Fear Making A Bad Decision

To overcome the fear of making a bad decision, it's important to realize that there aren't good or bad decisions. Rather, it's what comes as a result of your decisions that's good or bad.

eing afraid of making a bad decision is the second way that fear manifests itself in decision making. For example, Ethel is trying to decide whether to apply for a new job. She doesn't see much room for advancement in her current position and wants to move forward with her career. However, she's worried that she could wind up worse off than she is now.

To overcome the fear of making a bad decision, it's important to realize that there aren't good or bad decisions. Rather, it's what comes as a result of your decisions that's good or bad.

The outcomes of particular decisions are often beyond your control. They may depend on the decisions and actions of others.

All you can do is make the best decisions you can based on the information you have. This is what you control.

Decisions that seem good can end up having bad outcomes, just as decisions that seem bad can turn out to have great outcomes.

Select each kind of decision for examples of how outcomes can be surprising.

DECISIONS THAT SEEM GOOD

Eduardo has developed a device that can be used to charge a variety of electronic items. A number of distributors make offers to carry it in their stores. But then a large, international retailer makes a lucrative offer for exclusive rights to the device, which Eduardo eventually settles on.

However, three months later, Eduardo is frustrated because his product is still not on the market. Meanwhile, a number of rival products have surfaced and threaten to render his obsolete.

DECISIONS THAT SEEM BAD

Josephine is a hiring manager with an event management company and is in charge of hiring two new event coordinators. However, a slow response to the job postings yields a disappointing field of candidates. She is faced with the decision of reposting the positions, putting the company behind schedule, or hiring candidates who may not be right for the job.

Josephine ultimately hires two of the candidates. She's pleasantly surprised with the enthusiasm they bring to their roles and their willingness to learn by shadowing other event coordinators. These two turn out to be two of the strongest coordinators that the company has.

When you understand that you can control the decisions you make but not the ultimate results of these decisions, you can free yourself from the fear of making a bad decision.

Of course, acknowledging that you cannot control the outcome doesn't guarantee that things will turn out as you'd like them to. But it can help you avoid worrying all the time.

Learning to focus on what you can control doesn't mean that you should be complacent regarding the results of your decisions. Instead, you can accept that sometimes you won't get what you want. You should do what you think is right, and accept the results.

To overcome the fear of making a bad decision, try to pay attention to your thoughts. First, identify a decision that you fear making. Then reframe your thinking so that your focus is on what you can do, rather than on the outcome. It can take some practice to shift your focus toward what's actually under your control, but this is a powerful way to become more decisive.

For instance, if you think "I just don't know what to do," try to shift your thinking. You can replace it with, "I'll do everything I can to make the best decision I'm able to."

Or if you think "I'm just not the right person to make this decision," you might be tempted to think you should ask your boss to do it, or at least ask her to advise you.

However, if you work to reconsider your thinking, an effective statement might be, "I'm being trusted to make this decision and I have the right tools to do it."

For example, Peter runs an online entertainment magazine and has recently been encouraged to include a section on video games. While this falls outside his area of expertise, it seems he could increase his audience by doing it.

At first Peter thinks, "If I make this change, I really need my readership to pick up to cover the costs." However, he quickly notices that this statement focuses only on the outcome of his decision.

Instead, Peter reframes his thought. He thinks, "I'm going to do some research to see if I can appeal to a new demographic by making this change and if it seems like a good idea, I'll do it." By focusing on what he can do, Peter effectively dispels his fear about the decision.

Fear can manifest itself in two different ways that pertain to decision making. This table outlines the actions you can take to can avoid obsessing about a decision, and to let go of the fear of making a bad decision.

Action	How to do it
Avoid obsessing about a decision	Distract yourself Exercise or move around Write down some steps you can take to help you make your decision
Let go of fear of making a bad decision	Identify a decision you fear making Reframe your thinking by shifting your focus away from the outcome and toward what is under your control

QUESTION

Catherine runs a small business that sells homemade beauty products. Recently she's been told that she should create a web site so she can sell her products online. She's anxious, however, because this could affect the image of her products, which are traditional and simple, and alienate clients who value this.

How could Catherine reframe her thinking to overcome her fear of making a bad decision?

Options:

1. "I'll do my best to create a web site that's as true as possible to the qualities that define my products."
2. "I'm not too worried about how this turns out since it's not my area of expertise."
3. "I know that setting up a good web site won't alienate my best customers since the products will be the same."

In the first statement, Catherine focuses on what she can do and not on possible outcomes of the decision.

In the second statement, letting go of the outcome isn't the same as becoming indifferent to the decision, as Catherine is here.

The third statement reflects that Catherine is still focused on the outcome of her decision rather than on what she can do.

Fear can manifest itself in two ways when it comes to making decisions. First, it can lead you to obsess about decisions. To overcome this way of thinking, you can follow three steps: distract yourself, try to exercise, and write down some steps you'll take to help you reach a decision.

Fear can also make you afraid to make the wrong decision. But it's important to realize that a lot of things are beyond your control. To escape this fear, focus your attention on what you can do and away from the outcome of the decision. This involves reframing your thoughts in terms of the actions you can take.

I have been teaching and training agents, team leaders, supervisors, managers and admins of call centers and other businesses in BPO related fields. This series, comes as a result of that experience. I have more than 4,000 modules that I plan on sharing here. This is # 005-09

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