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When at work, we are routinely making decisions. And the higher up we are on the chain of command, the more decisions we have to make. Everybody has a framework they use when making a decision, something to help guide them and orient them toward a solution.

To be effective at making decisions, some psychologists and business experts say it is important to first define the problem you are dealing with. The way you define a problem orients you toward what kind of solution you look for.

Positive and Negative Decisions Making

For example, one way of looking at business operations is to examine what is working well and looking at how you can improve on it. This is a more optimistic approach – it assumes you can always improve on the current situation and make things better.

The other perspective is to look at your operation and ask how you can reduce your costs and risks. It looks at how to prevent things from deteriorating, rather than how they can be improved. This takes a more pessimistic view of things.

One Type is Better

At first glance, you might assume that you should use both approaches when looking at business operations, but studies have shown that the first is actually more effective than the second. Looking at how to improve upon the current situation leads to better results than just looking at how to prevent problems.

Using the improvement approach resulted in much greater employee satisfaction than the stop-loss approach. Employees reacted much more favorably when looking for ways to improve things and were much more productive when doing so.

When hiring, then, you would want people who are good at using this kind of approach, experienced at it. Business experts recommend including positive decision making as a trait desired in the job description, as well as questioning job candidates about their decision making approaches.

Managers also should include decision making assessments in performance reviews. A good way to do this is with a 360 degree performance appraisal, and possibly using something like a 10 point scale, where 1 is making decisions without regard to improvement, and 10 is having a strong orientation toward improvement in decision making.

Winston Resources. If your New York City company is looking for qualified and dependable employees, Winston should be your first port of call. Winston has a sterling record of service to businesses. We know how to assess job candidates to fit your needs. Give Winston a call today.


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