THE DECISION TREE

Show Notes

Summary

In this episode of the Ray Sanders Leadership Podcast, Ray Sanders discusses the importance of decision making and introduces the decision tree tool. He explains how leaders are faced with numerous decisions every day and how one bad decision can have a significant impact. The decision tree tool helps leaders make better decisions by considering four categories: God, Gut, Others, and Opportunity. By rating each category on a scale of 1 to 10 and calculating the average, leaders can determine their confidence level in a decision. Sanders also explores the David Principle of waiting, watching, and being willing to take action.

Takeaways

Leaders are faced with numerous decisions every day, and one bad decision can have a significant impact. The decision tree tool helps leaders make better decisions by considering four categories: God, Gut, Others, and Opportunity. By rating each category on a scale of 1 to 10 and calculating the average, leaders can determine their confidence level in a decision. The David Principle of waiting, watching, and being willing to take action can guide leaders in making decisions.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and the Importance of Decision Making 02:12 The Role of Decision Making in Leadership 03:38 The Decision Tree Tool 09:45 Category 1: God 14:37 Category 2: Gut 15:33 Category 3: Others 16:34 Category 4: Opportunity 20:25 Calculating the Confidence Rating 25:18 The David Principle: Waiting, Watching, and Willing 29:42 Conclusion and Call to Action

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Decision Tree PDF download:

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As a CEO, he has grown multi-million-dollar organizations, led an award-winning financial institution, served in a nonpartisan role with the United States Senate and pioneered international efforts to bring clean water to remote regions of the world.

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Ray: 00:00

Hey. Thanks for stopping by, and as always, it's good to hear from you, and I have a few questions for you today. So here we go. Do you ever struggle to make good decisions? Come on.

Ray: 00:12

Be honest. Do you ever struggle with make good making good decisions? One of the best decisions I ever made, and I can't believe I convinced her, was when I asked my wife to marry me. And I don't know why she did, but I think she made a good decision. I certainly know I made a good decision.

Ray: 00:28

So do you ever have trouble making good decisions? How about this? Once you decide, do you immediately doubt the decision you have made? You know, as leaders, we are faced with thousands of decisions every day. Think about it.

Ray: 00:43

How many decisions do you make subconsciously throughout the day? It's not always about a spreadsheet. It's always not about a personal issue. It could be about some of the silliest, littlest things, where to park, how to respond to someone. The the number of decisions you make in a day are are huge.

Ray: 01:01

But one bad decision, and your world can be turned upside down. Well, I've made a career out of helping leaders make better decisions. And on this edition of the podcast, I will unpack a simple tool that will help you have the confidence you need to have to make better decisions. Hello, everyone. I'm Ray Sanders, and you're listening to the Ray Sanders Leadership Podcast.

Ray: 01:32

Hey. Thanks for coming back and joining us on today's podcast. This is another edition of the Ray Sanders Leadership Podcast. If you haven't already, hey, why not tell a friend? Share this link.

Ray: 01:42

Share this podcast. Subscribe. Do what you can to get involved. We'd love to have you a part of the Ray Sanders Leadership Podcast Community. You know, for the last 25 or plus years, I'm I've kinda stopped counting, I've spent a good part of my day helping leaders make better decisions.

Ray: 01:59

As a CEO coach and business growth strategy consultant, my focus is always on growing the bottom line and strengthening leadership teams in order to see the bottom line increased. You know, we call this process the triple bottom line. There's a whole another show we'll do on that, and I'm not gonna go into it today and we'll talk about that another time. But this is at the core of what we do and we call it the triple bottom line. I'll just tell you what it is.

Ray: 02:25

The triple bottom line focuses on profit, people, and purpose. But for today, we're just going to be talking about how to make better decisions. As you might imagine, I often serve as a sounding board helping leaders navigate the challenges they face in life and work. And just a side note here, isn't it true that life affects work and work affects life? So it it it's intermingled.

