One thing that will hold a leader and his lead­er­ship team back is the inabil­ity to make sound and timely deci­sions. We will not only suf­fer pro­fes­sion­ally but the emo­tional drain and stress that comes from hav­ing too many deci­sions pend­ing can really take its toll on us. Note: This post is part of a series on Increas­ing Your Lead­er­ship Capac­ity. Click here for the pre­vi­ous step.

A few years back, our past COO and Exec­u­tive Coach, Dan Meub, shared a great anal­ogy with me. He said that I needed to envi­sion that I was sit­ting in the mid­dle of an octa­gon shaped room. Each wall had a door, and each door was open. Each of those open doors allowed for the heat in the room to escape — my energy was escap­ing out all of the doors. He coached me that I needed to close the doors in a more timely fash­ion. The les­son stuck and since that time I have coached many lead­ers to improve their deci­sion mak­ing abil­ity by “clos­ing the doors.”

Here are 5 steps to help you make bet­ter and more timely deci­sions.
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