Workplace Culture | Leaders Take on Decision Fatigue

A particularly taxing day for a leader may mean sitting through hours and hours of meetings where they are asked to make enough decisions to make their head spin. They arrive home or shut down their laptop for the day and feel mentally exhausted. Then they are faced with still another decision…what to eat for dinner. And then they break their healthy eating resolution in favor of pizza delivery because they cannot evaluate and plan anything else. It just seems easier.

Researchers call this behavior decision fatigue. It is the diminishing quality of decisions that result after an individual makes too many decisions.

This common phenomenon can affect your team and the outcome of your work. Instead of accepting decision fatigue, leaders can use these guiding principles to support quick and effective decisions in the workplace.

Remember the 80/20 rule.

Otherwise known as the Pareto Principle, this rule predicts that 80% of outcomes result from 20% of actions. While this principle can be applied to many of life’s random occurrences, leaders can leverage a Pareto analysis to identify the root cause of a problem before making key decisions. This decision-making principle encourages leaders to keep their business priorities (the crucial 20%) in sight and use a laser focus on what matters. It also aids leaders with perfectionist tendencies who may experience paralysis by analysis or overanalyze their options.

Use your tools.

Business researchers love a good model to make decisions, and you should too. The options are endless and range from a weighted decision matrix where you give a numerical value to the most important decision criteria, to an effort/impact grid which evaluates options based on the time or energy input and the predicted result. Using a model is not cheating and can help you simplify the decision-making process.

Delegate authority.

Leaders who hold onto all decision-making ability are more likely to experience decision fatigue. Additionally, they may be holding their teams back from growing. In passing along ownership for specific decisions to your direct reports, you are also empowering them to take ownership and accountability for their work. This is key in developing your staff and will protect you from becoming a decision bottleneck.

Let’s be clear. We all deal with some level of decision fatigue. When in a high-pressure position, you may experience it more than others. It is said too much of a good thing is a bad thing, and as it relates to making strategic decisions while under pressure, this is definitely the case. Simplifying your decision-making process will enable you to confidently make decisions without sweating the small stuff.

Originally featured in UBA’s April 2022 HR Elements Newsletter.