THE LEVEL UP LETTER

Hi All!
Here is your weekly Level Up Letter. This week we’re focusing on leadership and decision making. We wanted to give some insights into what it means to be a leader and some frameworks you can use to start making better decisions. We hope it gives you some actionable takeaways you can utilize in your own life.

Let us know what you think, and as always, feel free to forward along if your heart desires. Enjoy!

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

THE RESPONSIBILITY OF LEADERSHIP

Being a leader can be a lonely position that comes with a lot of weight. Most business owners are well aware that their actions and their decisions effect the livelihoods of the people that work in their organization. We’ve found that these are the four biggest responsibilities of Leaders.

1. The Vision
   Where are we going and Why? A good leader needs to be able to effectively communicate to their team the importance of where they’re going and get everyone moving in the right direction.

2. Decision Making
   Leaders have to be able to make decisions with less information. Having a solid framework for making decisions sets apart great leaders from the mediocre.

3. Allocating Resources
   Everyone wants more people and a bigger budget. In family life kids want all the toys and you have to decide on what car to buy, vacation to take and your savings plan. A good leader focuses on the most important areas and understands the sacrifices that need to be made.

4. Cultivating Talent
   Our consulting clients hear it from us all the time.
   PEOPLE, Process, Technology - in that order. A good leader brings on A players that add to the strengths of others. They also spend the time to understand their people on a personal level and help them grow, even if it means they need to move on.

Leaders that can harness all four of these skill sets well are unstoppable.

EIGHT COMPONENTS OF GREAT DECISION MAKING

This Havard Business Review article is a fantastic read on how to make great decisions and how to make them quickly. Basic bullet points below but it's well worth the read. 

Great decisions are…

• shaped by consideration of many different viewpoints.

• made as close as possible to the action.

• address the root cause, not just the symptoms.

• made by a clearly accountable person.

• consider the holistic impacts of a problem.

• balance short-term and long-term value.

• communicated well to stakeholders.

• are timely.

THE TWO WAY DOOR TEST

A lot of us get stuck thinking that decisions are either not reversible or if we choose poorly the first time we don’t want to go through the effort of course correcting. This leaves us feeling stuck or slows our decision making process down so much that we don’t take action and the opportunity passes us by.

So what do we do?
If a decision is truly irreversible. Take the time, gather the info and make the decision when ready.
If a decision is reversible, factor in the cost and effort into reversing your decision but decide quickly.

The more decisions you make, the more you’ll learn and the better you’ll become at making the right decisions more often.

THINKING IN BETS

When talking about decision making, where better to look than the hike stakes table of poker? Annie Duke, a former World Series of Poker champion turned business consultant, draws on examples from business, sports, politics, and (of course) poker to share tools anyone can use to embrace uncertainty and make better decisions.

Professional poker players are comfortable with the fact that great decisions don't always lead to great outcomes and bad decisions don't always lead to bad outcomes.

By shifting your thinking from a need for certainty to a goal of accurately assessing what you know and what you don't, you'll be less vulnerable to reactive emotions, knee-jerk biases, and destructive habits in your decision making. You'll become more confident, calm, compassionate and successful in the long run.

The Two Way Door concept is actually laid out in this book in far greater detail.

Check out Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts here

NEW BOOTCAMP STARTING SOON!

Our next BBM Bootcamp is starting in a couple weeks and we have room for one more person to join. If you, or anyone you know is looking to join an accountability group to help them hit their goals, please reach out or connect them with us.

LET’S LEVEL UP!

Looking to Level Up your life or your business? Find out more about how we can help through our Coaching, Mastermind Groups or Consulting services.