“Your instincts may have gotten you this far, but it’s solid data that can take your business to the next level – if used correctly.” – Mike Michalowicz, CEO of Provendus Group
Watching every organisation around you change their decision-making from a foundation in natural leadership instinct, to a data-based formula is difficult. It’s even more difficult to make this change yourself when you’re so accustomed to the great decisions you’ve made based on the enlightened business knowledge you’ve gained over the years. But with the increasingly technology-centered world, are your gut instincts enough to be considered enlightened in the data-savvy business domain? Transitioning from gut-based to data-based decisions can be an alarming change, but it’s one that, if done right, can help your business go from 0 to 60 in 30 seconds flat.
No Guts, No Glory
You’ve grounded your decisions so far primarily on instinct, and they’ve been great choices for your organisation. With that, it’s hard to justify spending the money or the time integrating a new data aggregator. You’re not alone in your hesitation. When company leadership in the UK was asked about how they make major decisions, they ranked data and analytics as the third most important factor (23%). This is behind their own intuition (41%) and the experience of others (31%).
Embrace Inner Numbers
The idea that your CEOs instinct may be wrong is disheartening, we understand that. But there are just too many tech-outlets to thoughtfully ascertain the best business decisions purely on your gut. Your company already uses a plethora of number and data sets that you may not even realise are relevant. The ATS, CRM and your accounting department uses data in order to sift and filter the candidate pool in order to find the best-fit talent. Does that sound familiar? These platforms gather the numbers (CVs) and sort them to give you a data set for the best hiring decision. Technology is changing the way we look at HR, and that new look is becoming more and more data-centered.
Don’t Forego Instinct
Now that we’ve told you to base your decisions on data, listen to this – don’t rely solely on the data. You’re a skilled leader and you’ve spent years watching your company grow from the ground up. Don’t simply discount your gut instincts as “outdated,” they are valid. You do, however need to augment your decisions and findings with data in such a way to hone your instincts creating educated decisions. Mike Michalowicz, CEO of Provendus Group, said:
“Whether you’re deciding to hire or fire an employee, or whether you’re weighing the risk of expanding your product line, basing your decisions on what’s been proven to work is your best bet.”
How can you find what’s been proven to work? You find it through data analysis after your platform of choice has gathered all of the information you need in order to decide and combine it with your seasoned gut instinct.
Transitioning from gut-based to data-based decisions has many company senior leaders hesitating on the benefits versus costs of the change. Although you can survive on the decisions purely based in instinct, chances are (with rising business and talent competition) your company will eventually be left lacking. However, if you combine the success of your gut intuition with the high potential of data-integrated choices, your company will speed to the forefront of talent and business objectives. You’ve made the gut decision to go with big data aggregation… let the data solidify your business choices.
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