How I Decide What To Do (Or Refuse To Do) As A Leader

Many people Struggle with coming to Decisions in their Lives.

It's not a Character Flaw if this is you, it is a very normal and Human Struggle to have.

Our society today does not make it any easier either.

Constantly you have People and Advertisements telling you that "THIS" is what you need to solve "ALL" your Problems.

(Hint - It Probably Won't)

With this, there is an Extreme Plethora of Options that exist for EVERYTHING!

This is only made MORE Challenging when you consider how much Access around the World there is today to "Solutions".

Need a Product?

You can probably find it at Walmart, or Target, or Amazon, or Alibaba, or Etsy.

Need a Service?

You can probably find it on a Business Group, or LinkedIn, or Fiverr , or in your Email.

Need an Expert?

You can probably find one at Barnes and Noble, or in a TED Talk, or a Newsletter, or on Social Media.

When you combine all of these factors, it is no wonder that it becomes SO difficult for Leaders (and Humans in general) to decide What To Do!

For most Leaders, it leads to some of the following:

• Confusion
• Analysis Paralysis
• Bad Choices
• Giving Up
• Being Misled
• Financial Loss
• No Results

Just to name a few.

So, how do you overcome this?

How do you Figure out whether to do something or not?

For me, I VET everything.

Or, perhaps it is easier if I put it as an acronym: I.V.E.T.

Before ANYTHING goes on my Calendar or hits my Wallet, I.V.E.T.

If it doesn't make it to the End, it doesn't end up on my Calendar and I won't Spend even a Penny on it.

So how does this work?

I

The first thing you have to look at, is whether what you are looking at fits with any of your Identities?

We all have different Identities in our Lives that I have talked about before.

Depending on what your Identities are should help you make a Decision.

For Instance, I have an Identity of, "Authority on Legendary Leadership and Heroic Potential".

I recently asked myself a question about AI.

Do I want to use it in my Business today?

I thought about how some people utilize it to help them write articles.

I looked at that Idea against my Identity.

Can AI help me become a Better Authority on Legendary Leadership and Heroic Potential?

I used AI to see what types of information it could create around Legendary Leadership and Heroic Potential.

It couldn't find ANY usable information.

I looked at others who used AI frequently to write articles.

Their work was... Mediocre at best.

Could AI help me sound more like an Authority on Legendary Leadership and Heroic Potential?

No, it didn't do anything more than a typical Spell Check or Grammar Check.

Could AI create anything Unique or even come up with Interesting Ideas that could help me as an Authority?

Absolutely not.

At this point, I have extensively written about why AI doesn't Benefit the work I do, and about my overall thoughts on AI from a Leadership Perspective.

So does using AI help "Me" at all with "My" Identity of being an Authority on Legendary Leadership and Heroic Potential?

NO!

So I don't Waste Time and Money on something that isn't in alignment with my Identity.

This doesn't necessarily mean that AI won't Benefit You, there are GREAT use cases for AI.

It just doesn't have a place in my Work, it's that simple.

You can expand this definition as well to your Team or your Organization.

Does whatever Decision you are looking at Improve that Identity?

If not, then don't waste more Time with it.

If it DOES fit with your Identity, then it can move to the next phase.

V

Here, we have to test the Decision against your Values.

MANY solutions exist, but the vast majority of them will not match the Values you have.

For me, it comes down to these Values - Faith, Family, Freedom, and Future.

If it doesn't pass All of these Values, then I do not Waste Time or Money with it.

This is actually part of how I came to the Decision that I would No Longer Do "Leadership Development".

Did Leadership Development Pass the Identity Test?

Yes, it could help me understand Legendary Leadership better, and for a time it did help my work.

However, over time I noticed something.

"Leadership Development" stopped helping me, and my clients, achieve aspects of my Values.

I started to see that "Leadership Development" Fails 80% of the Time with "Limited Success" the rest of the time.

This was showing me that it was Failing to help Leaders become Free.

Was "Leadership Development" Creating a Better Future?

No, it wasn't.

For around 40 Years Leadership Development has been Claiming that it is what is needed to have better Workplaces, but we aren't seeing that Result.

