Learn how to spot the potential Edsels in your life ... and how to avoid them

Every businessperson has to make decisions. Here's how to make them quickly, correctly and confidently.

Some of the finest minds in Detroit had collaborated on the new car. The marketing staff had identified the proper niche. The design team had incorporated state - of - the - art features carefully calculated to stir the imagination and set hearts thumping. And the new car was to be proudly named after the founder's late son - a long - time company executive.

The car was introduced with much fanfare, and sales promptly went ... nowhere. The market niche wasn't quite as large as it had looked. The futuristic design quickly became the object of ridicule and the punchline of jokes. And the very name "Edsel" entered the nation's vocabulary as a synonym for an expensive, funny - looking failure.

Making the right decision - quickly and confidently

Being in business means making decisions. And regardless of what you do for a living, in the course of a year you probably make hundreds - if not thousands - of decisions that affect your future and that of your company.

While the consequences of your decisions may not be as earthshaking as those that led to the development of the Edsel, learning how to make the right decisions - and how to make them quickly and confidently - can save you and your company time, money, public humiliation, and more.

In this highly entertaining and useful audio program and interactive workbooks, popular Nightingale - Conant contributor Roger Dawson takes an in - depth look at the decision - making processes used by American business. He tells stories such as the one behind the Ford Motor Company's decision to market the Edsel. And he uses other "decision - making disasters" to help you improve your own decision - making abilities.

Are you a Bull? An Eagle? A Bee? Or a Bloodhound?

• BULL- a decision maker who attacks a problem until it collapses. Bulls say, "Strike while the iron's hot and crush the opposition."


• EAGLE one who takes great, soaring passes at a problem and says, "I want other people to get just as excited about this as I am! Let's run with it."


• BEE a consensus - seeker who buzzes from one concern about the problem to another. Bees ask, "Will everyone really be happy with this solution? Are we rocking the boat needlessly?"


• BLOODHOUND one who noses all around a problem, trying to uncover every possible fact. Bloodhounds want to know, "What's the hurry? We need more information before we jump into anything."

No matter which category your decision - making style puts you in, Roger Dawson explains why you must - and teaches you how you can - improve your career by improving your decision - making abilities.

Overcome decision - making barriers

Do you know the five barriers that keep most of us from making the kinds of quick, sure decisions that our jobs demand of us? In Confident Decision Making, Roger Dawson identifies them as:

• Acting too quickly


• Acting too slowly


• Being too autocratic

But more importantly, in Confident Decision Making he also shows us how each of these barriers is actually a mirror image of what causes someone to be a good decision maker.

• Confident decision makers can act quickly and decisively, but they don't let people force them into making decisions under time pressure.


• Confident decision makers understand the need to gather information but are able to work with less than all the facts they need when a decision has to be made.


• Confident decision makers are bold and courageous, but they know how to avoid being seen as dictators.


• Confident decision makers know how to bend with the winds of changing circumstances and changing facts.


• Confident decision makers are committed to their decision, but not so committed that they won't admit to failure.

Confident Decision Making will also show you:

• Ten Creative Ways to Expand Your Options - by methods as diverse as visualizing the exact opposite of what you want to accomplish to imagining what would happen if you found the perfect solution to your problem.


• When to "Huddle" and When Not to - how tapping into the creative capabilities of the group can help you see new solutions, and why you sometimes need to stand alone.


• What Causes "Drift" in Information Analysis - why everyone looks at all the available information in remarkably different ways.


• The Eight Characteristics of Confident Decision Makers - from knowing how to avoid the "mine fields" to learning how to maintain your resilience.


• Why Changing Your Mind Is Always an Option - especially for the confident decision maker.
• And Much, Much More!

To keep your future from riding off with the next shiny Edsel to come down your personal career path, you need to learn the lessons of Confident Decision Making today.