Decision Making Skills

In the course of a day, you make hundreds of decisions and other problem solutions, usually based on your intuition. These are called by such names as intuitive decisions, instantaneous decisions, gut feelings, leaps of understanding, hunches, arbitrary guesses, jumping to conclusions, hasty decisions, sixth sense, quick guesses, snap judgments, and other terms. Many of these decisions are simple, unimportant, and in the habit-type class. Others are of varied importance that you make instantly because of time urgency, a good enough answer will suffice, or you correctly or incorrectly have confidence in your intuition. Often you have no control. The decision just pops up. Intuitions may also develop from observations or unconsciously over a period of time.

What Is Intuition?
There are disagreements as to what it really is. It is often difficult to distinguish between illumination and intuition. Intuitive thinking enables you to unconsciously utilize hundreds and thousands of bits and pieces of knowledge you possess in memory. Your mind functions fast, without any realization of a detailed review of a process of analytical reasoning. In seconds you can have a leap of understanding or it can warn you, encourage you, provide an answer or inkling, a criticism, a prediction, an idea, or a solution. Many intuitive thoughts may be important, so too many errors of intuition can hurt your success, relationships, or reputation for decision making skills. Therefore, it is important and up to you to develop your intuitive base.

Your Intuitive Base or Brain Skill

This is very important to everyone and especially for those in managerial positions. A good intuitive base depends on a great number of decision making skills, such as:

Curiosity A good memory Emotional stability Freedom from biases An extensive body of knowledge A variety of experience memories and accurate interpretation of them Memory of other peoples experiences and accurate interpretation of them Ability to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant concepts Good reasoning and analytical ability Creative ability

Note: The above attributes also describe a person with wisdom as well as good judgment.

Claims of Superiority for Intuitive Thinking

A few authors claim that intuitive decisions are superior to analytical ones. There is much evidence that challenges this. So dont rely on it. An intelligent person will, for an important decision, verify the accuracy of his or her intuition. It Is Important that Your Knowledge Base Include SM-4 and SM-14 The more your decision making skills include the method of complex decision making, the better will be your intuitive decisions. Also, it is more likely that you will remember that for important decisions you should verify your intuitive ideas.