How to make great decisions instantly, at work & home

1. Great decision making, instantly: Intro: I don't know how to make great decisions at work and at home so that you can be effective in where you put in your energy. And do you want to know how to make those decisions fast so that you can stop stressing over them and start achieving great things? By the end of this class, you'll have your own set of guiding principles, so you can do just that. You'll gain a major leadership skill, and you'll start enjoying more in life because it will have more meaning. So what's the secret sauce? Fundamentally, it's about knowing your values and your goals, or if you're at work, than knowing your company values and goals and using those as your guiding light. So every time you make a decision, you reference back to them. It's helped me immensely, and I want you. I want to walk you through how to do it yourself. My name's Yvonne Lines, and I'm the blogger behind smart like dot tips, I take nuggets of wisdom that I find in self development books and business books and leadership books and other media like interviews, and I love podcasts, and I convinced those bits into easily digestible, Quick reads. It's about a paragraph or two and then an action item and then my journey to put those all together. I've read well over 100 books, and I want to share that information. The lessons I've learned I want to share them with you Now, this one in particular, decision making is not something that I grew up with. I am a liberal, and if you know anything about Lira's decision making is not one of our characteristics. However, I have grown to be much better with decision making by using this approach. So thank you percent spending your time with May. I hope you enjoy this class. And in the next video, I'm going to share with you an example of a decision I made using this approach and one that I made without using this approach that I'm actually a little bit embarrassed about. But I'll share with you anyway, and I just you're going to see such a difference 2. A tale of two decisions: e So I want to give you two stories. 1st 1 is when I have made a poor decision. I was not using these principles. The 2nd 1 was much better. All right, let me tell you about the battle. When I first started smart like that dot tips, I was wanting to make an app so that people could get these get mine my set tips on their on their smartphone on a daily basis. Well, I don't code, so I needed to hire developers and that was the decision that I needed to make. I made a decision based on price. Now I'm not talking five or $10. It was thousands of dollars, But price is not one of my values. Quality is one of money. Value is adding, you know, a great product into the market is one of my values, not price. So you already know it set up for a poor decision, and that's exactly what happened. The quality was, in the end, waas so terrible that I couldn't release the app. And I ended up losing all the money that I put into it and months of effort and frustration . And, you know, blood, sweat and tears. Which hopes and dreams trying to get this out happen to the world did not happen. Poor decision. I did not use my values as a guiding principle. So let me tell you about a much better decision that I made When I was thinking about selling my house. I talked to real estate agents and the way the market waas. But I was going to sell the house. They wanted me to act really quickly, basically had about 24 hours to make a decision. That's a big decision. In a very short amount of time. It was your house. That's a big deal. 24 hours is not that long. But I had already done this foundational work, and at this stage I knew what my values were, and I had also set up some goals for myself. So I took a look at those values and made my decision based on that. Now I'm not a materialistic person. I don't like stuff. I much prefer experiences. House is materialistic. You keep putting money into it. And you know, I wasn't want to really host a lot of parties there and stuff, so it wasn't getting the experience out of it. I'd rather go out traveling or something for in experience. So the house didn't will align with my experiences over stuff value, and it also didn't align with my goals. I was trying to set up a lifestyle for myself where I have more freedom and the house in the line of that either. So it was a pretty easy decision to make in that short time. And looking back, I could not be happier with that decision. I got the lifestyle I was looking for, and I'm aligned of my values on super happy about it. So that just goes to show you how to ways in which those guiding principles could really help you make a decision. Now we've got tons of decisions to make all the time right. Some of them are big, like maybe you're thinking about in investment. Whether by yourself, that's gonna happen really fast. You can't sit on it. Some of them are smaller. Like maybe you're at a restaurant with some friends and the servers waiting. Take your order. You gotta decide what to eat. And everybody is waiting for you. But you don't wanna miss order because you might not enjoy your meal often at work. Say you're in a meeting. Get called on to get your opinion. Do you agree, or do you not agree with this situation? You can either sit there and say, I don't know Or you can stand up and be a leader to be the hero and say it should be this. Now how do you know that while every company has got company values and then quarterly that generally put out their goals as well? And those air your guiding principles to help you make those decisions? No. One where it work, we're kind of working as entrepreneurs. Not in that we have to decide what those values are, but we have to make decisions constantly all the time. We can't run to her manage every time something comes up, we've gotta work independently that way, and it has to be fast, right? We got a lot happening at work, so this concept actually first came to me when I was working full time in a corporation. I was managing a lot of people and I was fortunate enough to be sent off for training and one of the things the one of the concepts that was training presented waas this exact principle. I'm teaching you now to base your decisions on the company