Principles for Decision Making

Product managers often work in an environments where clear management demarcation lines seemingly do not exist, or are at best, blurred.  Matrix management, cross functional teams and dotted reporting lines are just a day to day reality. Add to this the current economic climate, restricted headcounts and tight budgets, getting decisions made and making them is often very challenging.

I was browsing the HBR blogs a couple of days ago and came across a posting by @tonyschwartz in which he outlines 10 principles by which you can benchmark your decision making process. These are:

1. Always challenge certainty, especially your own.
2. Excellence is an unrelenting struggle, but it's also the surest route to enduring satisfaction.
3. Emotions are contagious, so it pays to know what you're feeling.
4. When in doubt, ask yourself, "How would I behave here at my best?"
5. If you do what you love, the money may or may not follow, but you'll love what you do.
6. You need less than you think you do.
7. Accept yourself exactly as you are but never stop trying to learn and grow.
8. Meaning isn't something you discover, it's something you create, one step at a time.
9. You can't change what you don't notice and not noticing won't make it go away.
10. When in doubt, take responsibility.

His blog post is well worth a read. You can find it here.