Do-er's to Decision Makers

Great leadership is not about making every decision. It is also about teaching others how to make good ones.

In this episode, Nicky Miklós breaks down why decision-making sits at the heart of effective leadership and business growth. She shares a simple but powerful decision-making triage that helps leaders cut through noise, prioritise what actually matters, and build teams that think for themselves.

You will learn how setting clear parameters and asking the right questions can remove bottlenecks, boost productivity, and create true team autonomy. This is a practical episode for leaders who want to step out of constant decision fatigue and into confident, healthy hustle.

Key Takeaways

• Strong decision-making is a core leadership skill, not an optional extra
• Autonomous teams free leaders to focus on strategy and growth
• A decision-making triage helps separate urgent from important
• Clear boundaries give teams confidence to act
• Three guiding questions sharpen better decisions
• Feedback strengthens decision-making over time
• Empowered teams perform better and take ownership
• Coaching decision skills builds long-term independence
• One size does not fit all, frameworks should fit the team

Learn more about Nicky at nickymiklos.com

Grab The Growth Code™ here!

Get your a copy of Healthy Hustle: The New Blueprint to Thrive in Business & Life at www.healthyhustle.com.au

Connect: LinkedIn | Instagram

Contact: 0403 191 404 | hello@nickymiklos.com

Music by Jules Miklos-Woodley

Transcript

Nicky Miklós (00:26) 

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Smart Business Growth Podcast. As always, I'm so thrilled that you've joined me. Thank you for tuning in and hanging out with me each week or whenever you watch these YouTube videos or listen to this podcast. I really, really appreciate it. And I absolutely love having these conversations with you, even though right now it's one-sided. 

But as always, please feel free to reach out and let me know what has stood out for you, what you've loved, what you've implemented, and all those cool things. 

Today, I want to talk about decision-making. Now, decision-making is really a key part of being a successful and effective and high-performing human being. And yet, it's so easy for us to get stuck on the fence, to not be able to either make decisions confidently or for your team to not make decisions confidently. The amount of conversations I have with leaders where they tell me, wish that my team would just make the decision and run with it, go for it. And we even talk about this in Healthy Hustle, the book that Ness and I wrote, where we talk about how do you move your team from just doers to decision makers. If you can actually create an autonomous team, empower your people to make those decisions, then there's a ripple effect that means you as a leader are not drawn into the weeds as often as much you can untangle from the weeds. You can step back into your zone of genius and focus on the bigger picture. Maybe it's the helicopter view or getting on the balcony of your business without getting caught into the day-to-day juggle, the day-to-day busy trap. But it's so much easier said than done. And so today I want to talk to you about creating your own decision-making triage or process or steps from two different angles. 

One of them is for yourself. So the other challenge I see leaders face and business owners face is that you're so busy. You're so again, tangled in that web of hardcore hustle culture that it can get really tricky. And we don't often have the brain space to treat all tasks not as equal. Let me say that in a better way to really decipher what are the important tasks and actions, those that will move you towards achieving your goal versus just getting swept in the busy and focusing on anything and everything. I know as I'm saying this, it sounds like Captain Obvious, but have you ever felt those days where honestly, you're just in such emotion of this task, this task, next, next, next, that you are moving through your day like a whirlwind. You get to the end of the day and think, my gosh, what happened? And there's not a lot of intentional deliberate awareness about what tasks you're focusing on. So, The decision-making triage, I'm going to challenge you in the nicest way possible to set your own. I've got one and I'll share with you what that looks like. And then also set one for the team, which is a little bit different. So it might not be about prioritizing what to focus on. Now that could also be relevant and value. So you might work with your team on having a decision-making triage in that aspect as well in that context, but also for the team, it's about am I confident in making this decision without having to check in with a leader. The first thing I would say about that is give some context, give some parameters, provide some boundaries. You if we think about a bowling ball in a bowling alley, we've got those guards, we can put the guards up to go, okay, I'm gonna throw this ball. I can use my own technique. I can throw it hard, soft, high, low, whatever it might be. got, I know where I need to go. I know I need to get this ball. down to the end and hit as many pins as possible. But I've got some safe rails, I've got some safeguards up that if anything pops up outside of these parameters, then I will go and talk to my leader about it. So be super clear on what actually are the parameters is the number one aspect of making sure that you're setting your team up for success. The idea of a decision triage is for there to be a little process, some questioning, some self-reflection. before making that decision of yes or no. Now you can also put your own safeguard and your own safe rails up for your decision making triage, but it's not as necessary because obviously you're making the decision. So typically for you as a leader, your decision triage will be around moving through the chaos, wading through the massively growing to-dos and really identifying what is the number one priority so you don't get stuck. or in procrastination or stuck doing low to no value tasks. And for your teams, it's about giving them the context, the parameters, the guard rails, so they don't have to check in with you for every single thing. Because the goal here is to create an autonomous team. When we look at peak performance, peak performance, high performers, that means that there's autonomy in the team. They are empowered to step up, which means you can step back and you can focus on other areas instead of all being drawn into the weeds. Again, we do talk about this in healthy hustle. So let's think about this. A decision triage or a decision filter, whatever you want to call it, is really think about it like a triangle. And you can even draw it out. I've got one on my computer, on a post-it note to remind me. There's three simple questions that we want to ask ourselves. So really this is as simple as getting clear around what those questions need to be. 