Ray: 02:52

We're making decisions all the time. Decisions we make in life affect work. The decisions we make at work affect life. And if you're a guy, if you make too many bad decisions at home, you might be sleeping on the couch. And as the old joke goes, you're gonna make you're gonna make headlines.

Ray: 03:09

What I mean by that? Well, it's because of those silly corduroy pillows that are sitting there on your couch that you tucked under your your head and you wake up in the morning, you got corduroy lines on your head. You're making headlines. Bad dad joke. I know.

Ray: 03:22

So, anyway, as you might imagine, I I talk to a lot of the leaders about the decisions that they're trying to make and I serve as a sounding board. So leaders are really decision makers. They make things happen. The decisions they make have exponential impact. So how do you go about making decisions?

Ray: 03:39

Do you roll the dice? Do you flip a coin? Do you read a horoscope? Do you throw a dart at the wall and hope it sticks? I'm reminded of the game show, you remember it, who wants to be a millionaire?

Ray: 03:52

Regis Philman would was this host. He's the one I love the most. I know they have other guys since then. But Regis would be asking someone, is that your final answer? And they would think about it and they would doubt and they would squirm in their chair and then they would realize they had a lifeline.

Ray: 04:07

They had a lifeline. They were in a pickle and they were gonna phone a friend. Is that is that how you make decisions? Do you phone a friend? Well, if we aren't careful, we can give in to the paralysis of analysis.

Ray: 04:19

We analyze, we look, we consider, and we don't end up making a decision. It's kinda like we're standing on a train track and the decision's coming towards us. Do I go left or do I go right? Do I go left or do I go right? And if I continue to set their theme, do I go left or go right?

Ray: 04:33

I look like a deer in headlights. I really suffer from the paralysis of analysis and we know how that story ends. As you know, I often like to look at the guidance from great leaders. And without question, one of the greatest leaders to ever live, hands down, was king David. And we talked about him and, on our last program as he dealt with worry.

Ray: 04:54

We unpacked how David addressed worry. Well, I wanna I wanna pick up on the life of David again on this episode. And so today, I wanna make an observation about how I think he went about decision making. Now a leadership tool that I've developed that outlines this process is called the decision tree. And we're gonna make this available to you if you're interested in getting a copy of it.

Ray: 05:17

I know this is a podcast and we're we're talking about a visual aid, And we want you to have that for, for your use. And we'll have a link in our show notes that will tie that in, to this program, and then you can go to our website or you can go directly to our website, ray sanders.com. Reach out to us, and we'll make this available to you, and we'll get this decision tree in your hands. One of the things that I I'm kind of known for is I don't like to overcomplicate things. And when you see this decision tree, you're gonna go, that's really simple.

Ray: 05:46

And you know what? You just paid me a compliment because that's what I hope it is. I hope it's really simple, and I don't want to overcomplicate it. So basically, let's let this is this is how it works. Let's say you're trying to make a decision.

Ray: 06:00

It could be a decision at home. It could be a decision about your career. It could be a decision about your business. It could be a decision about, where to go on vacation. But let's just say for our purposes that you are trying to make a decision about whether or not to acquire another company.

Ray: 06:15

Let's say your your competitor in another region or a competitor a few towns over or just across the line in another state is looking to sell his business. He's been he's been doing the business for years and you have an opportunity to acquire his his book of business. And, through this acquisition, you could grow your own. It might double your business. It might grow it by 25%.

Ray: 06:37

But it's one way to consider to grow your your business. So let's start by defining the decision. In this case, the the question is, should I buy out my competitor? Now pause. You might be surprised how many people, when trying to make a decision, can't define the question.

Ray: 06:58

They don't know what answer they're looking for. They they want it they want an answer, but they don't know the question. So we have to define what is it that we want to decide upon. If we had the answer, what is the question? If we ask the right question, we'll get the right answer hopefully.

Ray: 07:16

If we ask the wrong question, we might get an answer, but it may not help at all. So once we define the decision, what I do is through the decision tree is I break down the decision into 4 simple categories. And I use a triangle in order to make this happen. And once you see this, you'll understand what I'm talking about. But in this triangle, it's basically a triangle is the top of a tree.

