Confidence and Tough Decisions
null • Jun 10, 2022 2:10:32 PM • Written by: Erin Aquin
As an entrepreneur there is a certain confidence you have to have.
In those early days, it might be the confidence to talk about your vision even though you don't yet have evidence that it will ever come to be.
As you start to find your way, you need the confidence to decide what direction you want to go in and do it wholeheartedly.
And at some point along your path, you are going to have to conjure the confidence to make tough decisions.
It might be letting go of a misaligned employee or a client who isn't the right fit. It might also be turning down opportunities that would pay off in the short term but don't support your long term goals.
As the CEO in my business, I have had some tough decisions to make recently and what I have come to realize is that the confidence needed in those moments isn't the power-pose, roaring at the sky kind.
Instead it's the confidence of knowing that a hard conversation today is better than the mess I intuit there being six months from now if I don't say what must be said.
This brand of confidence doesn't feel very good. It's vulnerable and risky. But because of that it is also attentive to the other people involved. It calls for more compassion and humanity and makes room for complexity and nuance knowing that I might not have the full picture.
How to cultivate the confidence to make tough decisions
There are really three main things you need in order to grow this confidence:
1. Learn how to listen and trust your intuition to find the source of the problem
The problem with making a tough decision is that you actually don't know for sure how it will turn out. It might start with an intuitive nudge that something isn't right in your business. Maybe a system you put in place continues to be ignored by your team, or no matter how many ways you reiterate a policy to your clients, they don't understand it. You sense something is off and you have the lack of desired outcomes to back it up. From the moment you start to realize it, begin to collect as much information as you can. Start communicating with everyone involved that something isn't working and listen to what is being said back to you and what isn't.
2. Get clear based on your mind, heart, and values
When you find out the source of the issue, now you have decisions to make. Whenever possible, if something is going on that might require a "tough decision," I step away from the daily flow and spend some time alone brainstorming possible ways forward. Nothing is off the table when it is just my own private brainstorm because I want as many options as possible so I can see the wide range of choices.
So often we think the solution to problems is limited to one or two choices, but most of the time if we ask our brain to be creative, we can come up with amazing and aligned options. Knowing there are many paths forward helps me feel confident that I can arrive where I want to be.
Once everything is on the table I call upon my intuition again to help me narrow down my choices into what feels most like what I want for my business.
The final filter is my company values and vision. I put the options that seem best through the things I care most about creating in the world and how I want to run my business day to day. For example, one of the company values we have is "Simply, No Drama."
If I have to make a decision about a potential project, chances are if we are in the middle of a launch and publishing a book and there are 30 intricate pieces to this project, it's going to be a "no" for me.
3. Be the leader your business needs
Finally the time comes when you have to share the decision you have made. Even if it feels hard. In that moment you can remind yourself that you are being the leader your business needs right now.
What are you making yourself available for because of this decision?
What are you no longer tolerating by making this decision?
How does this decision today move you in the direction of your big vision?
And if it still feels hard to make a decision that other people might not like in your business, remember this: the confidence to make tough decisions is yours because you are the vision holder. You are the steward of your business and the potential it has to help a lot of people.
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