Burnout wasn't even common in the workplace until around 2016 according to US Search Results, even though Burnout was first coined in the 70s!

We see growing Active Disengagement, more Toxic Workplaces, Less Creative Problem Solving and Innovation, and decreased Flow States.

I came to see "Leadership Development" was Failing to Create the Future.

So I no longer Spend Time or Money on it because it Fails to Pass the Values Test.

For this to help with your Decisions, you must know what your Values are.

It isn't enough to have them written on a Wall or in a Notebook.

These are Values you must LIVE every single day.

If you are unsure of your Values or aren't consistently Living them, it will be VERY easy for you to be Misled into making Detrimental Choices.

This will bring us to the next Test.

E

Before you can make a Decision, you must first make sure you have the Energy to make the Decision work to a High Quality.

Now "Energy" here can mean a few different things.

It could be Bodily Energy (Mg-ATP).

If You or Your Team are in Burnout already (As 80% of Employees are, with more soon to follow), then your answer is NO!

But Energy could also be Cash Flow, Team Bandwidth, overall Time, etc.

This could also be the Energy you receive in Return such as from Hiring, getting Consultants, purchasing Technology, etc.

Really, you're asking if you can Responsibly and Positively Accomplish the Decision with the current Resources available.

We live in a "Polite Society", which means people "Expect" to hear "Yes".

But it can be EXTREMELY Unhealthy and HORRIBLE for Wellness to say Yes too often.

If you don't have the Energy to do it well, you aren't helping anyone by saying Yes.

I frequently have People asking me to work with them on their Ideas.

Sometimes they are GREAT Ideas!

It works with my Identity and matches my Values.

But then I look at the Energy Perspective.

How much Bandwith do I have versus what is Required?

Will I get enough Energy back in Return?

That can Include things like Income, Fulfillment, and Impact on the World.

Frequently when I look at it, the Ideas, even though they may be great, don't pass the Energy Test for me.

In those cases, I have to Decline, no matter how "great" it is.

If there is an Energy mismatch, it will only create Problems in the long run.

You might end up in Burnout.

The Project may end up only Subpar, getting fewer Results than Hoped for.

Maybe the Organization goes Bankrupt for taking too big of a Gamble.

Whatever it could be, when there is that Energy Mismatch, it just doesn't end well for anyone involved.

Another important thing to know here is that if a Decision is REALLY good and you WANT to say Yes, but you don't have the Energy right "NOW", you could always make it something to work "Toward" for the Future.

You then would need to ask, "What do I need in order to have enough Energy to make that Decision a Yes?"

Then you can start to work toward it!

You may need to Free Up Resources, such as getting rid of things that no Longer Serve You (Products, Services, Processes, etc.).

You may need to Hire new People.

But until you have the Energy, you can't say Yes.

However, if the Decision does pass all of these - Identity, Values, and Energy - then you can go to the final step.

T

This is where you Decide on the Time.

If the Decision matches your Identity, works with your Values, and you have the Energy to do it Well, then DO IT!

Most people Hesitate far too long when they see an Opportunity, and then it passes them by.

The bad news is that Opportunity likely won't come back.

The good news is that the World is FILLED with Opportunity, far more than any single Person, Team, or Organization could ever Hope to Achieve.

But in our World today, Opportunities move Quickly, so you want to KNOW an Answer as fast as you can.

If you make it to this point, you should KNOW that you have the Decision made to the Best Possible Ability you can.

Will it always be a "Perfect" Decision?

No, nothing in Life is EVER "Perfect".

But would it be the BEST Decision you could make with what was available at that Time?

Absolutely.

That is the Best You can do in Life.

If you wait though, you'll always find yourself hesitating, always wondering what "Could" have been.

But if you Move, you find that even when things don't work out Perfectly, it's not the end of the World.

Nearly Everything you can come back from.

If you keep moving, you'll find Better Opportunities.

Plus, with this framework, you'll end up making Great Decisions, more Consistently.

The Great will outweigh the rest.

I know, because it's how I run my Life and Business.

I VET everything.