Ray: 07:39

Right? It looks like a tree. And if I put a little trunk at the bottom, it would definitely look like a tree. It look like a Christmas tree. So you have this you have this triangle, and at the top of the triangle is one of the categories and in the middle is another category and then there's 2 other categories on the left and right and it's all intertwined with 4 different triangles in a large triangle.

Ray: 08:01

Are you confused yet? Bear with me. Basically, this is how it works. There are 2 categories that start with the letter g, like a, b, c, d, e, f, g. So there's 2 categories that start with the letter g, then there are 2 other categories that start with the letter o.

Ray: 08:18

When it comes to decision making, and in this case, we're trying to decide. The question we have is the question is this, do we buy out a competitor? Well, there's a lot of things to consider there. But if we take these 4 categories, I think we'll be closer to making the right decision. So here's the first category.

Ray: 08:37

Now you know a lot of my perspective comes from looking at the ancient ancient works, and I believe that king David took something I don't think he had Ray Sanders' decision tree. I'm not suggesting that. I'm just saying that he had a mindset that I think is found in the decision tree. And in the first category in the decision tree, I think, definitely is a category that David used. So here it is.

Ray: 09:03

The first category starts with a g and it's

Ray: 09:07

this. What does God have to say about this decision? You're like, are you kidding me? I have

Ray: 09:16

no idea, and now you're asking me what God thinks about this. What does God think about it? I don't even know what I think about it. Well, here's the thing. I truly believe that that we have there is a there is a spiritual being, the creator, who is interested in his creation.

Ray: 09:34

So just give me that. Now you may not agree with me, but that's what I believe. And I have a whole another faith faith line that I believe in, you know, as you probably know if you've heard me on these podcasts, but in the least, I'm a believer. Alright? And I think Jesus has a whole lot to do with that.

Ray: 09:49

Let me just tell you. But here's here's the thing. The first category starts with a g and it's god. You're like, come on, Ray. What do you mean?

Ray: 09:59

How am I gonna figure that out? Well, I think there's a lot of ways that we can begin to ask god about what he thinks about something. And and this category, I think is there's basically 3 categories, and it's 3 w's. Under god, what does his word say about it? If you wanna if you wanna find out what he thinks about things, a lot of the decisions we make, we can find just by the the laws, the principles that he's outlined from Genesis all the way to Revelation.

Ray: 10:27

A lot of the decisions that we're trying to make, especially if they're echo ethical in nature, there's no question what he would think about it. So there's one. The first w is the word. Go to the word. Go to the ancient text.

Ray: 10:41

See what the word says about it. If you haven't cracked that old Bible open in a while, maybe it's time to do so. Or get on the Bible app or Google it or find out, you know, if you're trying to decide on something, there's probably a pretty good chance, especially the book of Proverbs. The book of Proverbs has a lot to say about things that, when it comes to decision making. So the word.

Ray: 11:01

The other one is, and it

Ray: 11:02

kinda sounds churchy, but it's worship. And to me, that's that's where I get a lot of insight. And and I describe that as my time of prayer, my time of meditation, the time I set aside, honestly to try to hear from him. I wanna hear from the man upstairs. And like we talked about on our last podcast, if I just would get still.

Ray: 11:22

You see, part of the problem with most of us is we're moving around so much, we couldn't god could we couldn't even hear from god if

Ray: 11:28

we wanted to. You know? We've got so many things going on. We're so busy that we

Ray: 11:32

won't settle down long enough and just sit still and listen to God. I have friends, they'll sit down with a cigar and smoke a cigar and sit on the back porch and just you know, ask the Lord to reveal himself to them. There's all kinds of way. Go whatever works for you. Some people, they find that maybe would come through a worship service or maybe they listen to a song and they get spoken to just because they got still and they were willing to hear.

