How to Make Better Decisions as a Founder
How to Make Better Decisions as a Founder ...When Everything Feels Urgent:
When you run a growing business, there is always something that needs your attention.
☑️Someone on the team has a problem.
☑️Sales need attention.
☑️The accounts need reviewing.
☑️Your marketing isn't quite where you want it to be.
☑️There is a new opportunity you don't want to miss.
And somewhere in the background, there is that growing list of things you know you should be doing.
When everything feels important, it becomes very difficult to know what to do first, and this is where many founders get stuck. Not because they aren't capable of making decisions but because they are making too many decisions from a position of pressure.
I have personally experienced this many times, both as a senior manager when employed and then running my own business. Fortunately in my days of being employed I went on excellent leadership training which taught me many techniques around effective decision making.
One thing in particular stood out for me which is the importance of controlling prejudice when making decisions. This starts with self awareness - knowing that you are making decisions based on what you already know. This means that new ideas may not fit with existing thinking and effort is required to see the possibilities in others’ ideas.
When Urgency Starts Running Your Business
I recently read an interesting article in Harvard Business Review about prioritising when everything feels urgent. It suggested three useful tests for deciding where your attention really belongs:
The replacement test.
Are you genuinely the person who needs to make this decision, or have you simply become the default person?
The compounding test.
Will this decision create value that builds over time, or will it simply make today's problem go away?
The fear test.
Are you genuinely unsure what the right decision is, or are you avoiding making it because you are worried about what might happen?
I think these are particularly powerful questions for founders because when your business depends heavily on you, it is very easy to confuse being needed with being valuable and those are not the same thing.
The Founder's Attention is a Business Resource
When I work with founders, one of the things we often uncover is just how fragmented their attention has become. They are answering questions, checking work, solving problems, talking to customers, managing people, looking at the numbers and trying to think about the future; often all in the same day. The problem isn't necessarily that they have too much work, it is that too much of their work requires their personal attention and that creates a dangerous cycle.
☑️ The more the founder gets involved, the less time they have to think strategically.
☑️The less time they have to think strategically, the more reactive the business becomes.
☑️And the more reactive the business becomes, the more the founder feels they need to stay involved.
Breaking that cycle requires better decision-making but it also requires a better structure around those decisions.
This is where my B.U.I.L.D Framework™ Comes In
The B.U.I.L.D Framework™ was developed to help founders create a business that can grow without everything continuing to depend on them but at its heart, it is also a decision-making framework because before you decide what to do next, you need to understand what is actually happening in your business.
B — Blueprint: What are you actually trying to achieve?
The first question isn't: "What should I do?" It is: "What am I trying to build?" Without a clear vision and strategy, every opportunity can look like a priority.
☑️A new service.
☑️A new marketing channel.
☑️A new hire.
☑️A new partnership.
☑️A new customer.
All potentially good things but good opportunities can still take you in the wrong direction.
Your Blueprint gives you the criteria for deciding what deserves your attention. If an activity doesn't move you towards the business you actually want to build, perhaps it doesn't belong at the top of your list.
U — Uncover: What does the evidence tell you?
Founders often make decisions based on what feels urgent and gut extinct, but urgency isn't evidence.
Your numbers, customer behaviour, profitability, capacity and performance can tell you something very different.
☑️Perhaps you think you need more leads when actually you need to improve conversion.
☑️Perhaps you think you need to hire when actually you need better processes.
☑️Perhaps you think you need another product when your existing offer has plenty of untapped potential.
☑️Understanding the business gives you a much stronger foundation for making decisions.
☑️You don't need to know everything. But you do need to know enough to make an informed choice.
I — Implement: What will this decision create?
This is where the compounding test becomes particularly useful. Some decisions simply relieve today's pressure while others make the business stronger tomorrow. For example, answering the same customer question yourself might solve today's problem but creating a process that allows your team to answer it without you could solve the problem for the next five years.
Training someone might take time today but developing their capability could give you more capacity for years to come.
Documenting a process might feel like something you don't have time for. but repeatedly explaining the same process is costing you time every week.
Processes help make good decisions and allow others to make them too (without you being there)
L — Leverage: Do you really need to be the one doing it?
This is where I think the replacement test is particularly powerful.
Ask yourself "If I disappeared from the business for two weeks, would this decision genuinely have to wait for me?" If the answer is no, why are you still doing it?
Delegation isn't simply about giving tasks to other people, it is about creating ownership. Your team should gradually become capable of making more decisions without you and that requires clarity about roles, expectations, accountability and boundaries. The goal isn't to remove yourself from the business completely. it is to make sure your time is spent where your judgement creates the greatest value.
D — Develop: What really deserves your attention?
While you may be able to grow to 6 figures with a small team by “winging it” as many of my clients are doing when they first come to me; the next stage of growth requires strategic thinking, which starts with going back to getting total clarity on what you want from your business.
To get to the next stage of growth; you need to be able to step back from the day to day work to concentrate on the strategy and this often involves bringing in an operations manager to look after the team so you can focus on growth without distraction.
Not Everything Deserves an Immediate Answer
One of the biggest shifts a founder can make is to stop asking: "What needs doing?" and start asking "What deserves my attention?" Those are very different questions.
☑️Some things need to be delegated.
☑️Some need a process.
☑️Some need to be scheduled.
☑️Some need to be stopped altogether.
And some decisions really do need you. Those are the decisions where your experience, judgement and leadership can make a significant difference. That is where your attention should go.
The Real Goal Isn't Perfect Prioritisation
I don't think any founder will ever reach a point where everything is neatly organised and nothing unexpected happens. That's business.
☑️There will always be problems.
☑️There will always be opportunities.
☑️There will always be competing demands.
The goal isn't to eliminate urgency.; it is to stop urgency becoming your strategy. A growing business needs a founder who can step back from the noise, understand what is happening, decide what matters most and act with confidence.
And that is one of the reasons I believe scaling isn't just about sales, systems or people. It is about becoming a better decision-maker, because ultimately, the business you build is shaped by the decisions you make repeatedly.
About the Author
Sarah is a business founder, MBA graduate and coach who has built and scaled businesses to over £8 million in revenue with teams of up to 25.. She now helps ambitious founders gain clarity, build motivated teams and create businesses that support the life they want to lead.
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☑️Recruit the right people first time so they fit with your core business values.
☑️Motivate your team and communicate effectively so they consistently deliver beyond expectations
☑️Step back from the day job and replace yourself with your team.
