Create Your Rock-Solid Decision Filter for All Requests
As a faculty member, you have constant requests coming at you – from students, colleagues, collaborators, projects, committees, not to mention family and community.
Constant requests require constant decision making.
What do I say yes to?
What do I say no to?
How do I decide?
If you’re like most faculty members, your decision filters can change for each situation.
At one point you might base a decision on what you “should” do. Other times you’ll say yes because you “can” do a good job (even if you don’t want to), and other times your decision is based on whether you have time, whether it would look good, or whether you feel strong and clear enough say no.
Unfortunately, having more ways to make decisions doesn’t make it easier.
You might say “let me think about it”, because you’re not clear whether to say yes or no.
Those “unmade decisions” weigh on you while you go back and forth in your mind how you’re going to justify – to yourself and others – saying yes or no.
Lack of clarity in what to say yes or no to, can really impact your experience of academic life.
Perhaps you are….
- saying yes to requests that drain you rather than fuel you.
- accepting requests that seem to fit, but you and your collaborator or the project itself doesn’t fit as well as you’d hoped, and you have to grind it out every day just to keep moving forward.
- overwhelmed, working hard, unavailable for your children, spouse, and friends
- starting to doubt if you know what you want
And to make it worse, you notice other professors having the same experience and might believe “this is just the way academia is”.
But something inside you thinks that just can’t be true, and, you're right.
Your effectiveness in making moment to moment, small and big decisions, is literally what creates your career, your well-being, and your future.
And there is a very different, and very effective way to do it.
Professors who consistently, clearly, and confidently make accurate decisions have 3 distinct competencies:
- They are crystal clear on their unique genius
- They do not use externally-based decision filters like “I don’t have time”, or “I can” or “I should”. Instead, they use a proven structure that puts their own unique genius at the absolute foundation of their decision-making process.
- They are able to express in a succinct, clear, and powerful way, why they are saying yes or no, by articulating their decision logic in a way that is understood and appreciated by others.
These 3 distinct competencies enable laser-quick and accurate decisions that are fully aligned with who you are at your core, and where you can make the most powerful contributions that fuel you rather than drain you.
For example, a faculty member came to us, and said: “I want to focus my time and talent for the most impact. I have three children under 7 and a husband, so more disciplined focus is important now. It’s essential that I know what to say “yes” to in terms of opportunities and team members on the journey, and that I will have the same clarity about what to say “no” to.”
Our first priority in working with her was to discover and get crystal clear on her unique genius – what we call her Pillars of Genius™. Then, we showed her our structure called the Decision Grid™. It is a simple yet powerful tool all of our clients use when a request is received, to make powerful, clear, accurate decisions.
The Decision Grid considers the most important questions at the heart of deciding whether to accept or decline a request. Which at the very least are:
- Will I be able to live my unique genius in this situation?
- Will my unique genius be valued and appreciated?
- Will my unique genius be a significant contribution to the success of this project/opportunity/person?
After discovering her Pillars of Genius™, and using them in the Decision Grid™ tool, our client said: “My greatest success was that I got Crystal Clear on what I can uniquely do with excellence and impact, and that is helping me a lot to say “yes” and “no”. I have said no to more things in 3 months since discovering my Pillars of Genius™, than I have in my entire career. It is also helping chart my future career path with supreme clarity. Outstanding!! I am so excited about what I am now enabled to do. Major victory!!”
NOW YOU:
The next time a request comes across your desk, I encourage you to pause and let go of external-based decision structures such as “I can”, “I should”, “I have time/don’t have time”. Consider placing who you are at your core – your unique genius – at the foundation of all requests you accept so that your career is aligned perfectly with your greatest area of impact and contribution.
If you are not crystal clear on your unique genius, and want to bring power, ease, and articulate decisions that align with who you are at your core, your next step is to book your Free Breakthrough Call
On the call, we will get to the source of what is blocking you from clarity, and discover the next right action to take to solve that issue.
The call is 100% free, and there is no catch.
But, it’s not for everyone.
The call is for faculty members who:
- want to focus your energy and time to be aligned with what you’re good at, what your values are, and your authentic self
- want to clearly and powerfully articulate who you uniquely are, in a way that is a contribution and benefit to your department, university, and discipline.
- are tired of trying to “get clear” on your own, and you want a rock-solid level of clarity now
- are an action taker. you push through and get the job done.