Ray: 11:59

So the first one is word, second one is worship, and then the third one, this one, you're going

Ray: 12:05

to think I'm crazy, But the world,

Ray: 12:09

the world. Have you ever been driving down the

Ray: 12:12

the road or you if you just were trying

Ray: 12:15

to make a decision about something and, like, the billboard, it's as silly as billboard, but it just speaks to you or you heard a song or you you run into somebody in the in the grocery store or you're walking out of a restaurant and someone says something to you. Can I just tell you? I think ordinary angels exist. I think God uses everyday ordinary things and people to speak to us. We just have to be listening.

Ray: 12:37

I love I love it when I hear someone say, eyes to see and ears to hear. Eyes to see and ears to hear. When we're tuned in, sometimes I feel like we're some of you out there are probably thinking, what's AM radio? But it's like sometimes I have my radio turned on to the AM dial, and I need to be on FM. I'm never gonna get, you know, the top 40 on on AM.

Ray: 12:59

I might get talk radio on AM, but I've gotta be on the right frequency. And if I have my eyes open and my ears open, you'll be amazed at how much in this first category you can hear from God. Alright. So let's move to the next category. That category is a category that also starts with a g, and that's your gut.

Ray: 13:17

Now come on. I don't know what the decision is that you're you're wanting to make, but there is it somewhere in your gut, you have a feel for what and how the decision should be made. You just kinda know. It's an intuition. You have a hunch.

Ray: 13:30

It's just a little bit of a speculation, but you just kind of feel that, you know, this might be good for us, or this is a really, really bad idea. What's your gut say about it? That's personal. I can't tell you how to deal with that, and that might be where you waffle and you go back and forth. But somewhere in there, you have a feel for what your gut would say about this particular decision.

Ray: 13:51

Alright. Let's go to the 3rd category. In the 3rd category, we need to keep in mind that there are 2 o's. And the first, o is others. So so far we're asking yourself, what does god have to say about it?

Ray: 14:05

And you're saying, I don't know, Ray. I'm not that spiritual. Well, you know what I think about that. I just told you. And then I'm saying, what does your gut say?

Ray: 14:13

You're saying, well, I don't know. I'm a waffler. Okay. That's fine. Let's go to the next category.

Ray: 14:19

What happens when you go and talk to a buddy? What happens when you go and talk to an old friend? What happens when you go and get counsel from an attorney or an accountant or a CPA or another business partner or someone in another state or college roommate that you had long ago or, I don't know, maybe there's a spiritual director in your life, someone you feel like has can give you spiritual direction. There's an old ancient scripture that also says this. It says that there's wisdom in an

Ray: 14:44

abundance of counsel. How much counsel are you getting?

Ray: 14:48

How much input are you getting? Now you may be thinking, I've got way too many voices in my head. Well, you have to discern how many people am I gonna ask. Are you gonna launch a nationwide poll and order your life according to some poll? I don't think so.

Ray: 15:03

But you know who those people are in your life that you could go to and you consider them to be wise people that could help you. So what do they think about this decision? And then finally, what about the opportunity itself? Given the example that I've given you, the opportunity would be, is it available? Is the business even available?

Ray: 15:24

Is it priced within our range? Is it a good opportunity? What's going on with the customer base? Is the is the business on decline? How's how's the business value?

Ray: 15:36

What's the valuation? Are sales up or down? Are the customers happy and satisfied? What about their physical plant? How much would we have to renovate?

Ray: 15:46

How much inventory do they have? Do they utilize a different product line than we do? These are all things that help us analyze the opportunity. And once we do that, we analyze the opportunity, quite frankly, we may decide this we're gonna run from this. We're not gonna do that.

Ray: 16:01

So, you know, you're thinking, okay. There's 4 categories, god, gut, others, and opportunity. Now here's where it gets fun. When you get this little PDF that we'll make available to you, what we want you to do is we want you to utilize each of these categories, god, gut, others and opportunity. And on a scale to 1 to 10, bear with me, on a scale to 1 to 10, if I were to ask you scale to 1 to 10, what do you think God thinks about this decision?