If we focus on you as the leader first, so think about the purpose of setting this decision triage. Is it because you're wanting to stop procrastinating, not be stuck and focus on, you know, better quality tasks? Is it actually that as a leader, you have so many opportunities coming your way that you need to differentiate which ones are the ones that I want to say yes to? 

As we get busier, as we progress in this modern day life that we live in, it is chaotic and there's so much thrown at us. And one of the key things that I've talked about a few times in different podcast episodes is really making sure that we have good boundaries. And sometimes we have to say no, even to the things that we want to say yes to. Sometimes we're saying yes to everything because we don't have capacity to stop and think. Sometimes it's because we're people pleasing. We want to... 

Please everybody, there's so many different reasons that are driving why we continue to say yes as a leader or perhaps why your team is still saying yes to everything and everyone. And so that's the point of this decision triage to cut through that noise. So examples of what those three questions could be for you as a leader and maybe you coach your teams on this as well. 

The first question, which is probably relevant for all of 

them, 

Is this moving me towards my goal, towards my outcome objectives? Like think about what that goal is. Is it a revenue target? Is it a service target? Is it overarching strategic goals? What is that big hairy audacious goal or that wildly important goal that you are shooting for this quarter, this half year, this year, however you play it out, is it moving me towards that goal? 

Now the idea is you get a clear yes or no. 

You cannot answer maybe. If it's maybe. 

it's probably a no, but you need to get a clear yes or no. Then you think of a second question. So for example, for my decision triage, 

and being deliberate in the type of work that I choose to do and the clients that I work with, that's a big focus for me at the moment. So for me, my second question 

is, do I feel good about doing this? So is it moving me closer towards my goal? Yes or no. Do I feel good about doing this? Yes or no. And then the third one for me, and again, you might use this as inspiration, you might do something similar, or it could be different, that's fine, you're creating this for yourself. The third one for me is, 

If I say yes to this, is it helping me keep my hustle healthy? 

So no surprises, that's super important to me. 

And the healthy hustle again is about making sure we do get results, but we do it in a way that feels good. We're not sacrificing time, health, know, time with loved ones, doing the things we enjoy for the sake of results. So for me, my decision triage is, it moving me towards my goal? Yes or no? Is it, do I feel good doing it? 

Yes or no. And if I say yes, is it helping me keep my hustle healthy? Yes or no. Now here's the thing. If I get three yeses, guess what? It's a yes. It's a hell yeah. Let's do it. Let's go for it. If I get two yeses and one no, it's most likely a yes, but I need to think about it. If my no is that it's not moving me towards my goal, I have to think about is this a strategic move to continue to do this? And maybe it is. 

