Entry #5 Decision Making - Rewrite

A majority of my work and future career path as a coach involves helping athletes perform and making important decisions. Sometimes these decisions can feel particularly big because they involved choosing one option to the exclusion of others when the cost of being “wrong” can be considerably important (win or loss). Making a decision of who to put in the line-up, or even a career path decision like considering job offers and deciding which one to accept are all applicable to my life right now.

 Difficult decisions like this constantly remind me about the decision making process we’ve been discussing in class. I believe it’s important to make good decisions, but I’ve learned to spend much  less time and energy worrying about “making the right decision” and more time on ensuring that the decisions I make turn out right. Before we make any important decisions, especially one’s that we cannot undo, we become anxious and focused on trying to make the “best” decision because of the risk of being “wrong.” One interesting mindset I’ve ran into that is sometimes the feeling of being overemphasized in the moment which makes me lose sight of everything that follows the decision. Understanding that selecting the “best” option doesn’t always ensure that things will turn out the way we wanted them to in the long run. In contrast, making the wrong decision doesn’t always doom us for failure or unhappiness either. I believe it’s about what happens in the next days, months, and years that follow the decision that ultimately determine whether the decision was “right.”

 Currently I have been searching for jobs and making an important life decision regarding which career path I should follow, and what will ultimately set me up for success in the long run. I have identified the problem, but defining the objectives for the solution is where I’m stuck. I know I want to start by getting my foot in the door and starting a career path in the direction of athletics. I just don’t know which direction to go because of a number of variables whether it be coaching, administration, or even operations. A lot of the decision has to be based on what job openings are out there in the area that I want to pursue. I think this decision has no wrong answer, but I could encounter set-backs along the way. Many factors have to be taken into account with this type of decision like location, salary, job requirements, experience, and finding the right fit. Involving not only myself in the decision, but family as well is a huge part of this process. Their experiences in making career choices can help me to better understand possible solutions, provide encouragement to take risks, and financial support to help me along the way.

This idea of finding the right fit and setting being able to set myself up for success all relate back to the concept of “getting the right people on the bus” discussed in Jim Collin’s book “Good to Great.” Ultimately, my goal is to be the right/great person to get on a bus that is going to allow me to succeed. Collin’s found that the great companies find a way to create roles that are essential for success and in order to do so, making sure the right people are in those seats is the key. As a young professional entering a new career, I have learned to understand that this is a priority for managers and during my interviews I need to find a way to flaunt this asset. The real question however, is determining what the interviewer’s perception of the “right” people for the organization is. Researching and asking questions about the organization can be helpful, but what really makes you stand apart from the rest of the potential candidates?  

 From my experiences as an athlete and coach, I understand that the right people are those who will work and train harder than any other athletes. They have a strong work ethic that will enable them to develop and mold into the program as well. From a coaches or manager’s perspective, identifying who the right people are and creating a process that gets them on the right bus in the right seat is important. Every organization or team has different needs so the right people may be different in one team compared to another. Sometimes I think it is easier to identify certain people in the organization who I wish I could clone and define their characteristics and traits that create this right person. My goal in the interviewing process is to determine the “right” person the team is looking for and finding a way to make my strengths align with this person.

 All in all decisions are difficult, so when I start to get those anxious feelings I try to follow a more rational analysis much like the process managers use in the business world. I envision myself in the future scenario, listen to my emotions and determine how those feelings influence my level of commitment to that particular choice, and evaluate the decision after the fact. I’ve learned we can’t always make the “right” decision, but we can always make decisions right.