Public Safety officials make important decisions every day. Furthermore, decisions during a crisis must often be made quickly with limited information. Unfortunately, people also let obstacles interfere with making good decisions. These inhibitors can also affect senior leaders who may let mission creep, staffing issues and even executive influence interfere with critical and timely decisions. 

These inhibitors are often internalized and serve as barriers that lead to poor decisions, or delayed decisions. Acknowledging such inhibitors can be a good step in eliminating such obstacle decision making in the future.

1. Pre-conceived ideas: Stephen Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People tells readers to “begin with the end in mind,” which can be extremely helpful when planning, but when it comes to making critical decisions without all of the available information, jumping ahead to preferred outcome may inhibit more favorable options.
2. Overthinking: Developing a variety of courses of action to make the best possible decision is critical, but at the same time, sticking to the facts reduces the chance of overthinking. Similarity, analysis paralysis is a state of mind where someone overthinks a problem or situation to the point that it becomes difficult to make a decision.
3. Tunnel vision: Everyone has made a decision without seeing the big picture. People tend to focus on the here and now; get it done! Yet, when security leaders look back later, they see things they should have examined, considered, and evaluated. Tunnel vision can best be overcome by thinking differently; such as, how would my subordinates view this and what would they consider and want ME to consider, how would my ardent critic see this issue and what would they do or expect me to do, and what are the potential issues to follow my decision. Of course, if facing an ethical decision always ask: what would my grandmother want me to do here? Everyone knows grandmothers know everything, right?
4. Lack of situational awareness: Grasping the big picture, and everything going on is often the difference between making a good decision and a bad decision. Situational awareness can be a quick analysis of the overall environment but should always be a work in progress to understand both normal behaviors and anomalies.
5. Poor listening skills: It is in the same context as listening to reply versus listening to understand. Leaders failing to listen to others’ opinions, suggestions, etc. has the potential to make rush decisions without exploring an array of solutions. Or, listening only to select individuals, or even listening to the loudest person can reduce good decision making.
6. Fear: The fear of making mistakes adds to indecision and potentially making a decision based solely on the easiest course of action. Make no mistake, safety is one of the most important criteria’s for making a good decision, but when it comes to life safety and other important matters, safety should not cause someone to not weigh in on other factors. Combine fear with overthinking, and not only do security leaders risk making a bad decision, but they may not make a timely decision!
7. Lack of critical thinking: To understand this effort of critical thinking security leaders must realize this is not about what they think, rather it is about how they think. Without getting bogged down in the fallacies of logic, consider critical thinking as systematic evaluation by a set of standards. 
8. Over confidence: One character issue that can be find hard to admit to. While security leaders could wax eloquently on General Patton’s manifold quotes, sometimes they need to step back and reconsider their confidence. 

Leaders must make tough decisions — it’s part of the job. If leaders were not expected to make tough decisions, there would not be a need for such a leadership position. Leadership training reminds us of the benefits of making timely decisions, and even the fact that a quick decision is often more important than not making a decision at all. Unfortunately, many leaders will overthink a decision based on a variety of inhibitors. Understanding such inhibitors will undoubtedly reduce their effect on decision-making.