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People face countless choices every day. Go to the gym or skip the workout? Cook in or go out? Scroll TikTok or lock in at work? An average adult makes more than 30,000 decisions each day, according to research from Case Western Reserve University.
As entrepreneurs, some of your thousands of daily decisions are far more complex. Should you pursue a certain opportunity? How do you fund that effort? In what ways do you need to adapt or pivot to keep up with industry shifts? How do you manage your risks? It’s no wonder that entrepreneurs, especially those who lead small teams, are particularly susceptible to decision fatigue.
The Cleveland Clinic defines decision fatigue as the phenomenon that results from making too many decisions every day, ultimately leaving a person physically, mentally and emotionally depleted. This is, of course, no state to lead a team in! It can harm your quality of work and well-being, as well as your team’s. A report by the Journal of Management Studies even linked fatigued leadership to a drop in productivity, revenue and profit.
Related: More Streamlined, Less Stress — 4 Essential Processes for Greater Efficiency
Stave off decision fatigue and make better choices
Here is my advice as a CEO leading a professional organization of more than 60,000 members:
Good is… good enough! You don’t have to be perfect 100% every time. Sometimes, making a spur-of-the-moment decision is essential. Businesses move so fast that entrepreneurs need to resist overthinking and be able to make a good decision in real-time. Decide what is best based on the current information you have, your team, and its capacity, and then accept the consequences. Don’t be reckless, but keep in mind that every decision can be a learning opportunity for growth and set you up to make different decisions in the future.
When do you rest? Protect space to recharge. Decision fatigue is best managed by avoiding having too many choices to make at once in the first place. Easier said than done, but putting boundaries in place to define and manage your limits, including work hours, personal time and saying “no” when it’s needed, will prevent that exhaustion from setting in. Plus, hopefully, you will be surrounded by smart people to whom you can delegate. Make decisions based on your core values and know when to uphold them.
Rank decisions based on their importance and urgency. In doing so, you will also establish a decision-making framework that will lead to more informed choices and reduce your cognitive load.
It does take a village at times — Use your support network. Seeking outside help before you’re completely burned out on decision-making is one of the most important steps an entrepreneur can take. Some entrepreneurs may make decisions too quickly without due diligence, which can result in negative outcomes. Others may feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of decisions. A professional coach, for example, won’t tell you what to do, but asks the tough questions and works with you to identify obstacles contributing to your decision fatigue.
Once challenges are identified, a coach will support you in developing a plan to help you make meaningful decisions under pressure in the future. In this case, you cultivate an accountability partner who can push you and hold you responsible for making the decisions crucial to your business and its success.
Coaching can also help entrepreneurs and leaders identify areas of their decision-making that are leading to decision fatigue. For some, it can even help a leader delegate and enable team members to make some decisions autonomously without direct involvement from leadership.
Related: Five Coaching Techniques to Level Up Your Leadership Style
Defeat decision fatigue for good
Making decisions is a part of daily life for everyone. For entrepreneurs, however, the increased quantity and stakes of those decisions can easily result in decision fatigue. Addressing its root causes and developing a system to mitigate burnout are the first steps in preventing the mental and emotional exhaustion that can debilitate you as a leader and diminish your organization’s performance and success.
Related: 3 Simple Methods To Achieve Work-Life Balance And Combat Decision Fatigue
