Are your business decisions driven by instinct, or by strategy? How often do you actually stop to tell the difference?

Matthew Confer, the mind behind decision-making simulations used by leading companies, reveals why your gut might betray you, what most leaders get wrong under pressure, and how to sharpen your instincts for critical decisions.

KEY TOPICS

The bold move leaders can make to avoid catastrophic mistakes before they happen.
Why seeking consensus isn’t the best leadership strategy—and what to do instead.
The real reason confident leaders fail under pressure.
How keeping receipts on decisions can save your team from chaos.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Intro: Defeating Bad Decision-Making in Life and Business

00:49 Changing Wedding Language: Patriarchy or Progress?

03:06 Can Simulations Make You a Better Leader?

05:32 The Dangerous Default in Team Decisions

06:50 Why Consensus Isn’t Always King

08:01 How Leaders Sabotage Innovation Without Realizing It

10:21 What Really Drives Your Team?

12:40 Adapting Management Styles: The Secret to Better Teams

15:05 Leadership Practice Without the Real-World Risk

17:26 Breaking Through Superficial Motivations

19:30 The Challenge of Scaling a Small Company Culture

21:54 Why Diverse Motivations Strengthen Teams

24:14 Spotting Failure Before It Happens

26:36 The Viral Social Media Campaign Dilemma

29:00 The Cobra Problem: When Solutions Make Things Worse

31:16 The $5 Challenge That Changed Business Strategy

33:33 The Power of Writing Down Decisions

35:53 How Poor Note-Taking Derails Teams

38:32 How Stress Wrecks Decision-Making—And How to Stop It

40:51 Why Your Most Disagreeable Employee Makes the Hard Calls

43:07 Why Failure Is the Best Leadership Teacher

45:32 Building Leadership Confidence in Safe Environments

47:51 When Bravado Backfires in Decision-Making

50:08 Are You Missing Critical Team Feedback?

52:32 What MBA Simulations Reveal About Leadership Gaps

54:51 The Secret Ingredient to Engaging Training Programs

56:53 Matthew Confer’s Decision-Making Tip for Business Owners

58:20 Key Takeaways

59:45 Message from the Producer

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Thank you to Shelby Peterson of Transcend Media for editing and post-production of the Decidedly podcast.

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MAKING A FINANCIAL DECISION?

At ⁠Decidedly Wealth Management⁠, we focus on decision-making as the foundational element of success, in our effort to empower families to purposefully apply their wealth to fulfill their values and build a thriving legacy.

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CONNECT WITH MATT CONFER

Website: https://www.abilitie.com/matthew-confer/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewconfer/

TEDx Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/matthew_confer_before_you_decide_3_steps_to_better_decision_making?subtitle=en

Learn To Lead Podcast: https://www.abilitie.com/learn-to-lead-podcast/

Matt Confer is the VP of Strategy at Abilitie, a Leadership Development company based in Austin, Texas that provides immersive business simulations to a global client base that includes over 50 members of the Fortune 500. Abilitie’s leadership programs have been delivered to over 100,000 professionals in more than 30 countries around the world. Matthew has spoken on the topic of decision making at the TEDx Conference with a talk entitled "Before You Decide" that has been viewed over 500,000 times on the TED website. Matthew also hosts the Learn to Lead Podcast where he speaks with authors, professors, creatives, and business leaders about their leadership journey and how they are working to develop the leaders of tomorrow.

Ep.170 I Deciding to Make Tough Calls: Leading Well When Stakes are High with Matthew Confer

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