Making Hard Decisions
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Read Time: 2.5 Minutes In life & business, there are a lot of decisions to make. The difference between ok and great is your ability to make the right decisions... which are often the hardest to make. Let's explore how to make hard decisions when they need to be made. Making Hard DecisionsYou make easy decisions 1000 times each day. What clothes are you wearing? What did you eat for breakfast? But hard decisions only get made a couple of times a day. How do you deal with an underperforming team member? How do you prioritize your work to meet deadlines? What do you do when your work falls flat? The decisions you make in these situations will drive more results in your life & business than the 1000 easy decisions combined. I have a few simple frameworks for making hard decisions; I hope they prove valuable for you. Play It OutThe easiest way to determine what the right choice is. Play it out. Most of the time, there are logical "next steps" when deciding. If this... then that. Play out the most likely results in your head and weigh the outcomes. No matter how hard the decision, the outcome is what matters most. Remove YourselfSometimes it's hard to decide because you're so emotionally invested in the outcome that fear & anxiety stop you from making the right choice. "If I pitch the idea I have, I may be seen as stupid & could lose future opportunities" "If they see this campaign isn't doing well, I could lose credibility" In most situations like this, the best thing to do is remove yourself. Imagine that you're advising a friend or even a peer. What would you advise them to do? Odds are, your gut response is the right response. Go Big Or Go HomeSometimes you find yourself in a lose-lose situation. The odds of you coming out on top are low, no matter your decision. I see people take the "safe" approach all the time. They still lose, but they lose less. While this might be sensible... I hate it. The most successful people in the world got there by taking risks. By standing up against the odds. By making the hard decision to push on in a losing battle. There's a reason that every Hollywood hero faces a seemingly unsurmountable challenge before their ultimate victory. Everybody loves a good hero. Heroes make hard decisions, take risks, and face impossible odds. Why Marketers Need To Make Hard DecisionsBy this point, you're probably wondering how this applies to marketing. The truth is marketers make some of the most important decisions in a business. Marketers are directly responsible for deciding how a company is perceived by its customers. Few things impact a business more than the perception of customers. Every campaign, every piece of content, every ounce of strategy. It should be meticulous, well thought out, and ultimately... full of hard decisions. If you're a marketer and you feel like your decisions are easy, then I have some bad news... You're probably not doing a great job. Marketing is hard, being creative is hard, being unique is hard, delighting customers is hard. Challenge yourself to be exceptional in your craft. Use these frameworks to make the right call when faced with a hard decision. Thanks for reading this week's issue of Marketing 123's; I hope you've found it valuable. If you did, I'd love to hear your feedback here: Leave a Testimonial Ready to take the next steps?Take your brand to new heights by working with me & the 2POINT team. Promote your brand/business by sponsoring an issue of this newsletter. Transform your content process with this free 5-day course. |
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