Teach People to Make Decisions

The simplest and most productive decisions are the ones others make for you. You never make these decisions because you have equipped someone else to do it.

This is primarily the role of parents to their children – it’s their responsibility – to help their children make good decisions when they’re not around. 

Whenever people ask me for advice, I never give them an answer. I always give them the pros and cons of their decision – they need to make their own decision.

2 Reasons:

1) I don’t want them to be overly dependent on my advice.

2) I don’t want to get the blame if the advice is wrong.

People should be responsible for their own decisions.

How do you teach people to make decisions? If you are a leader of an organization or a business owner, grow your people to make the call.

If there is a problem at work, and they have to make a decision, tell them to always go to you with a solution at hand. If not, then ask them to think through the problem. Present it after they have thought of solutions, no matter how improbable it is. If they make a mistake, or if the solutions they come up with are out of this world, be patient. As they practice this mental exercise, they begin to develop their decision muscles.