How To Manage The Five Filters That Influence Your Business Decisions

Filters. We all have them and look through them at the world around us. We are a

product of the socioeconomic environment in which we were raised and the fortune or misfortune of personal and professional events. We use these filters consciously or subconsciously to make countless business decisions each day.

Our business success hangs on our ability to identify the filters through which we make decisions. Business leaders must develop a finely honed situational awareness of filtering and the environment that triggers filtering. Only then can an we develop an effective strategic plan to neutralize the filters and make objective decisions.

Here are five common executive filters through which we make business decisions:

You Are Distracted

I am tired, worried and spend too much time on email! Have you said that lately? Distractions are a major filter that can lead to poor judgment. Internal distractions lie withing the boundary of our skin. We can correct stress and fatigue caused by poor diet, sleep and organization. Use a food diary, fitness coaching, a sound pre-bedtime routine, less caffeine and better email management. We have limited control over certain external factors that cause distraction including lighting, noise and economic events. You just can't change some external distractions so your effort is better spent developing tools to manage your reaction to these issues. Your brain has limited capacity to resist temptation, delay gratification and make decisions. You can run it to empty like a sports car fuel tank after a day full of distractions. Know when it is time to fill it up.

You Are Sunny Or Blue

We can be in a good or bad mood. Executives are not immune to feelings of joy, sadness and other common human emotions. You must recognize when a mood filter is in place and adjust decision making to account for your state of well being. Feelings of excessive happiness or gloom can be especially harmful during financial decision making. The executive can suffer buyer remorse after a major business purchase or financing if the mood filter fogged the decision making process.

You Don't Know What You Don't Know

Researchers have confirmed that we each have a set of beliefs and expectations through which we filter our decisions. Confirmation bias is the technical term for this trait. In simple terms we make decisions through the filter of looking for evidence in others and events that we expect to see. If we believe people are generally reliable we may give someone responsibility for a major project who has no history of handling that level of responsibility. We may look for reasons to make a questionable investment and ignore the financial warning signs. Executives who filter through preconceived ideas are practicing a form of mind reading without fully knowing the other person or the event. The solution is to be open minded and seek to know all the players and the landscape as fully as possible before making a decision.

Your Style Clashes

Communication and leadership styles are rooted in life experiences, brain structure, culture and gender. Executives can activate a filter when they are unaware of the impact of their leadership style. Your followers may hesitate to make key contributions because of a clash in style which can lead down a path of subpar decisions. You may discount valuable team member feedback simply because you don't like their business style. Style differences can be found in how we communicate, dress, manage, socialize, lead and follow. The key is to recognize and manage your response to style differences and not eliminate them. Seek to know and appreciate your executive style and the style of others.

You Pick Up Your Sword and Shield

The desire for self preservation is one of the strongest filters. When we feel threatened or unsafe we view our environment through a filter of survival. Many times our danger signals are misplaced because of past experiences in a similar situation. Our response is colored by the filter of fear leading to imagined pain from separation, loss or even death. The successful executive can separate fact from conjecture and develop effective responses to the fear based outcomes. A healthy dose of self-esteem is an effective antidote to the self preservation filter.

Be aware of your filters. Simply noticing your distractions, mood, beliefs, style and fears is the first step to making better business decisions.

by: Michael Shelton

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