Early in the COVID crisis, I sensed my clients needed a new way to strengthen their leadership impact. Women leaders were tired, stressed, and needed a different kind of support to be effective and maintain their resilience. In my heart I believed women needed more connection with peers, to be inspired by or be supportive of one another.
To come up with a new solution, I needed to turn down the volume of my rational mind, which said, “teach skills; they need skills,” so I could more clearly hear the perspective of my heart saying, “try something new; they need to connect deeply.”
Often our head says one thing while our heart or gut says another. We need a simple, fast way to figure out the source of conflicting perspectives to avoid getting stuck in the decision-making process.
A Four-Step Decision-Making Process
To better hear the perspective of my own head, heart, and gut, I created a four-step decision-making process. This simple structure was helpful because I was feeling stuck and didn’t see an obvious best solution.
Integrating reason, feelings, and intuition into your decision-making process is essential for decisions that leave you feeling balanced, confident, and resilient.
- The head is important for gathering and analyzing data
- The heart is important for aligning decisions with our highest priorities
- The gut helps you to know what is right for you
A core step in the process is to ask yourself:
- What do I think about this decision? (Head)
- What do I feel about this decision? (Heart)
- What do I intuitively know about this decision? (Gut)
The Resilient Leader Way™ Decision-Making Process:
STEP 1: Define the decision
STEP 2: Get input from head/heart/gut
STEP 3: Evaluate the input
STEP 4: Make the decision
Launching the Resilient Leader Virtual Lounge
When I used this approach myself, I was able to quickly decide how I could help my clients connect with peers and find support — the answer was to launch a Resilient Leader Virtual Lounge!
Sign up here to be on the Wait List for the next Resilient Leader Virtual program.
One of the first things I did with my inaugural Lounge group was share this decision-making process. People loved it — they experienced a unique clarity around the decisions they were making.
Assessing Your Perspective
You make a lot of decisions each day. Taking a moment to assess the perspective of your head, heart, and gut is particularly relevant to life, career, and leadership decisions — especially when you feel stuck or conflicted, or don’t have enough data.
One of my Resilient Leader Lounge participants said this process helped her feel more grounded in the decision she made. When she received pushback about her decision, she could hold her ground better and not second guess herself.
Try this process the next time you want an easy, effective decision-making process. I’d love to hear how it goes!
Click here to receive an immediate download of my easy decision-making worksheet.