WEBVTT - EP 121 | How To Make Million Dollar Decisions 0:00:08.570 --> 0:00:12.350 One of the most important things that nobody really talks 0:00:12.350 --> 0:00:15.920 about when it comes to growing and scaling a business 0:00:15.950 --> 0:00:20.600 is how does the leader make decisions? So this is 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:25.850 gonna come across as harsh, but hear me out. People lie. 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:31.370 Data doesn't. How are you using data as the basis 0:00:31.370 --> 0:00:34.850 for the decision? Because emotion has no place in making 0:00:34.850 --> 0:00:37.310 decisions in business. I know it's easy to get emotional, 0:00:37.310 --> 0:00:39.650 and every once in a while when I am really 0:00:39.650 --> 0:00:42.440 passionate about something, when I feel strongly about something, I'm 0:00:42.470 --> 0:00:45.470 gonna I'm gonna have some sort of reaction. I'm going 0:00:45.470 --> 0:00:47.840 to fight hard for my point of view. I'm going 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:50.210 to really try to get to the bottom of something, 0:00:50.210 --> 0:00:52.430 but I'm not going to use my emotion to make 0:00:52.430 --> 0:00:56.060 the decision. I'm going to use facts and data to 0:00:56.090 --> 0:00:58.820 make the decision. Think about two businesses that are in 0:00:58.820 --> 0:01:02.570 the exact same industry. Business a has somebody at the 0:01:02.570 --> 0:01:06.130 helm that is strategic, that is able to make fast decisions, 0:01:06.130 --> 0:01:08.919 that is able to move things along in a way 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:12.940 that helps scale and grow. Whereas business owner B has 0:01:12.940 --> 0:01:16.209 the same opportunity, is literally in the same industry, but 0:01:16.209 --> 0:01:18.640 doesn't have a framework for how to make decisions. And 0:01:18.640 --> 0:01:23.080 so they flounder while the other one is flourishing. Well, 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:25.660 if you just knew what it took to make better 0:01:25.660 --> 0:01:28.390 decisions so that you could be more like business owner A, 0:01:28.420 --> 0:01:29.950 it's going to help you grow your business. One of 0:01:29.950 --> 0:01:34.240 my recommendations would be, how are you expecting inside your 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:38.979 environment that you're being presented with data, true factual data. 0:01:39.010 --> 0:01:41.890 Are we talking about five clients who gave this piece 0:01:41.890 --> 0:01:44.140 of feedback that would cause you to change your product, 0:01:44.140 --> 0:01:47.410 or are we talking about 50 clients? Five clients? You 0:01:47.410 --> 0:01:50.110 might not make the change. If it was a significant investment, 0:01:50.110 --> 0:01:53.020 50 clients, you would likely make the change. So when 0:01:53.020 --> 0:01:55.630 somebody is giving you a piece of information, the way 0:01:55.630 --> 0:02:00.790 you actually implement this is you ask who or how many. 0:02:00.820 --> 0:02:04.390 You don't just take in data and then make decisions 0:02:04.390 --> 0:02:06.400 off of whatever somebody has chosen to give you. You 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:09.050 have to have the framework as the leader of okay, 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:11.419 I need to get specific so that I can properly 0:02:11.419 --> 0:02:14.240 respond to what you're asking me. And if you don't 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:16.460 have this already in your culture, this sounds like people 0:02:16.460 --> 0:02:19.070 coming to you making all of these statements about why 0:02:19.070 --> 0:02:20.840 we need to do things differently, why we need to 0:02:20.840 --> 0:02:25.609 keep things the same. Well, until you actually understand the data, 0:02:25.610 --> 0:02:28.280 it doesn't really matter what somebody is thinking, because you 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:30.590 need to understand the exact numbers of people that is 0:02:30.590 --> 0:02:33.470 being impacted by whatever the decision is that you're making. 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:38.270 The next thing that is critical for making great decisions 0:02:38.270 --> 0:02:43.730 inside your business is setting up the responsibility structure correctly, 0:02:43.730 --> 0:02:47.450 the net net of your business. You have a responsibility 0:02:47.450 --> 0:02:52.220 of you are fully responsible for the bad customer engagement 0:02:52.220 --> 0:02:57.109 or the bad process, or losing money. You're totally responsible 0:02:57.110 --> 0:03:00.290 for all of those things, but there are other people 0:03:00.290 --> 0:03:05.029 around you who do have responsibility and should have responsibility. 