Being decisive sounds like one of those vague qualities like business sense, or acumen, or charisma which you are either born with or without.

Fortunately, decisiveness is a management art that can be learned. Many management decisions are very easy. It is dealing with the tricky decisions where you prove your worth. Faced with a tricky decision, managers will usually ask themselves a series of questions which will soon decide the answer:

• Do I recognise this pattern? Much of management is pattern recognition. Once you have seen the same movie several times, you know what happens next. Decide accordingly.
• What does my boss want? At worst, this can lead to a game of second guessing which is counter-productive. But you should have a clear idea of the priorities of the boss and of the firm as a whole: this may guide you in one direction or another.
• What does my team want? If the boss is indifferent about which course of action is best, then talk to your team. It is better to run with a decision which they believe in and are committed to than imposing a decision that may be marginally better but they hate.
• What are our values? Most firms have basic beliefs about what is right and wrong: does your organisation put profits, staff, customers, the environment or something else first? There is always a pecking order of values that should guide you.

Inevitably, these questions may give conflict­ing guidance. At which point it is worth remem­bering that decision making is not a rational act in most organisations. It is a political act which speaks volumes about perceived priorities. A decision is only as good as the extent to which it is accepted. The more marginal a decision is, the more important it is to build a coalition in support of the decision. You have to spend time working key decision makers and influencers in private to come to agreement. The moment you let them take a public position, they are committed and will find it hard to change their view without losing face.

If you have to hold a meeting, never use it to make a decision. If you give people a decision to make, they may make the wrong decision. Use the meeting the way the Japanese use meetings: to give public confirmation to the agreements that you have reached in private with each person before you called the meeting. The meeting is about making commitments, not making decisions.