace uncertainty, rely on mental models, and define your values. Once you do, the decision-making process will be much easier and smoother.