0:03:05.060 --> 0:03:09.920 So how have you communicated what they are specifically responsible 0:03:09.940 --> 0:03:13.359 for because as you're making a decision, it is so 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:16.810 easy as a business owner to just take on all 0:03:16.810 --> 0:03:20.170 the problems because you know that you're ultimately responsible. If 0:03:20.169 --> 0:03:24.369 I know that Jenna or Sarah or Joe or Bob 0:03:24.370 --> 0:03:27.280 in their job description, I clearly laid out to them, hey, 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:29.320 you're responsible for these things. You need to send this 0:03:29.350 --> 0:03:32.739 on Fridays. You need to hit this number. This metric 0:03:32.740 --> 0:03:35.890 needs to be handled. I'm super crystal clear on their 0:03:35.890 --> 0:03:38.830 areas of responsibility, and then they don't do it. It 0:03:38.830 --> 0:03:42.220 would be a shame for me to say, oh, you know, 0:03:42.250 --> 0:03:44.230 I'm taking responsibility for the fact that you didn't do 0:03:44.230 --> 0:03:48.430 those things. No. That's ridiculous. Who is responsible? And more 0:03:48.430 --> 0:03:51.250 often than not, when you find that something is failing, 0:03:51.250 --> 0:03:53.470 a decision that you're making, a project that you're working 0:03:53.470 --> 0:03:55.870 on isn't going the way that you want it to. 0:03:55.900 --> 0:03:58.390 You might be caught up in all sorts of confusion 0:03:58.390 --> 0:04:00.940 in the decision making process, because you don't actually have 0:04:00.940 --> 0:04:04.990 one person who is responsible. So we're not talking about 0:04:04.990 --> 0:04:08.080 shared responsibility here. We're not saying everybody in the department 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:11.980 or everybody in the project has equal responsibility. One person 0:04:11.980 --> 0:04:14.970 has to be responsible for one specific thing. And the 0:04:14.970 --> 0:04:17.790 more you can get clear on who's responsible for what, 0:04:17.790 --> 0:04:20.820 you can empower them with their decision making to make 0:04:20.820 --> 0:04:24.540 better decisions, or to take accountability for the bad decisions 0:04:24.540 --> 0:04:26.970 that they made and coach them, give them feedback so 0:04:26.970 --> 0:04:29.970 that they start making better decisions. I want to share 0:04:29.970 --> 0:04:33.330 with you my favorite question to ask that helps me 0:04:33.330 --> 0:04:37.440 make better decisions. And that question is what are you 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:41.489 running into? You see, I've had many experiences where I 0:04:41.490 --> 0:04:46.950 will just bolt into somebody's office, start being accusatory of, 0:04:46.950 --> 0:04:48.780 you didn't do this, you didn't think about this. Why 0:04:48.779 --> 0:04:51.390 is this happening? How come you let this take place 0:04:51.420 --> 0:04:55.109 when in actuality there was logical reasons for all of 0:04:55.110 --> 0:04:58.050 those things? And yet I came in emotionally. I came 0:04:58.050 --> 0:05:01.529 in really heated because I didn't really have context. And 0:05:01.529 --> 0:05:04.530 so when you ask somebody in the frame of what 0:05:04.529 --> 0:05:09.089 are you running into, you're not placing blame yet. You're 0:05:09.089 --> 0:05:12.150 not coming into the conversation with the ego of saying, like, 0:05:12.180 --> 0:05:16.120 I know you did something wrong because there's a potential 0:05:16.120 --> 0:05:18.430 that it wasn't on them. There's a potential that they 0:05:18.430 --> 0:05:20.830 didn't know that it was their area of responsibility. Going 0:05:20.830 --> 0:05:22.839 back to the previous point, if they didn't know it 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:25.570 was their area of responsibility, of course they're not going 0:05:25.600 --> 0:05:28.450 to be able to make that thing work, right. Maybe 0:05:28.450 --> 0:05:31.630 there's a personal situation going on in their lives that 0:05:31.630 --> 0:05:34.930 prevented them from following up. Maybe they were on PTO. 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:38.170 I didn't know they were on PTO because the communication 0:05:38.170 --> 0:05:40.900 lines got switched. Maybe they did send the email. I 0:05:40.900 --> 0:05:43.390 didn't see the email. There's so many different things that 0:05:43.390 --> 0:05:46.599 could happen where instead of being the type of leader 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:49.990 that just comes in hot, you ask for enough context 0:05:49.990 --> 0:05:52.029 and then when you get the context, you get what 0:05:52.029 --> 0:05:55.779 they ran into. You can determine, okay, is that acceptable 0:05:55.779 --> 0:05:59.260 that they ran into that, that they got stopped along 0:05:59.260 --> 0:06:02.469 the path of hitting the target? And okay, how do 0:06:02.470 --> 0:06:05.050 we handle that versus I'm not good with that as 0:06:05.050 --> 0:06:07.720 an excuse, but at least you're opening the door in 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:11.170 a way that doesn't minimize your ability to be a 0:06:11.170 --> 0:06:14.950 really great leader. And this question is useful for me 0:06:14.950 --> 0:06:17.140 in one on ones. This question is useful for me 0:06:17.140 --> 0:06:19.880 in team meetings where somebody might not be able to 0:06:19.910 --> 0:06:22.580 articulate off the bat that they're running into an issue. 0:06:22.610 --> 0:06:25.340 They just keep talking about that there is an issue, 0:06:25.339 --> 0:06:28.160 but they're not saying, okay, well, what am I running into? Oh, 0:06:28.190 --> 0:06:30.080 I'm actually running into the fact that Bob won't get 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:32.450 back to me. And that's why this has hung up. 0:06:32.450 --> 0:06:35.779 So instead of me talking to this person, I could 0:06:35.779 --> 0:06:37.280 probably do a little bit of coaching on how they 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:39.170 could better handle Bob. But then I'm just going to 0:06:39.170 --> 0:06:40.520 go straight to Bob and be like, Bob, why are 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:42.409 you not getting Joe with the information that he needs? 