Are you cooking something without all the ingredients?

Business is uncertainty.

When you make a decision it is not possible to have all the information you require at a good level of accuracy.

On the other hand, sometimes you can be missing vital information too.

Typically this kind of thing comes up in negotiations – whether with employees, suppliers or customers.

One of the ways you can check for this is by looking at how long it is taking to prepare an offer or contract terms.

If you are taking a long time, and thinking a lot about some key details while trying to guess what it is that the other party wants, then you are probably trying to cook something without all the ingredients.

Try listing out all the basic information you need and highlight what you don’t know. Then call up the other party and ask them.

Otherwise, it is too easy to make presumptions which may not be true.

Also, for those out there with a university education you are likely to take longer to make a decision than someone without university qualifications, so check that you aren’t looking for too much information.