Do you find yourself “agonizing” over decisions, looking for the “perfect” option? If so, satisficing could serve you well. Satisficing is the skill of recognizing “good enough.”

What Satisficing Is

To help you understand what satisficing is, let’s contrast it with maximizing.

When maximizing, we:

• Push ourselves to get the very best our of every decision

• Examine every possible option, whether it is realistic or not

• Often delay decisions to get more and more information

• Second guess ourselves after we make the decision, thinking there could have been a better option.

What‘s interesting here: maximizers do make good decisions. They also tend to be less happy with those decisions than the general population. While trying to achieve “great” results, they make themselves miserable. (Ironic, huh?)

Satisficing is an alternative to that. It’s the skill of finding “good enough” and taking action with less regret.

Why Satisficing Matters

Maximizing tendencies are a real threat to executive leaders and business owners. Why? Because their role is to be a daily decision-maker. When maximizing, unresolved decisions start to pile up, along with second-guessing past decisions.

• As a consequence, a growing sense of ineffectiveness creeps in.

• And, considerable emotional energy is spent in rumination.

Satisficing is a self-care strategy. It provides a realistic option to the message that the only way to success is to maximize everything.

How to Practice Satisficing

1. Create your short priority list. I recommend 3-5 criteria, max.

2. Look for what meets that criteria.

3. It helps when you can treat things like a “small experiment”

4. Sometimes we maximize because we fear the consequences of an imperfect decision. Remind yourself: I’m not going to break this so bad I can’t fix it.

Here is an example. I recently decided to purchase a bicycle so I could ride on a local bike path. Knowing my tendency to maximize, I made a short list of priorities:

• I wanted something that would be good for local bike paths

• I wanted something in a certain price range

• I wanted to buy it from a local shop, so I could make this about the local community as well as exercise.

When I walked into a local shop a few weeks after making this list, I saw an entry-level bike on close-out sale. I quickly purchased it with a smile on my face. No looking back.

I realize the decisions we make as leaders have greater consequence than purchasing a bicycle, but the principle of satisificing still works.

Here’s the takeaway: When you learn to recognize “good enough,” you make life better.

For Reflection

• What decisions do you second guess?

• How could satisficing help you with that?