0:06:42.410 --> 0:06:44.480 Because this is hanging the whole thing up, and it 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:47.960 makes decision making so much faster inside the environment. This 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:50.599 is a non-negotiable. This is the one that you've been 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:54.349 waiting for since the beginning of the video. The best 0:06:54.350 --> 0:06:58.580 way to make better decisions is to make lots of 0:06:58.580 --> 0:07:03.560 decisions very quickly. The more you add time into a decision. 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:07.010 Should this person be the spokesperson for the event? Should 0:07:07.010 --> 0:07:09.620 we pay this person or should we pay this other 0:07:09.620 --> 0:07:13.400 person and hire a different candidate? Every decision that you 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:16.850 are supposed to be making inside your organization, think about 0:07:16.850 --> 0:07:19.280 it as I'm on a timer, I got to make 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:21.530 this decision super quickly so that I can go to 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:24.340 the next decision. And when you get in the process 0:07:24.340 --> 0:07:28.990 of making quick decisions rapidly, you're setting an example for 0:07:28.990 --> 0:07:31.750 your team that they shouldn't just be sitting on information 0:07:31.750 --> 0:07:34.660 for a week just because they think that it it 0:07:34.660 --> 0:07:37.390 should take a week to make the decision. You're also 0:07:37.390 --> 0:07:40.450 showing that you can be wrong. If I'm able to 0:07:40.450 --> 0:07:43.270 make a decision really quickly and tell somebody a direction 0:07:43.270 --> 0:07:45.760 and then find out the next day, oh shit, that 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:48.040 didn't work very well. We need to pivot. We need 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:50.980 to do something different. The feedback mechanism is going to 0:07:50.980 --> 0:07:52.690 be much faster, because they're going to know that they 0:07:52.690 --> 0:07:54.400 can come back to me and be like, Natalie, this 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:56.950 didn't work and be like, okay, great, what's the next decision? 0:07:56.950 --> 0:07:58.990 So this is what I want you to do. I 0:07:58.990 --> 0:08:01.870 want you to find one area in your business today 0:08:01.870 --> 0:08:05.800 where you have held back on making a decision. For 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:08.680 whatever reason, you just thought it should take more time. 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:12.490 You wanted to sleep on it. You wanted to consider 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:14.530 it or talk it over longer. I want you to 0:08:14.560 --> 0:08:17.410 not do all of those things and to make a 0:08:17.410 --> 0:08:22.120 faster decision today, right now. And bonus points for if 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:24.340 you choose something that you know that you're a little. 0:08:24.370 --> 0:08:24.880 Bit. 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:27.590 Uncertain of that. You've maybe might have a little bit 0:08:27.590 --> 0:08:30.920 of embarrassment if it's the wrong decision, because what I 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:34.100 like to think about when I'm doing decision making, when 0:08:34.100 --> 0:08:36.680 I'm going through the process of trying to determine the 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:39.709 right action, is I'm going to take Natalie's ego out 0:08:39.710 --> 0:08:41.750 of it. If I have to be wrong, I'm willing 0:08:41.780 --> 0:08:43.520 to be wrong. Let me be wrong. I'm going to 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:46.670 take the hill. When I take on that responsibility. It 0:08:46.670 --> 0:08:49.400 actually makes me do what I need to do faster 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:52.250 to figure out if my direction is the right direction 0:08:52.250 --> 0:08:54.739 versus the wrong direction, because I don't really want to 0:08:54.740 --> 0:08:57.110 be wrong. But if I'm willing to be wrong, okay, 0:08:57.110 --> 0:08:59.420 that means I have to throw down and understand this 0:08:59.420 --> 0:09:01.790 is the context around the decision. I feel strong about it. 0:09:01.790 --> 0:09:03.890 I'm going to make this decision quickly. If I'm wrong, 0:09:03.890 --> 0:09:06.949 I'm wrong. That's okay. And the whole thing speeds up. See, 0:09:06.980 --> 0:09:12.380 businesses stagnate because decisions aren't made quickly and people just 0:09:12.410 --> 0:09:17.420 add time and opinion and emotion into something that should 0:09:17.420 --> 0:09:20.449 be very straightforward so that they can make more decisions, 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:23.000 grow faster and scale faster. 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:26.360 Keep fighting the fight.