Ep8 Be Decisive: Fight the Urge to Procrastinate

Send us Fan MailWhy do people procrastinate and hold back from making important decisions? In this episode, the Chief Psychology Officer shares some lessons we can all learn from decisive leaders and the reasons why people procrastinate. Amanda will also look at what happens from a neuroscientific perspective when people hold back from making decisions. Amanda will look at the data from executive assessments to understand how highly effective leaders make decisions, and offers a simple 6 step approach for coaches to work with their clients, and for individuals to try to overcome procrastination and be more decisive. Amanda will also look at the different decision styles and the role of emotions in decision making.  In this episode, Amanda is being interviewed by Tim Hepworth. The Chief Psychology Officer website is now available https://www.thecpo.co.uk/To contact Amanda via LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/amandapotterzirconTo contact Amanda via email: [email protected] more information about the BeTalent Decision Styles questionnaire please go to: https://www.betalent.com/product-decision-stylesTimestamps Be Decisive: Fight the Urge to Procrastinate 00:00 – Introduction to Being Decisive 00:29 – Are you a procrastinator? 01:07 – Researching Procrastination or Decision Making? If Decisiveness was a person… 02:24 – What does a highly decisive leader look like? 03:12 – Any decision is better than no decision 05:05 – Acting on impulse 05:36 – Problems of consensus driven businesses 06:01 – 35,000 subconscious decisions a day 06:11 – 70 actual decisions a day 06:21 – 7-10 significant decisions a day 07:19 – 10 ways of making a decision There’s a lot of control in this next bit 08:11 – 5 scales of Decision Styles 08:30 – Internal Locus of Control explained 08:50 – External Locus of Control explained 09:18 – Example of personal decision making 10:27 – Agile vs Fixed Decision Style 12:07 – I can justify anything 13:03 – Myers/Briggs scale of judgement 13:48 – Leave what you hate till last… Sorry it took so long to get to this bit! 14:02 – 95% of people procrastinate 14:09 – 25% of adults are chronic procrastinators 14:36 – Greatest risk of procrastination 15:28 – Teams pay the price of waiting 16:14 – Traits that identify procrastinators 16:29 – Perfectionism 17:01 – Example of perfectionism 18:37 – It all comes from a good place 19:43 – Question your ability 20:27 – Need for certainty & control 21:28 – Summary of the List Negative thoughts lead to negative things 22:04 – Do negative emotions impact decisions? 23:36 – Healthy Habits revisited 24:01 – What happens when we procrastinate? 24:14 – Displacement 25:04 – Procrastination or bad time management? 25:42 – Bring on the neuroscience! 28:04 – It’s stressful, but it feels so good Overcoming Procrastination 29:05 – How do we overcome Procrastination? 29:35 – Write down what you are going to do in the day 30:18 – Do what you are going to do straight away! 30:43 – Prepare and plan for the risks 31:22 – Focus on the positives 32:00 – I think I heard Warren Buffett say that… 34:13 – Summary of the tips 35:00 – The end. Episodes are available here https://www.thecpo.co.uk/ To follow Zircon on LinkedIn and to be first to hear about podcasts, publications and news, please like and follow us: https://www.linkedin.com/company/betalent-by-zircon/ To access the research white papers mentioned in this and other podcasts, please go to: https://www.betalent.com/research For more information about the BeTalent suite of tools and platform please contact: [email protected]