Julian’s Business Tips: How is Your Judgement?
It might seem obvious that business people need to look after ourselves – but we’re not very good at it.
We know that we need to look after our teams, but lots of managers and leaders have a tendency to ignore themselves – and that isn’t good!
These are unusual times: high workloads, continuing uncertainty, and a never-ending list of business and personal responsibilities – it’s only natural to feel a bit stressed and fatigued
When under this kind of pressure, most of us tend to start to fall towards ‘firefighting’ mode: fast, instinctive and emotional decision-making. This can be exciting and rewarding, but beware, it also leave us prey to biases which distort our perception and judgement!
Here are three of my favourite biases:
• Hero bias – setting unreasonable expectations for yourself, and feeling guilty or incompetent when you don’t meet them
• Control illusion – the tendency to overestimate your ability to influence events
• Loss aversion – constantly framing situations in terms of loss (e.g. ‘we lost 5% of our turnover’) rather than gains or successes (e.g. ‘we have retained 95% of our turnover’)
Ring any bells? So what can you do?
Firstly, accept that it’s OK for leaders and managers to be fallible.
Secondly, appreciate that these are ‘symptoms’, telling you that you need to be kinder to yourself, slow down and recharge.
Finally, book yourself some me-time, turn off the phone, reflect on your decision-making and ask yourself these reality-check questions:
• What assumptions am I making here?
• What can I control in this situation?
• What assets do I bring (honestly)?
• What do I know works?
• What is important right now?
Regain that clarity of thought, and as you move forward, just make a couple of extra tweaks to your work-life balance to have you making clear, reasoned decisions once again!
