Latest / Daily Influence / 577. Decision Fatigue: Protecting Your Influence by Protecting Your Clarity

Transcript

577. Decision Fatigue: Protecting Your Influence by Protecting Your Clarity · Daily Influence

• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the daily influence where our mission is to deliver a daily dose of positive influence that can uplift you personally or be shared within your sphere of influence.
• 0:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: While not every episode may directly apply to your unique circumstances, we strive to provide insights and inspiration relevant to most people's daily, weekly, and monthly lives.
• 0:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Whether you are tuning in during the morning, noon or night, the daily influence is here for you.
• 0:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Listen, share, and embrace the power of influence in your life.
• 0:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Hey, everybody, Brian Smith here with the iM team series and your daily influence.
• 0:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: Today, I'm going to talk about a topic that is something that I face on a regular basis, Renee can a test that I will come home and really amplify what I'm about to talk about, which is decision fatigue.
• 1:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: for many people, especially people who have leadership or management or high transaction work environments.
• 1:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: And you don't have to be a leader to get decision fatigue, but decision fatigue and drain us.
• 1:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: It can train how we feel about our influence.
• 1:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: It can actually influence our influence.
• 1:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I'll be as positive or as responsible.
• 1:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: As we get into that fatigue syndrome and start to try to push through our decisions, just to get to the end of the day or the end of the task list or the end of whatever it is that we're facing.
• 1:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: And look every day, we make hundreds.
• 1:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes thousands of decisions and I don't think unless you slow down and really think about this that we really realize how many decisions we make, some are small, what we eat for breakfast, what we want in our coffee and others can carry the weight of people's jobs, our businesses future, how people interpret us and what they do with that interpretation and carry on with whatever it is they're doing at that moment in futures and even our own sense of purpose.
• 2:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: can be influenced by having decision fatigue and what happens when it starts to wear us down.
• 2:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I want to talk about decision fatigue because it can erode our focus, it can erode our ability to be clear, have clarity in what it is we're trying to accomplish and it makes our mental
• 2:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: and forces us, influences us, to do things we wouldn't otherwise do, both behaviorally, transactional, even within our core values or our missions.
• 2:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: you know, as leaders, every decision influences, as individuals, every decision we make as influence.
• 2:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: So let's dive into what Fatigue sets in how we can shift to be more intentional about that moment and how we can help to overcome that struggle that we all can face.
• 3:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: And you know, I think the first thing that's really important is that we understand where it's coming from,
• 3:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: for each of us it is so unique.
• 3:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: We each have very different worlds or areas of influence, which means that the fatigue we get is subjective.
• 3:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's subjective to us.
• 3:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: One person's ability to deal with a high number of decision points in their life.
• 3:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: is different than others, but that doesn't mean that their tolerance because it's higher that they don't have decision fatigue.
• 3:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: So it's not about being in decisive, it's about being depleted.
• 3:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: It drains our cognitive energy and it really influences our emotional balance.
• 3:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: How many times have you just got home at the end of the day and your partner says to you, what would you like for
• 4:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: You don't want to make another decision.
• 4:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: You don't want to have that choice.
• 4:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: And what's funny about that is that when they round off what your choices are that they're making
• 4:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: You might find yourself feeling annoyed, and I'm not sure that that annoying is with them, it's with ourselves, because we were offered the opportunity to make a decision.
• 4:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: We gave it away, and now we can't because we're so depleted.
• 4:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: You can be smart about this, and you know that we prescribe to the smart discipline, which is, look at everything we do, and look for the specifics, a measurement.
• 4:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: attainability, realism, and timelyness, and it goes with this also.
• 4:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: You can think deeply about the decisions that are influencing you and how they're draining you.
• 4:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: You can see where that drain starts to happen or what kind of decisions seem to deplete you the most, and you can ask yourselves that.
• 4:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not how can I avoid those, but how can I prepare myself for those better?
• 5:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's through a shift in how you prepare for those decisions.
• 5:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's a shift in how you are getting information that is driving you to make those decisions.
• 5:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's in the cadence where you put yourself in situations to make decisions and maybe you can't do that.
• 5:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: And you have to adjust mindset somewhere else.
• 5:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: But they can help us, smart can help us, establish boundaries across that smart discipline.
• 5:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: And how often do we keep deciding on things that we don't need to decide?
• 5:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you can lean into some delegation.
• 5:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: You can uplift somebody else's area of influence so that that decision making roll is shared.
• 5:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: And if we systematize decision making through trust and training and upskilling and building up the people around us, then we're starting to protect our own mental energy and we're also influencing in a positive way other people's abilities where sharing with them that we trust with them.
• 6:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we might be adding to their own decision fatigue.
• 6:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: And as a leader, we can explain this issue to them and help them to understand what it means to have decision fatigue.
• 6:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: And when they start to feel it, share with them the tools to overcome it.
• 6:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: There's a ripple effect to decision fatigue that happens especially at work.
• 6:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: As I talked about when you get home and your partner asks you
• 6:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: can spill over into so many different ways in our personal lives.
• 6:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: When we're mentally exhausted at work, we often carry that home, and it goes beyond choosing dinner, it can be not just what to cook, but how do I respond to simple text messages to my family or to my friends?