Ray: 16:30

You're like, holy moly, man, is everything a spiritual decision? You know what? I kind of think it is in

Ray: 16:35

a way. It affects so much. So what what do you just right now, time and space today, I'm

Ray: 16:43

not saying you have all the answers. On a scale to 1 to 10, how do you think God feels about this decision and this opportunity? So let's just say he gives you a 6. You think he would give you a 6. Then you ask yourself, what's my gut say?

Ray: 16:57

My gut says, I'll give it an 8. And you've gone around and you talked to some other people, you've you've listened to them, and they you've you've kinda analyzed it, you put it put it all together, you averaged it out, and you say, everybody tells me it's about a 7. On a scale to 1 to 10, it's about a 7. And then the last thing you look at, you've kind of done your your your homework and you decide, you know what? This is a this opportunity is about an 8 on a 1 to 10 scale.

Ray: 17:23

That's pretty good. So now what are we going to do with all those numbers? This is why it's so simple. We had 4 categories, god, gut, others, and opportunity. We rated each of those categories on a scale of 1 to 10.

Ray: 17:36

Now we've added those up, and the example I gave you was we we said that God would

Ray: 17:42

give us a 6, we gave our gut an 8, others gave us a 7, and the opportunity is an 8. 6 878. That totals 29. So what am I going to do? I'm going to divide that by 4.

Ray: 17:55

And what does that give me? That gives me a confidence of 7.25.

Ray: 18:03

Now what are you gonna do with that? On this decision, 7.25, what I would tell you is,

Ray: 18:10

if it's not greater than 8, it's not great. A 7.25 probably lets me know that I'm a little early in

Ray: 18:19

the game here, or it could be a solid no. Maybe that's all I needed. I just needed that little bit of analysis by these 4 categories in a 7.25. Man, I'm telling you, that's not where I wanna be. It's close, but no cigar.

Ray: 18:32

Right? Now there's other times there's other times that I might have given an 8, 8, 9, and 9. God's an 8. I'm an 8. Others are a 9.

Ray: 18:43

The opportunity is a 9, and I

Ray: 18:44

get an 8.5. I'm telling you, it's go time. It's go time. If it's greater than 8, it's great.

Ray: 18:50

And that probably means there's a pretty good potential for this decision to be made in a good way. Now there's always what I believe, without faith, it's impossible to believe god. And there's always that element of faith. And rarely have I seen anybody get a 9.95 or anybody get a 10. But when you start moving into the eights and above, you know you're honing in on a decision that pretty much is probably moving in the right direction.

Ray: 19:14

And I think this is kind of how David analyzed his life. Now I'm gonna I'm gonna dig into that a little bit more in just a minute. But are you with me? Let me summarize. Bottom line is we're talking about a decision tree.

Ray: 19:25

We have to define the question, what is the decision we're trying to make? Then we filter it through 4 categories, 2g's and 2os, god, gut, others, and opportunity. Then we rate what do we think God thinks about it and we had 3 w's, remember that? We had 3 w's. What does my gut say about it?

Ray: 19:45

What do others say about it? And what is the opportunity? I add all those up, I divide those by 4 and that gives me my confidence rating. And in this case that I gave you, a 6, 7, or 6, 8, 7 and 8 was 29 divided by 4 was 7.25. And I'm gonna tell you, I probably wouldn't be moving ahead with that business at this time.

Ray: 20:06

So sometimes, which is often the case, we feel confident that we are making the right decision, but the timing isn't just right. It maybe has something to do with us, it may have something to do with other circumstances, but here's what I

Ray: 20:21

can tell you. Here's what I can tell you. Would you agree? Timing is everything.

Ray: 20:29

Timing is everything. And that's where the life of David comes into play. That's where I can tie in David into this decision tree.

Ray: 20:37

What do we

Ray: 20:37

know about David? Let's do a little review here about this this leader, this leader that led a nation, was considered one of the most amazing leaders to ever live. What do we know about David? Well, here's one thing you probably know pretty quick. He was a shepherd boy.