values and the company goals. And you know what? It just made so much sense. I always seen those values and listen to those goals presenter than town Hall in just kind of ignore them. Thought it was just like, Wow, last beak Words didn't mean anything, but they actually do so. I was so impressed by this concept that as soon as I got back to my workspace, I told my co workers and it really helped them as well. Then we're all working, aligned with the same values and made all our decisions more connected. And it just happened so much more easily, much more simple to make those decisions. It was great. Why I use the same concept in our personal lives as well. Works really well, just like that example I showed you at the house 3. Be a hero at work: I'm sure many of you know the book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Coming now in this book, he's got a lot of really amazing concepts. One of them is the comparison between being really effective and being really efficient. Most of us focus on being really efficient. We could be masters of productivity's. But if it's not, if what we're doing is not aligned with values and goals, especially at work, then what's the point? I mean, have you ever wondered why am I doing this? So to correct that your company values are probably quite easily accessible through your HR site, you're going to be looking for things that are like a long term vision, so it could be on emphasis on innovation and being first market. Or it could be more about putting out higher quality products that take longer to get to market. Maybe it is about being one company and collaboration and teamwork. Or maybe the company's a little bit more focused on an entrepreneurial aspect where you're working in smaller groups and you're more nimble or some companies have the philosophy of customer first, others air focusing on employees first because happy employees mean happy customers. Companies are also going to have goals that they put out. Probably a recorder. You might see it in a town hall or a newsletter. Here's a more short term. Could be things like a focus on certain key brands or a new product launch. Or maybe they're trying to boost employee engagement. I want to give you three scenarios. I'm gonna keep this simple. We're just going to look at one value and won gold for these scenarios. And for each of this, I want you to pick to yourself working in customer service. So here's scenario Number one. Let's say there's a value of teamwork and a goal of a new product launch. Another department comes to you and says, You know what? We could really use your skills on this launch. Can you come and help us now? You know, if you say yes to that, then it means your daily tasks become a lesser priority. So what do you do? The answer is yes. With the value of teamwork. Didn't say customer first, said teamwork. It means that you should be aligned with that value and help the other team. They're here. Scenario number two. Let's say this time the value is customer first, and you still have the same goal of a new product launch. The other department comes to you and says, Can you help us? Well, what you do on a daily basis is aligned with the company value. So you have to make that your priority. And the answer would be no. Now here's scenario Number three. What happens when there's a value of teamwork and there's a goal of improving customer service? Okay, this is when you're in a really great position, because now you can go to the other department and ask for them their help. And that shows you taking initiative. It shows you showing leadership, and it makes you the company hero. I just want to make sure that you're communicating with your manager and making sure that everybody that needs to be informed is. But if everybody is aligned with values and goals than it should be smooth sailing Now I know that often companies have more than one value more than one goal, and when you put that all together, it gets a little bit more complicated. But if you analyze the situation. This should be one value that really stands out and use that as you got in principle. Now, once you've got these values and goals, it's really handy if you keep them close so you could pin it on your board or keep it on your desk or even make it as your screen saver, because when they're readily available in your head, every time you make a decision, you'll be able to do it fast before you get to the next lesson. I want you take a moment and just reflect on your company values and goals and your own workplace. Is there a decision that was recently made, or maybe one that's coming up? And how did that? How does that decision align with those values and goals? And are you on the right path, or do you have to change it a little bit? 4. Personal values & goals: e. I hope you had a chance to work to some of your own work examples between the two videos and thank you for your effort if you have well done. And if you did find it a little bit of a struggle, you might find it easier after this following video, which is the same sort of layout. But based on your personal values, So what you can do at home? I have a couple questions for you. What is really important to you? What are your core values a lot of people would go towards like, How do you feel about your family and loved ones? Or health and wellness, personal growth, spirituality and connectedness, Your career work, money? Maybe all of those things are important to you, and you can put them in order where you can start to think. Well, how do I prioritise these values? And do I have any other key things that are really important to me that are consistent through my life? A lot of our values are instilled from our parents, so I want you to really focus on what is important to you, not necessarily what has been important to your parents and has come to you through their teachings. It's really important to find your own self and your own ideal self. So if there's a goal of somebody that you really the characteristics that you really want to become, keep that in mind to on your trying to figure out your own values, make sure it's your own ghouls. On the other hand, the's change a little bit more from time to time, their outside of our key values, and it's really good idea to