I read a book a couple years ago that took decision-making to a whole new level. It was Decisive by Chip & Dan Heath. I don’t think I’ve heard as comprehensive (or creative) a thinking process as it relates to decision-making. And the best part is that is applies to nearly all circumstances, from business (should we sue a bigger company? offer a discount on our products?) to personal (should I break up with my significant other? let my adult child move back home? buy a new TV?).

Here is a brief summary of the WRAP decision-making process the Heath brothers use:

W – Widen Your Options

The first decision-making mistake we often make is assuming a situation is binary – we chose between only two options. In reality, there are so many more possibilities.

Expand your options – Find several alternatives, not just one. Instead of deciding whether to stay or quit a job, come up with several options for making the best of a job without leaving.

Consider the opportunity cost – Determine what you give up by making a certain decision. What else could you have instead? For instance, by choosing to attend a private school, you may be choosing to not attend a public school AND buy a new car. Which would you rather have?

Benchmark – Instead of rushing out to make a decision, find someone who has already solved your problem. What did he or she do and how did it turn out? What do the experts say to do in this situation?

R – Reality-Test Your Assumptions

Once we’re leaning a certain way on a decision (and especially after we’ve made the decision), we’re often imprisoned by our confirmation bias. We want our decision to be “right,” so we look for confirmation and discount or ignore evidence to the contrary.

Consider the opposite – Look for reasons why the decision you want to make could very well be the wrong one. In other words, look at it from the standpoint of someone who disagrees completely and be willing to acknowledge the weaknesses from that side. (Maybe this could come in handy in politics).

Zoom in/out – Zoom in by asking for the real-world experience of others in the exact situation as you. (What did your friend think of the restaurant you are considering visiting?). Then zoom out by looking at the macro data (What is the overall Yelp rating for the restaurant?). Why guess when you can know?

“Ooch” – According to the Heaths, to “ooch” means to experiment on a small scale. Instead of investing tremendous effort and resources toward a decision, look for ways to test a decision before actually deciding. Hire several firms to do one project before awarding one with the big contract. Sell your pies at the farmer’s market before starting a baking business.

A – Attain Distance Before Deciding

Deciding and executing don’t need to happen at the same time. Better to take a “cooling off” period.

Overcome short-term emotion – Give yourself some time before acting on a decision. Use 10/10/10 – ask yourself how you will feel about the decision in 10 minutes, 10 months and 10 years. Ask what decision your successor would make in this situation (especially for high profile ones) – or how you would advise your best friend.

Honor your core priorities – Remind yourself what is most important to you. Then consider the options in light of those priorities.

P – Prepare to Be Wrong

Being “right” about a bad decision just isn’t worth it. Politics aside, remember Sarah Palin’s bridge to nowhere? At least she had a jumping off point. Opt for a correctable slip up over a colossal failure.

Bookend the future – Anticipate the future given your desired course of action. If everything goes right, what will you do? If everything goes wrong, how will you respond? Ask yourself what could go wrong and improve on it.

Set a tripwire – Decide at what point you will change course. What would make a job so bad you would finally have to leave it? How much will you invest toward a failing business (or a hobby) before you throw in the towel?

We’ll never outlive the necessity to make decisions. As stressful as it can be, it is immensely rewarding as well. Decision-making is a function of leadership. The more willing we are to make decisions (and live with the consequences), the more opportunities we’ll get.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or   follow him on Twitter.

So what happens when adversity strikes? How can we climb our way our of it? This isn’t an exhaustive list, but here are some thinking patterns that have helped me maintain a sense of sanity and clarity over the years.

No Second Guessing

Many times adverse situations are the result of our own making. We create our own chaos. That’s why it’s takes so much courage to make tough decisions when the outcomes aren’t clear.

Whether your adversity is self-inflicted or not, don’t second-guess. It’s a waste of time and energy. The past is gone. In economic terms, it’s “sunk cost.” Instead, re-assess based on where you are now. What went wrong? What could you do differently next time? What makes the most sense based on where we are today, not where we were in the past? Use the past as a teacher and then move on.