Ray: 20:51

He was a shepherd boy and he was the runt of the family. He was the runt of the family. And one day, this man comes into their village and he decides that he thinks that the next king of Israel is in this village and David has all these brothers and David's out in the field watching the sheep and this man, Samuel, comes in and he's talking to Jesse and he's that's David's dad, and he says, hey,

Ray: 21:19

line them up.

Ray: 21:20

I wanna see what they look like. And he lines them up and he says, and I'm not too impressed. Do you got anything better? He says, well, we got the rut in the family. His name's David.

Ray: 21:31

He's out in the in the pasture. So Samuel Waltz is out there and it becomes clear to him that David is the anointed. David is the next king to lead this nation into the next, you know, the next generation. So he kind of rubs David on the head and says, hey kids, you're going to be king someday. David doesn't think anything about it and he sits on this rock and he continues to use this slingshot to knock acorns off of other stones and kind of sets out just kind of watching the sunset and rise and making sure the wolves don't come

Ray: 21:58

and eat all the family livestock. And years goes by. And what do we know? David's

Ray: 22:05

setting it home, and his brothers are off at war now. And dad's getting worried about him, and he says, you know what, David? I want you to take this bag of biscuits, to the boys on the field and let me know how they're doing. David shows up and there's this giant in his life, this standing before all

Ray: 22:22

of his countrymen. Now can you relate? Do you have giants in your life?

Ray: 22:27

Are there giants that stand before you? And sometimes I think that we're called out to be giant slayers. And I think in this particular time in space, David had a decision to make. He looked out there and he saw this giant of a man, you know the story, David and Goliath. And he's like, what is going on with all

Ray: 22:44

of you guys? Why hasn't somebody taken this Philistine out? And what happened? David says, I got this, guys. And they all laugh and they tell him

Ray: 22:53

to go home, but the king gets interested.

Ray: 22:55

And what does David do? He's offered all of

Ray: 22:59

the king's armor. It's big. It's bulky. And David's like, nah. Don't need that.

Ray: 23:03

I got my slingshot and a few rocks. I'm gonna go down down and knock this guy out, and I'll be home for dinner by the here in just a little bit. And that's exactly what he does. And then David's life, you know, he he comes into the king's court. He's a he's a favor he's favored.

Ray: 23:18

He's not only good at with a slingshot, he's pretty good on the electric harp. That's a joke. He's not electric harp, but he was good on the harp. And he's playing the harp, and the king loves him, he finds favor. One thing leads to another, he becomes a warrior, he does really good and the king doesn't necessarily like the press that David gets as a warrior.

Ray: 23:37

And he ends up being pursued, and King Saul attempts to try to kill him. And

Ray: 23:45

David's on the run. And time and

Ray: 23:47

time again, he has opportunities to take Saul out, and there's decisions that he has to make. But he doesn't want to he doesn't want to act too soon. He doesn't wanna get out ahead of what the g in the decision tree would say because David knew that Saul was the anointed and it wasn't his time to be king. But here he was waiting all this time. What was it about this man that came into his life and said he was gonna be king and now it's time goes on and on and on.

Ray: 24:14

He knows what his calling is. He feels like he has his purpose in life, but but it's not being fulfilled. And next thing we know, king Saul is out of the picture, David becomes king and we begin to see a pattern in David's life as a leader that is precedent. David, if he was known as the beloved, there's another phrase that he's known for and that he was known as a man after God's own heart. What this tells me is that I can sum up David's approach by making, this statement.

Ray: 24:46

He made decisions

Ray: 24:49

that I can describe with one word, ask.

Ray: 24:52

David was a leader that was known to ask. He would ask god. He would ask his friends. He would ask himself. He would ask about the opportunity.

Ray: 25:01

David began to ask.

Ray: 25:04

So what would he do?

Ray: 25:06

He would say, what would the lord have us do? One of my most favorite stories that are in these ancient texts that I'm referring to is a story in the in the old testament where David is now king and it's his first battle where he is called to a battle down in a certain valley and he has a a known enemy, and they need to be taken out. And David's about to rush out with all of his men, and I I'm adding to the story here. I'm I kinda think it might have been how it was, so don't quote me per se on it or I I don't I don't think he's exactly right. But the bottom line is David is about to go out and take on the enemy.

