Decisions are hard!

It’s official! I have a wolverine. My son, James, has accepted his admission into the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

I am having all the feels. I am kvelling, extraordinarily proud, excited for all that is to come, and a little sad and anxious that he will be so far away. I am also relieved that he finally, FINALLY made a decision.

Sometimes having too many options can make a decision even harder. He had a great run and was accepted into 10 schools, waitlisted at 2, and rejected from 2. Based on the past few years, we were not anticipating so many choices.

We tried different strategies to help him:

• We created a list of criteria to compare schools, but he had trouble deciding what criteria was most important to him.
• We went online and did research comparing each program.
• We looked at school and major rankings from multiple sources.

All that helped him narrow it down, but he wasn’t ready to commit. So, how do you make a decision?

This past weekend we attended admitted students’ day. He met future classmates, attended a class demo with a professor, ate in the dining hall, had a tour, and asked questions.

At the end of the event, his first words were, “I’m hesitating.”

I had one more idea up my sleeve to help him. My neighbor’s daughter is a senior at Michigan, and I arranged to meet up with her after the event. She sat with us for an hour sharing her experience, alleviating his concerns, and somewhere in the middle of the conversation he turned and said, “I’m going here.”

The excitement and relief on his face was everything! I am actually tearing up writing this.

Always looking for the lesson, here is what I took away from this experience:

1. Give people room and time to process information and draw conclusions.
2. Come at a decision from multiple angles, you never know which will work for you or them.
3. Stay curious and keep asking questions.
4. Ask for help and talk to those with experience.

Decisions are hard, try these tactics as you are thinking about your next big decision. Now I start this process all over again with my younger son, wish me luck!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michelle Tillis Lederman, (CSP, PCC, SCC, MBA) is an expert on workplace communications and relationships. Named by Forbes as one of the Top 25 Networking Experts, and one of the Top 30 Communications Professionals in the World by Global Gurus. Michelle is a speaker, trainer, executive coach, and author of four books including The Connector's Advantage and The 11 Laws of Likability. She was invited to the Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coaches Group, “100 Coaches Community brings together the world’s premier leadership thinkers” to seek ways to advance positive impact and give back to society. 

An executive coach, people expert, and CEO of Executive Essentials, Michelle inspires organizations and individuals to build real relationships and get real results. Having worked with fortune 500, non-profit, university and government clients she’s identified the common struggle… it’s people challenges. When asked by her young son what she does, she simply replied, “I help people work better together.” This purpose has driven her work with clients large and small including JPMorgan, J&J, Deutsche Bank, Michigan State University, MetLife, Sony, Ernst & Young, the Department of Environmental Protection, and Madison Square Garden.

She received her BS from Lehigh University, her MBA from Columbia Business School, holds the PCC designation from the International Coaching Federation, and is certified in Marshall Goldsmith’s Stakeholder Centered Coaching method. Executive Essentials is a certified Women Business Enterprise.

You may also contact Michelle at Leadership Speakers Bureau to schedule her for speaking or leadership engagements.