A lot of people struggle with making decisions. Some are scared of being wrong. Some know too little about a topic to think they have a good perspective. Some know too much about the topic to be able to definitively plant their stake on one side of an issue. And some are just too anxious.
But I think the bar for being a "good decision maker" at most jobs is actually a lot lower than we think it is. I would bet the average "good decision maker" only gets about 60% of their decisions right, and that still makes them a really valuable employee.
Because at least they're making decisions. At least they're headed in one defined direction rather than spinning their wheels in indecision purgatory for months on end, wasting time and money in the process. If you asked ten people at a company a question, I would bet more often than not you find six of those people are too indecisive to actually lock-in an answer, and two of them lock-in an incorrect answer. So based on those totally made-up but believable figures, if you are always able to make a decision and you are able to get that decision right over half the time, you're probably a more valuable decision maker than 8 out of ten of your coworkers.
If I was a manager, I would rather hire B+ thinkers who can make a decision than A+ thinkers who can't. A Prius can beat a Corvette in a road race if the Corvette is driving in circles.
I think all of this is important for anyone with decision making anxiety to remember. Being a decision maker isn't about getting everything right. It's about actually being able to distill your thoughts down into a defined opinion, and trying to inform that opinion so it's right more often than not. In other words, being right 60% of the time isn't a bad goal.
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