Profit From Your Losses

When I learned that Dale Carnegie had written a bestselling book called How to Quit Worrying and Start Living, I was a bit incredulous. Do people really worry that much, I thought. When I began reading, I realized I was one of the target audience. Carnegie shared that anyone can profit from their gains. It takes intelligence, creativity and a winning spirit to profit from your losses.

There are countless personal and business stories where the mistake led to the breakthrough. Your adversity may not be Hollywood material in the making, but most reversals rarely are. Start where you are. Find a way to turn your minuses into pluses, your lemons into lemonade.

Live to Play Another Down

That’s a sports reference. If you want a first class lesson in dealing with adversity, just take your queue from the world of athletics. I could never be a sports coach. If there is anyone who isn’t allowed to say “well guys, looks like this one is over,” it’s them! Sometimes it “works” and the team comes from behind to win. Other times even the most devastating losses provide an opportunity to grow into a stronger team. No single play or game or season gets the last word. The present is only temporary. It’s all about where you go from there.

When I was a college student, my classmates and I would occasionally receive a bad test on an exam followed by an overwhelming, end of the world feeling that our lives and careers were now in total jeopardy. It took some perspective to admit that job recruiters weren’t likely to inquire about each individual test score for all our classes.

Put your adversity in perspective. A speed bump is just that: a bump. Not a mountain.

Plan for Next Time

The worst part of adversity is getting fooled twice. Don’t let this happen to you! Don’t second-guess, but re-assess. Remember?

A construction company I work with nearly went under during the housing collapse in the United States a few years ago. They made it, but just barely. Now the market is coming back and it would be easy just to get back to business. But nobody wants to go through all that misery again. So the leaders made a plan to diversify the main product line. It takes extra work now, but if the market collapses again, the company will stand strong.

How do you handle adversity? What’s your plan?

If your adversity involves a traumatic experience, visit this article entitled: Resilience and the Pan Am Flight 73 Hijacking.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.

So how do you get clarity when it comes to goal-setting?

You’ve probably heard about SMART goals before. If you haven’t, this little model could change your life. If you have, it’ll be a good refresher. Here are the steps to transforming regular, ordinary goals into SMART goals.

Specific

The first step to make any new goal SMART is to make it specific. The more specific the better. “I want to live a healthier lifestyle” is a noble and wonderful goal. But it doesn’t have any backbone until it becomes more specific. Do you want to eat better or exercise more? “I want to become a better leader” is excellent as well. But what do you mean by that? Better planning? Better execution? Better relationship-building? More personal development?

Check out these examples:

Unspecific: I want to buy a new house.

Specific: I want to save enough money to make a down payment on a home in the Pleasant View neighborhood.

Measurable

Whether it’s a professional goal or a personal one, we usually start by wanting “more” or “less” or to become “better” at something. That’s great, but it’s simply a good intention until it’s measurable. How much more? How much better?

In other words, how will you know when you’ve reached your goal? Without a finish line, everyone lets up when difficulty or distractions come. Without a performance target, no one knows how to adequately prepare.

To make a goal measurable, try to add numbers. How much weight do you want to lose? How many widgets do you want to sell? How many dollars do you want to make?

Immeasurable: I want to compete in a race.

Measurable: I want to run a 5K race in 24 minutes.

Attainable

Whereas the first two elements of SMART goal-setting have to do with clarity, the next two have to do with congruence and scale. They depend on the situation. When it comes to attainability, your goal may be as specific and measurable as it can be, but is it even possible? Do you have the resources you need to complete it? Are the factors within your control?

If you’ve just had open heart surgery, setting a goal to run a marathon in 3 1/2 hours by the end of next month is probably not going to be attainable, no matter how specific and measurable it is. Walking up to a half mile at a time by the end of next month is probably much more likely.

For organizational leaders, are these goals attainable for the people they will be assigned to? Selling 100 new cars off the lot this month may be attainable for a seasoned veteran but not for the new representative.

