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The document outlines strategies for effective decision-making, emphasizing the importance of exploring various perspectives and decision-making styles. It provides a list of 13 decision-making strategies and coaching questions to help clients evaluate their processes and consider new approaches. Additionally, it discusses the balance leaders must maintain when faced with new commitments and the personal growth that can result from the decision-making process.

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7 views

questionsamplepage

The document outlines strategies for effective decision-making, emphasizing the importance of exploring various perspectives and decision-making styles. It provides a list of 13 decision-making strategies and coaching questions to help clients evaluate their processes and consider new approaches. Additionally, it discusses the balance leaders must maintain when faced with new commitments and the personal growth that can result from the decision-making process.

Uploaded by

briancrainfan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Application Decision Making

Developing the ability to make great decisions is a key part of living a purposeful life. Here
are some questions for exploring the client’s process for making decisions.
Asking tools for
helping people look  “How will you make that decision?”
at decisions from  “What factors will make the most difference to you?”
multiple angles.  “What do you need to know to make a great decision?”
 “What would a great decision look like?”
 “How do you usually make decisions?”
 “What other decision strategies could you use? Which methods do you want to try?”

Thirteen Decision-Making Strategies


Sometimes people are unaware of the decision-making process they are using, or of what
other strategies are available. This list contains 13 common decision-making styles. Use it to help
the client identify the strategies that are most comfortable and familiar, and what new strategies
Exercise: could be explored. Running a major decision through several strategies can be very revealing.
Decision Making
Strategies 1. Rational: “What are the pros and cons of pursuing each option? Which is most
Get together with a advantageous?”
peer coach or friend 2. Intuitive: “What is your gut saying? What feels right to you?”
who faces a major 3. Relational: “How will this course of action affect the people around you? Who will
decision. First, benefit, who will be hurt?”
explore how they’ve 4. Principled: “How do the key principles and priorities you live by apply here?”
thought through 5. Alignment: “How well does this decision align with your passions, your values, and
things to this point. your calling?”
Can you help 6. Decisive: “What approach would most quickly lead you to a decision here?”
them identify their 7. Adaptive: “What decisions could be left open to allow for new information or
preferred decision- options? What things must be decided now that cannot be put off for later?”
making strategy? 8. Counsel: “What does your spouse think? How about some key friends or advisors?”
9. Team: “What do your team members think? What would happen if you decided as a
Then walk the team?”
person through at 10. Spiritual: “What decision would best align with your faith? What is God saying to
least three more you on this?”
of the strategies 11. Negative Drives: “What fears or inner drives are influencing your response?
at right. What did How could you remove those things from the equation so you can make a better
you both learn decision?”
by trying some 12. Cost: “What would it cost in terms of time and resources to do this? What
new approaches would it cost you if you don’t do this? What’s the cost if you don’t decide or let
and looking at circumstances overtake you?”
the decision from 13. Risk/Reward: “What is the payoff for each option? The risk? Can you live with the
different angles? worst-case outcome? What steps could minimize the risk if you went with this?”

Perspectives
One of the strengths of team decision-making is that you hear different perspectives on the
problem from people with different personalities or positions. Decisions taken alone tend to see
things from only one point of view. One very effective coaching technique is to walk the individual
through several different viewpoints as they approach the decision:

70 Coaching Questions: A Coach’s Guide to Powerful Asking Skills


 You are a high ‘I’ on the DiSC inventory. What would a high ‘D’ do here? How about
an ‘S?’”
 “Take two people you know well, and talk me through how they would make this
decision. What factors would be important to them? What would they prioritize?
What can you learn from how they would approach this decision?”
 “Take a few minutes and walk me through the perspectives of the people this
decision will affect. How does this change their lives? What is important to them
here? How would they feel about each option?”
 Create scenarios that illustrate the impact of the decision. For instance: “Imagine you
are a customer that’s been doing business with your firm for many years. One day
you get a notice that the policy we’ve been discussing is changing. What do you
think of the change? How does it affect your business? Your future?”
 “Imagine you are at the end of your life looking back on this decision. From that Quotes...
perspective, what will seem most important? What will seem less important than it
does now?” “One does not
 “You’ve invested a lot in this project so far. Step back for a minute and imagine discover new lands
that you had invested nothing up to this point—that it wouldn’t cost you a dime or without consenting
a minute of your time to walk away. How would that affect your decision?” to lose sight of the
shore.”
Taking on a New Commitment
Andre Gide
Leaders are people who can see opportunities and want to pursue new things to make life
richer. So when you coach leaders, you are almost always coaching busy people. That means that
when new opportunities come along, the key challenge is keeping life in balance. These questions
are focused around exploring whether to say “Yes!” to a new opportunity:

 “What’s exciting about this new opportunity? What makes this worth pursuing?”
 “What concerns do you have about this? What will it cost?”
 “How does this align with your purpose and mission in life?”
 “Take a look at this new commitment from a resource perspective. Sketch out a
plan for where the time and energy will come from to do this well.”
 “I get the impression your schedule is pretty full already—it is for most leaders. So
what will you stop doing to make room for this new commitment?”
 “Do you feel any external pressure to go a certain way? What is your heart saying?”
 “Can this wait? What are the implications of putting the decision on hold for a bit?”
 “If you say ‘Yes’ now, how likely is it that in a month you’ll wish you’d said, ‘No?’”

Being vs. Doing For More


Helping the client tune in to how s/he is being shaped by the decision itself and the process of
making the decision can be a powerful conversation.
Reframing............78
 “Who are you becoming through this decision? How is it shaping your identity?” Career Coaching...86
 “What can you learn from this process about becoming a great decision-maker?” SMART Goals........37
 “What do your emotions in this decision reveal about the inner you? How do you Values..................56
want to respond to those insights?” Probing................38
 “What does being faced with this decision now say about where you’re at in life?” Life Balance..........66

Section V: Advanced Asking Skills 71

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