Maybe it was something that really is going to make me feel good and I'm passionate about it, even though it's not going to help me achieve my goal. Or perhaps the know was that it won't help me keep my hustle healthy. That's a decision I need to make. Am I worth that sacrifice short term? And if it is, I can at least intentionally put some guardrails and boundaries around making sure it's short term. But you can see already that by actually considering 

these three questions, I'm being intentional and even if I'm breaking some boundaries short term, I can put some things in place to take care of future Nicky That's the idea with this. That's the goal around this is that we're making really smart decisions. And of course, if I only got one yes, chances are that it's a no. And be aware of the feeling that comes up for you as you consider this, you know, why 

Are you, it might be, okay, I'm relieved. Great, then you know that's the right thing. I'm disappointed. Okay, look into that. Everything is feedback. How we respond or react to something is feedback. 

So as a leader, as a business owner, you can come up with your own decision-making triage or decision triage. I also call this the direction filter. We're filtering through the decision through really important perspectives to make sure we're making the right call at the end. 

Now you may resonate with some of the things I talked about around what the decision triage or direction filter is for, or you might come up with your own. Like really think about what are your potential growth areas or barriers when it comes to decision or managing your energy and your time effectively. Talked about that in a previous episode. And what's the barrier or where do you want to get better at? That's what you want to create your decision triage or direction filter around. 

So that's for you as an individual, as a person. When you look at your team, it's the same process, but think again about the behavior that you're wanting to really drive in that team. So is it prioritization? Then maybe it's similar. it about, well, the process, the structure is the same, but is it about prioritization or is it about just making a confident decision and not having to check in with you? So you could have, 

two different decision triages for each of those key things. So think about as an example for your team, if it's, need my team to just make decisions confidently and not come and check in with me so much. 

Question number one is probably always aligned with does this move me towards my goal or does this move our team or us towards our goal? Side note, you've all got to be really clear on what that goal and objective is for this to work. So it might highlight some gaps for you, if you will. So does it move me towards our goal or our team towards our goal? The second question could be around, does it align with our values? Again, you've got to have really clear values. 

So does it move us towards our goal? Does it align with our values? And then think about what the third question could be. Maybe it's something like, does it meet our service delivery standards? Or does it meet our client first focus? 

Does it actually consider our clients' needs? Yes, it's moving us towards our goal. I'm doing it in a way that meets our values. So that's a good check-in around behavior and we're still keeping clients in mind. So it might be... 

a certain criteria that you have. Again, you've got to make this unique to your particular business and your particular team. It could be around a specific KPI, you know, 

but you probably wanna make it not too granular enough that they can overlay this decision triage across a variety of different decisions that they have to make. But a good way to think about this is what are the decisions that you are hearing that they're coming to you for a lot? And then what would be the three questions that you could ask them or they could ask themselves to make that decision and land on an outcome? 

Now the other cool way that you can use this is in the interim, can take time for your team to move from doers to decision makers. And so they might still come and check in on you. A really great way to embed the decision triage within your team is to ask them those exact same questions. And that's a mini coaching session for them to get their own answer. So if they come to you, you ask them, is this moving us towards our overarching goal? Yes or no? 

Great, is this aligned with our values and ways of working? Yes or no. And is it whatever the third criteria is, meeting our client delivery standards or client first focus? Yes or no. Now, again, you might completely change those questions because you know your business best and you know your team's best. But can you see how if you give them the guardrails, 

You say, is why I'm confident in you making this decision. You give them the three step decision triage. And then if they continue to come to you, you're asking those questions, you're not making the decision for them. You're then training them and teaching them and coaching them to coach themselves around making this decision. Again, now if it's for team and it's around prioritization, similar thing. Probably you're going to start with, does this move us towards our goal? 

Maybe there's something in terms of being able to identify important versus urgent tasks. So sometimes it's really easy to get swept up in urgent or urgent for someone else. So really think about what questions you could ask for prioritization that are unique to the way that your team works. So that also means that you might have one team that has a different set of decision triage for prioritization than another team. 

I trust that this makes sense and that it's helpful for you. Really to summarize, you can come up with your own as a leader. If you are wanting that framework or filter to be able to look at making the best decisions for you in terms of where you're focusing on or who you're working with, you know, really being able to tailor that to you personally, and then also using the same framework to help your teams step up, be more autonomous. 

be empowered in their decision-making, be empowered in their prioritization so that they step up, you can step back and you can focus on the balcony. Get on the balcony of the business and be really looking at those bigger picture aspects. I'd love to hear how you go with this. Have a great week and I'll see you next week.