Relevant

Considering relevance can seem like a quick validation check, but it’s enormously important. It’s probably just as well to address this first in the process. But if it doesn’t get addressed at all, there could be a real problem. The key question to ask is: does this goal help us accomplish what is most important?

The best example I can think of for relevance came when I was in the Army. One of my soldiers was overweight and too slow on his running time, so he created a SMART goals to run x amount of miles each week. When we met the next month, he told me he had changed his goal to lift more weights instead of run. Now he was even slower and heavier! There was nothing wrong with lifting weights, but it was the wrong goal at the wrong time.

Organizationally, this speaks to the importance of strategy. Each SMART goal should help accomplish the strategy, not go off in a different direction.

Time-Bound

Time bound is exactly what it sounds like. It’s the end date when your goal will be finished. Every budget has one. Every goal should have one as well.

Not Time-Bound: To earn a promotion.

Time-Bound: To earn a promotion by the end of 2013.

And there you have it: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. It’s not rocket science – anyone can do it. And once you complete your goals, don’t forget to do two things: evaluate and celebrate. Then set some more.

Good luck!

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.

It’s hard enough to want to delegate in the first place. Many leaders lack trust, are insecure or are control freaks. But once you get past those barriers, what happens when your followers can’t pull their weight? Let’s talk about a few ways managers can guide their projects so that everyone can contribute.

Your Team’s Performance is Your Responsibility

This should go without saying, yet it needs to be said. If you are the leader, you are responsible for the total collective performance of every person on your team. Most people understand this intuitively. A manager can’t explain to his executives, customers or clients that he couldn’t get the job done because one of his staff couldn’t pull their weight. But unfortunately it’s a major reason many great workers avoid management responsibilities. No one wants to manage a poor team and no one wants to be responsible for multiple jobs all of the time. So what can you do?

Not All Employees are the Same

We also know this is true, but our sense of fairness compels us to treat all our employees the same. That’s often the problem right there. Some employees are high performers and some aren’t. Some are highly experienced and some are new. Some work best while collaborating and some work best alone. Some will get all their work done ahead of time and some wait till the last minute. Of course it’s possible and sometimes necessary to remove under-performers through HR processes. But many times this isn’t the real need and doesn’t solve the problem. First, take the time to diagnose where your employees are on the performance scale. Work with them to create individual development plans for growth. Understand their career goals. Give as much responsibility as they can handle, with the stated goal of giving more in the future. Get to know their learning and working styles. None of these should excuse poor performance – and you’ll both be better for understanding.

Cast the Vision

When you launch a new project, don’t start by communicating the nitty-gritty details. Start with the bottom line up front (BLUF). At the end of the project, what will be accomplished? Explain the difference the project will make in the grander scheme of things. Communicate why it’s crucial for everyone to work as a team and address the benefit to them (WIIFM = what’s in it for me?).

Set Performance Expectations Upfront

Next, for each team member, explain his or her role on the project and the tasks that go with the role. Be as explicit as you can be about the responsibility and as detailed as you need to be about the tasks. For inexperienced employees, this could mean explaining the implied tasks until they reach the next stage of competence.

Make a Project Plan

A project plan is basically a document that breaks down all of the tasks and milestones of a project, their due dates and who will be responsible for each one. I like to use Microsoft® Project or Excel. It sounds complicated, but it’s really not. Think of it as creating an outline before writing an article. It doesn’t have to be perfect and it will most likely change (multiple times). But a project plan allows all parties to be on the same page at all times. Even more, it establishes an added level of responsibility and accountability. It’s up to me to follow through on all the project plan items assigned to my name. In project meetings, it’s up to me to provide updates on my items like percentage completed, red flags, additional information needed, etc. By the way, don’t just assign completion dates on your project plans. Assign first draft dates, review dates, dates to incorporate feedback, test/pilot dates and final dates – all as needed.

