Business English: Making Decisions

We all have to make decisions every day. Some decisions are simple, some are more difficult.

Decision-making increasingly happens at all levels of a business, and it's an important part of being successful in business.

Do you consider yourself to be a good decision maker? What do you need to do before you make a business decision? What must you do and think about before deciding what decision to take?

Steps in Decsion Making

1. Make sure you fully understand what the problem is and how important it is.
2. Try to understand the problem.
3. Think about all the possible decisions you could make.
4. Consider the good and bad points about each possible decision.
5. Make a clear decision.
6. Explain the reasons for your decision to those affected or involved.

Useful Vocabulary

Before you try today's activity, here are some useful words that will help understand the sentences.

• Issue -  topic, subject
• Say (noun) - decision, opinion
• Consideration - careful thought
• Back (verb)  - to support
• Dodge - to avoid

Complete the ten sentences using these six missing words:

issue / say / mind / thought / decision / consideration

• 1 - Originally, he agreed to work with us, but now he has changed his .
• 2 - She said she would come, but now she's having second s.
• 3 - The boss always has the final in purchases over £500. The boss always has the final
• 4 - I’ve given the matter a lot of .
• 5 - Everyone in the department backed the to abandon the project.
• 6 - There are several factors to take into .
• 7 - There are several things that we should bear in
• 8 - They haven’t addressed the problem at all. They've completely dodged the .
• 9 - I'm of two s about whether to accept their proposal or not.
• 10 - Time was short. We had to make a snap .