Ray: 25:42

I mean, he's he's he's known for kicking tail, man. He's kicking butt. He's known for for taking out people, and It's not like he doesn't know what he's doing. But what does David do with all of his mighty men? Can you just see these guys all decked out like gladiators ready to

Ray: 25:56

go down and kick some tail? What does David do? And it's similar to

Ray: 26:00

what we learned about when we deal with worry. He said, hey, guys, let's be still.

Ray: 26:06

What would the lord have us do?

Ray: 26:08

You see, he was practicing the the one of the g's out of the decision tree. What would the lord have us do? And so I believe that there's this pattern that we can look into David's life and we can see that he was known for asking. He was pausing, and he would put the decision tree in front of himself, and he would give himself time to work it through. He wasn't he wouldn't just go off half cocked.

Ray: 26:30

He wouldn't just do it on a whim. He would take the time to be still and contemplate, but he wouldn't sit around and get caught up in the paralysis of analysis. So when I think of his life, I also think of 6 w's. Now I'm I'm pulling out now at about 20, 30000 feet, and I think about his life in as as as a whole and in general. And so I think that David knew his calling, but I think he often found himself with what I call the 6 w's.

Ray: 26:59

And we run this down across the bottom of the decision tree and we call it the David principle. And these 6 w's is where I think David found himself, and quite frankly, I think it's where I find myself a lot of times when I'm trying to make a decision. And even a lot of times, after I feel like I have the right decision, it seems like the timing isn't just right. And I know that David practiced these 6 these 6 w's and here's what they are. I think David found himself often waiting and watching,

Ray: 27:32

waiting and watching. He knew what he was supposed to do, but he was waiting for the proper time. He was watching for the time to act. He knew just when to throw the rock from the sling. He knew just when

Ray: 27:47

to run down to the battlefield. And what's interesting about that story about his first battle, the first battle that he had when he said, what would the Lord have us do? What's interesting about that story is it wasn't too much longer that the same enemy on the same battlefield came back into play. And David could have thought that what he did before is what he needed to do now, but what did David do? That's the beautiful thing about the life of David, and that's why I love the decision tree.

Ray: 28:11

David went before the lord and said, lord, what would you have us do? He was waiting and watching. And then here's the here's the thing. He was willing. He was waiting, watching and willing.

Ray: 28:22

And he was willing to do the next three w's. He was willing to do whatever,

Ray: 28:28

whenever, wherever.

Ray: 28:32

And that's what it comes down to. If we're gonna make good decisions, we we may find ourselves waiting. We may find ourselves watching. I believe David was a man that utilized something like the decision tree. I believe David was a man that utilized something like the decision tree.

Ray: 28:52

No. I don't think it was the decision tree, but it was something like that. How about you? How about you? What decision are you trying to make?

Ray: 29:00

Where do you find yourself? Is there a decision you are trying

Ray: 29:04

to make? Do you feel confident you have the right answer?

Ray: 29:08

You have all the information? Do you find yourself waiting and watching and willing to do whatever, whenever, wherever?

Ray: 29:18

Have you remained willing to do whatever, whenever, wherever? You see, the decision tree is a great way to gain a perspective on the decisions we make in life. Hey.

Ray: 29:30

If you would like a copy of the decision tree, by all means, look at the show notes, and we have a link there, or reach out to us on the website, ray sanders dotcom. Hey. Thanks for stopping by. It means a lot. I really mean that.

Ray: 29:44

I'd love to hear from you. If if you were encouraged by what we said here, you were inspired, by all means, hit the like button, subscribe, send out the information. Let's share the love. Better yet, why not send the podcast to a friend? Reach out to us at ray sanders.com.

Ray: 30:02

We'd love to hear from you. Know, that pretty much does it for the show. Thanks for joining me again here on the Ray Sanders Leadership Podcast. We're in your corner for life and work.