• 6:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Even that task can feel overwhelming to wear, even sometimes I've seen people just shut down.
• 6:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: that will communicate at all.
• 7:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: And that ripple of influence can be taken a different way by those people in your world of influence.
• 7:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Those those friends, those families who can be affected by your own decision fatigue.
• 7:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, do those closest to you see that fatigue more clearly than you, you might ask them.
• 7:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: You might lean into your friends and family about how your behavior in certain times like right after work or during certain parts of your work cycle.
• 7:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: When you come home from a trip, maybe a business trip or in preparation for a trip or a project.
• 7:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: And by learning how you're behaving
• 7:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: begin to have more clarity about how decision fatigue is influencing you and how that influence is being felt within your specific relationships.
• 7:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: And there's a cost to decision fatigue that cost shows itself in a lot of different ways.
• 8:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: It disguises itself as urgency.
• 8:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes when we feel
• 8:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: decision fatigue, we might make decisions faster without actually being intentional about what we're deciding.
• 8:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: We make shake path of least resistance just to get the decision off our task list of our mind, out of our area of influence and drop it on to somebody else.
• 8:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: When we start making decisions faster, not smarter, but faster, just to get through the pile, that's when we start missing details, skipping communication, setting the people that we're dealing with, up to potentially fail.
• 8:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're not being smart.
• 8:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're choosing comfort over correctness.
• 8:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: We're choosing to get it off us, off and onto somebody else.
• 8:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: And oftentimes that is started with this decision, fatigue issue that many of us face.
• 8:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: So we can take a link to smartby slowing down, maintain our thought processes, keep them relative to the decision, and ensure that we're doing it timely, and if we are speeding up, check ourselves.
• 9:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Ask those around us, have it been making quicker decisions lately.
• 9:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Have they felt like they've included more risk?
• 9:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: Do they feel like you have to do more work with that
• 9:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: what it is I'm deciding.
• 9:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: So you can use examples like if you've sent an email that you wish you'd waited five minutes to reread that you're responding or reacting in ways without actually slowing down and hearing or understanding context, challenge yourselves to be contextual, contextual and your understanding, and contextual in your decisions and how you explain those decisions to others.
• 9:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: you can use smart to guide you in managing your decision process, you know, simplify, being specific, simplify, automate or delegate recurring decisions.
• 9:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'll tell you, you know, I pretty much delegate a lot of what happens in my personal life so I can have more focus in my professional life.
• 10:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm fortunate that I have a partner that allows me to do that, but you can have people that work that can help you.
• 10:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: assistance, team members, peers who you might be able to support you in building your taskless, fulfilling your taskless, getting through the pile of decisions that you have to make on a daily basis.
• 10:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: And track your decision-making energy.
• 10:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Are there certain days of the week that you feel more tired or more challenged with decisions than others?
• 10:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: What is leading to that?
• 10:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Look for those cycles.
• 10:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: You know, is there a procrastination or something else occurring in the downstream of your information flow that is not allowing you to make decisions in a more timely way that might support more balanced decision making cadence.
• 10:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: So you have to really think about what decisions you're making, how you're preparing for them.
• 11:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: where you're getting the information to make them, how that information is delivered, how it's delivered, not just when, but is it delivered with high stress as it delivered in a timely way or a smart way?
• 11:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe not every decision requires all of your bandwidth.
• 11:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's a shared process.
• 11:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Think about them differently.
• 11:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: of your area of influence, out of where you find they should be.
• 11:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Our people I ask, can you to make decisions for them?
• 11:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because they have decision fatigues or maybe they haven't been trained well.
• 11:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: So you're making decisions for others out of their ignorance.
• 11:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe if you upskill them, you remove that ignorance.
• 11:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: You begin to lesson what's happening to you in your decision-making process.
• 11:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: by adding smart, you can challenge these things, you can get into the specifics, and you can ask people around you who are causing some of the decision fitting to engage and help you to reduce it.
• 12:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: So look, decision fatigue is invisible.
• 12:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: until it isn't until it shows up in your mistakes, your tone, your relationships, in your life.
• 12:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, look, protect your influence by protecting your clarity.
• 12:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Build systems, build trust in your team, upscale your team.
• 12:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: give yourself permission to rest from the decision making process in the best decisions come from a rested mind and it also comes from a slow down and rested process, a smart process.
• 12:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: So today, take one decision off your plate.
• 12:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: Automate it, delegate it, simplify it, figure out a way to get it so that it doesn't add to the stress pile that you might have that decision fatigue that you might have.
• 13:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: And when you decide to do that, look at another one.
• 13:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: And let it go.
• 13:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Influence starts when you decide to care for your capacity, influence in this matter.
• 13:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: So
• 13:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Look at the decisions you're making and see if you can't help minimize decision fatigue in your area of influence.
• 13:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for joining me today on daily influence.
• 13:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: I hope this is a topic that you can lean into and that will help you to have more control over the decision environment that you find yourself.
• 13:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Have a great day.