Good decision making is a skill to be learned and mastered, especially for leaders who are managing a team. More importantly, individuals must also practice being good decision makers since it is not advisable to be too dependent on others for personal decisions.
The downside of being too dependent on others is that you might have a hard time standing on your own two feet when a situation would require you to make a choice without anyone’s help. A better way to deal with it is to consult friends or trusted people who can advise you on the kind of decision you are about to make. They can give you tips, suggestions and warnings before you implement it. This way, you are still on your own in arriving at a final decision.
Pros and Cons of Individual Decision Making
When you make a decision on your own, you take pride in it especially if the choice made was successful and effective. Yet, there are moments when it is just difficult not to seek assistance from others. Find out the pros and cons of being an independent decision maker.
Advantages of Individual Decision Making
- You can take immediate action and fast solution to a problem or a situation.
- You are solely responsible for the kind of decision achieved, whether it is good or bad.
- You take full accountability for the outcome of the decision and its consequences.
- You take no arguments with your personal opinions on how to address a problem.
- You become efficient with the use of time and effort in reaching a decision.
- There is no need to delegate roles and responsibilities so you do not have to deal with people who are hesitant to take on a responsibility.
- You are free from too much diversity in a group which tends to limit cohesiveness and affect the decision making.
Disadvantages of Individual Decision Making
- You only see things based on your own perception.
- You have no one to discuss regarding the projected outcome of the decision. There may be other people who have already gone through the kind of situation that you are experiencing and they might be able to share whether they were successful or not in the kind of decision they made.
- You may have a hard time reaching a decision especially when you have an indecisive character.
- It can be difficult for you to tell whether you are experiencing a decision making pitfall or not.
- The level of motivation there is in individual decision making is not as strong as when a team is successful enough to create a motivational effect to the members.
- There may not be so many creative solutions generated when only one person makes the decision.
Individual versus Group Decision Making
Both approaches in making decisions follow the same process in decision making. However, a decision worked out by a group has a greater tendency to be more effective than that of an individual effort because it is an outcome of collective or cohesive minds. Individual decision making is best left to skilled decision makers. Yet, you might wonder, what about the day-to-day small decisions that only the individual himself should make? Well, these petty situations should mold you in learning to become independent with your decisions.
Intuition and Individual Decision Making
The most probable approach in individual decision making is through intuition. Because individual decision making involves no one but the decision maker himself, a usual tendency is to resort to personal beliefs and convictions triggered by emotions. A person sometimes follows what the instinct says. For instance, when your gut feeling toward that certain employer is not good, you decide not to join the company and choose another option instead. When your instincts tell you that the person is cheating, you probably would end up deciding to leave the person.
Although intuition is correct in most cases, it is still best backed up by facts and information to support the gut feeling. Relying solely on emotions may be a little risky especially when there is no evidence to support it. A little objectivity in the approach can lead to a more effective decision.
