Making Competencies Actionable: Decisiveness

What decisiveness “is”

Truly, a “I know it when I see it” kind of behavioral competency. The person who is decisive is confident, quick, even, and unyielding—at least, until there is a reason to reconsider. The decisive individual appears to have thought through every angle, and while you may disagree with what the person says, you find you have to respect the process that brought them to their conclusion.

On an emotional plane, you may find this person worthy of admiration, and also disdain.

If that doesn’t make sense, consider this: you cannot lead the decisive person; that person leads you, by sheer virtue of the fact that the person is moving faster than you. (Someone who comes to conclusions slower than you is not someone you will interpret as being decisive.) The truly decisive individual challenges you for primacy, and is therefore a threat to your ego, assuming you have one. The more alpha you are, the bigger the perceived threat.

And what this means is, while you—the ambitious future leader—admire the person’s decisiveness as a leadership trait worth emulating, that same trait can also trigger a fight-or-flight reaction in you. If you come out on the side of fight, that can translate into feelings of disdain (“How dare he, the presumptuous bass turd!” On the other hand, a flight reaction may lead to feelings of self-doubt, jealousy, and… disdain (“Why, that manipulative little sheet ball, I should’ve seen that coming! Man, what was I thinking?!”)

The upshot? Truly decisive indivdiuals are readily identifiable, but before you pull them onto your team, make sure you’re ready for the challenge!

How to spot decisiveness in others

My favorite technique for uncovering decisiveness is something I learned from my father-in-law. Ask about life decisions the person has made: where they went to college and why; where they went for their first job and why; what they did after each job and why they left; what’s next for them (professionally).If you pay attention to the way these decisions get made, you’ll notice trends, such as:

• The person who always has a friend pull them from one opportunity to the next… “My best friend was going there,” “A buddy told me about it,” etc.
• The person who avoids risk… “The opportunity was too far from home,” “I didn’t want to jump into a new industry without having a chance to do a whole lot of research first,” etc.
• The person who craves excitement and risk… “The answer is ‘Yes!’ What was the question?”
• The person with a clear plan.
• The person who is driven by idiosyncrasy and coincidence… and is perpetually lucky.
• The person who is strictly analytical.
• And so on…

Developing your own decisiveness

There is one skill you need to hone if you are going to amp up your own decisiveness, and the skill has nothing to do with your ability to think strategically or crunch numbers. Watch the video to find out what it is!

(If the video doesn’t play on this page, click here to watch it at youtube.com.)

Jason Seiden is Co-founder and CEO of Ajax Social Media, a training company that shows professionals how use social media to work more effectively.