Set Leadership Expectations Upfront

Finally, how will you support the team? This should be addressed beforehand as well. If you manage the project plan, make sure everyone knows when their updates are due. (Management challenge: delegate the project plan responsibilities). Schedule review meetings with each individual (if possible) so all parties will have the opportunity to address questions and concerns before there’s an issue. And clarify what you want the employees to do when they need help (hint: they don’t always have to come to you first).

Project management can be exhilarating and exhausting, rewarding and trying. Most of us have been on projects we loved and ones we hated. Usually, the difference was leadership.

What else would you add on how to tactically execute a project effectively?

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.

You’ve probably heard the adage, “if you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail.” Strategic planning initiatives give organizational and departmental leaders the chance to define strategy, set direction and make key decisions. It breathes life into the vision and gives the existing motivation a track to run on. But a plan doesn’t inherently ensure success.

I recently spoke with my friend John Maloney of ASJ Consulting about why strategic planning fails. Whether you’re a one-man shop or a large organization, here are some of the main reasons we identified.

Lack of Buy-In

If the leaders of an organization or department don’t think it’s important to create a strategic plan – or that it’s a waste of time compared to their normal duties – it’ll be hard for them to invest their full attention and effort into the process. If the chief doesn’t buy in, it’s already over. Make sure to elicit the top leader’s buy-in for both the process and purpose – and use his or her influence to convince the rest to participate.

Misunderstanding the Difference Between a Strategy and a Plan

A strategy is not the same thing as a plan, and a plan is not the same thing as a strategy. The two are different. A strategy is a set of choices that clarify the organization’s competitive advantage, value proposition, target markets and essential capabilities. A plan is an actual list of goals, objectives and tasks that need to be accomplished. A plan becomes “strategic” when it is informed by the strategy. Without a strategy, a plan is simply an organized list of good ideas. Don’t just create a plan; do your homework before the event and come prepared to develop the plan together.

There’s “No Time” on the Calendar

Of course, every leader has the same amount of time on the calendar. Claiming there is no time indicates that planning is a low priority. If the leaders don’t see the value in spending time away from normal activities to plan for the future, they’ll opt for spending 1-2 hours discussing top of mind ideas instead of investing the 1-2 days required to create an effective plan together. Make sure strategic planning events make it on the calendar well in advance and have high priority. Conducting the session offsite can really help cut down on distractions.

Lack of Participation

If the leaders whose strategic insight is required to produce an effective plan can’t get on the same page, you may end up with a plan, but it won’t be the plan you need to win. If there is a high degree of fragmentation, politicking or if the departments operate in silos, leaders’ first priority may be vying more for budget and resources instead of open collaboration. Make sure both the chief and the facilitator elicit open and candid collaboration.

Complicated End Product

Many leaders assume strategic plans need to be completely comprehensive and addresses every concern and possibility. In some large organizations, higher leadership elements may mandate that strategic plans adhere to a certain format or length. But for the rest, large plans can actually create a disincentive for implementation simply because they are too detailed – especially for leaders who aren’t natural planners. It’s possible for a strategic plan to fit on a single page as long as you discipline your team to clarify which priorities are most important.

It Never Gets Implemented

This is one of the results of an overly-complicated plan. No one wants to deal with it! Make sure each task has an owner assigned. In addition, make sure the entire plan has an owner – someone who will follow up with the task owners and track the progress. If the chief leader isn’t the acting owner of the strategic plan, he should appoint (or the other leaders agree on) a “strategic plan czar” who will perform the follow-up duties.

Sticking to “the Plan”

You read that right. Sticking to the plan can actually get in the way of execution effectiveness. At the end of the day, a strategic plan is like a battle plan or a game plan. Once you get into the action, you’ll have to improvise. A strategic plan should be written in pencil. If it’s immune to any changes, your team won’t be able to make the necessary adjustments. Invest in period revisions.

Both John and I address all of these issues when we facilitate strategic planning sessions with clients. If you’ve never investing in a strategic planning process, or for more information, visit my Consulting page.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or   follow him on Twitter.