reassess thes seasonally. So at the start of spreading your summer fall winter, take a look at your goals and figure out what do you really want to accomplish that season ? There's a simple equation that could really help us make great decisions, and that is the your value. Plus your goal equals your best decision. Now I gave you the example earlier about my house sale. My value for that was enjoying experiences over materialistic things. My goal for that was to create a freedom lifestyle, something that I really enjoy and a day to day basis. So not, you know, workaholic are hustling and stressed out all the time, so my best decision in that scenario was to sell the house and switched to renting and investing. These guiding principles can lead to some really, really big decisions in your life and really affect your lifestyle and the type of person that you are your ideal self. So it's really important to put a lot of fall into it. What do you started thinking about your own personal values and your own personal goals, and we'll come back to them later in our class project. But if you've got some fresh in your head right now, just started scribbling them down. We'll refine them later. Now, the next video, we'll be talking about a few tips that will help decision making go even easier. But before we get there, I want you to think of some personal examples similar to what we did between the last video and this one. Think of something that you've got either coming up in your life or your experiencing now, or maybe something that you've made a decision on recently in the past and consider having aligns with your values and your goals. 5. Three key bonus tips: are you learning a lot so far to go on. A bonus, hopefully answered. Yes. Awesome. Keep watching your best truth. I've got three tips for you to use as well as your guiding principles to help you make great decisions. Fast. First up is about listening. I want you make sure you get all the information you need to make your decision. First, be curious. Ask questions. Listen empathetically, Which means listen emotionally to what somebody is telling you. Not necessarily just their words. And remember, it's like being at a doctor. You don't want the doctor to prescribe a solution before they heard about all the symptoms . So listen to you get all the information that you need before you make your decision. Before you prescribe that solution, don't try to fix a problem for you know what the real issue is. That's tip number one. Number two. You know what? It's OK to decide to the side later. In that example, I've given you with my house sale. I asked for 24 hours to make my decision. It is not OK is to leave somebody hanging while you're waffling around procrastinating on on making your decision That's not OK. It leaves the other person really up in the air uncertain, and uncertainty is not a good feeling for any of us. So if you want to decide to decide later, fine. But put a time frame on it and let the other personnel with that time premise and number three make a mental model. So if you know ahead of time that you're going have to make a decision, you know you're heading into the situation. It could go this way, could go that way and you're going after the side. Think about ahead of time, how you're going to react to that situation. What are you going to say? How are you going to say it? Here's an example of how many post a situation when I was working full time, and somebody from another department asked me if I could put a team on a project that waas to their department a major priority. But I knew that to the company as a whole. It was a lesser priority, and my team was already working on some pretty high priority projects. So I asked that requested that help me think through and rationalize how pull the team off of the priority project and put on theirs. I went through all the company values in their goals and objectives, and the requester looked at me and said, You know what? I see your point. This is a very difficult thing for me to rationalize, even though when I came to, it felt like it was very important. And the result he scaled back to request by a lot. Now I think we often think of the company hero as this person who says yes and then over delivers. But being a company hero also takes great leadership and respect, and knowing your value isn't being in line with them of being able to make these quick decisions really helps get that leadership in respect. So I hope these tips help you make great decisions fast. And in the next video, we'll go over class Project 6. Our class project: thank you for staying with me right up to the last lesson in this class and the class project notes or below one You to grab a piece of paper and on that piece of paper, write down a few the values that are really personally important to you now we talked before about it could be about family or career or spirituality. Whatever it ISS currently or what you want it to be. Get those thoughts down on paper. Writing it down will help solidify it in your subconscious so it will come back to you more easily in the future. Then, once you've got those, do the same thing for your goals. I want you write down a few goals that are really important for you for the next few months for this season. Now these will you'll reassess regularly, and once you've got those written down, take a picture of that piece of paper and uploaded into her class, and we'll be able to share different things that are important to us and see what's important to other people, which will also help us think more fully about what's important to us. So keep that piece of paper with you in a place where you can see it regularly and use it as your guiding light. Every time you make a decision, go back to it and make sure that it's what you're doing is always in line with what's truly important to you. Will help you be more of a leader, a hero at work or in your family. And your achievements will be more effective because they'll be in line with what you want and you'll be able to put more energy into what you truly love in a less stressful way. Also, please post your questions or comments in the comment section, and now that you've set yourself up to make great decisions instantly, I wish you the best in life.