Effective Decision Making Skills To Include On Your CV

You’ve just uncovered an excellent list of decision-making talents for your CV. Furthermore, it can help you get recruited faster! How? Well. There is a proper and wrong approach to demonstrate decision-making abilities on a resume. Choose the former, and your qualifications will shine. Choose the latter, and your dream career will vanish.

What is decision making?

Decision-making skills are defined as the ability to choose between two or more alternatives in order to achieve the best conclusion in the shortest amount of time.

1. Review the Best Decision Making Skills for Your Resume

Just need decision-making skills for a resume? Get a list of 30+ below.

Need decision making examples so your resume stands out? Scroll down below the list.

Decision Making Skills Resume List

This list shows the types of decision and initiative skills. It also shows decision-related skills like communication and problem-solving skills.

Types of Decision Making Skills

• Ethical decision making skills. Can you pick from tough choices while upholding ethics? A central skill for healthcare, the financial industry, and more.
• Consumer decision making process. Understanding how consumers make decisions is key for marketing and sales specialists.
• Team decision-making skills. Also called group decision making or collaborative decision making. Important in business and managerial jobs.
• Executive decision making. The opposite of group decision making. Executives must gather input, then make difficult decisions on their own.
• Consensus decision making skills. This rare team skill finds a solution all members can support. Valued in government and nonprofit jobs.
• Shared decision-making skills. Similar to team decision making, but generally has a healthcare focus.
• Medical decision making skills. \Crucial for doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals.
• Rational decision making. The rational model of decision-making is a necessary skill in managerial and business jobs.
• Data driven decision-making skills. Are you adept at data collection and analysis? This is crucial in data-heavy fields like marketing or healthcare.
• Intuitive decision-making ability. Can you go with your gut to make decisions? Valued in action-oriented fields like the military, firefighting, and police work.
• Evidence-based decision making. The opposite of intuitive decision-making. Vital in the healthcare field.
• Programmed decision making. Can you make policies and procedures? Good skill for high-level management jobs.
• Military decision making process. The US Army uses this distinct seven-step plan to make operational decisions.

Skills Related to Decision Making:

Identifying Problems

One of the first steps in the decision-making process is identifying problems. Supporting skills include:

• Problem Analysis
• Root-Cause Analysis
• Fishbone Diagramming
• 5 Whys Technique

Collecting Input

Team decision making requires input. See these linked decision making skills:

• Information Gathering
• Conducting Polls
• Consensus-Building

Generating Possible Solutions

Once you understand the problem, you need solutions. These skills build them:

• Brainstorming
• Creativity
• Lateral Thinking

Evaluating and Choosing Solutions

To choose between the options, you’ll need other skills:

• Analysis
• Risk Assessment
• Cost Analysis
• Scientific Analysis

Skills Related to Decision Making

The skills below aren’t decision making skills. But—to make good decisions, you’ll need many of them.

• Leadership
• Troubleshooting
• Active Listening
• Interpersonal Skills
• Collaboration
• Communication
• Logic
• Problem Solving
• Critical Thinking
• Time Management
• Analytical Skills

Want decision-making skills examples to build your resume? That’s next.

2. Pick the Right Resume Decision Making Skills

There are numerous decision-making talents for your resume.

Choosing the proper one can be difficult.

Let’s make things easy.

Look at the employment offer. It will specify what abilities are required. This decision-making skill example demonstrates how:

• As our new Human Resources Manager, you’ll deliver HR and Benefits support for our staff. You’ll handle recruitment, selection, and orientation of new hires. You’ll also facilitate smooth operation of the volunteer program. You’ll track annual evaluations and facilitate decisions about promotions and salary adjustments. You’ll assist with employee relations and ensure compliance with policies—both internal and external. You’ll also set the course for how to handle disciplinary actions. Your choices in this role will deeply impact the company.

Do you see that?

The hiring manager just indicated which management resume abilities to include. This is not team or collaborative decision-making.

This work most likely requires reasonable decision-making abilities. But don’t simply declare you have them.

3. Prove Decision Making Skills on a Resume to Get Hired

We should interview this one.”

There’s no doubt employers crave decision-making skills.

But you can’t just say, “I am a great decision-maker.”

How to write decision making skills on a resume?

• List decision making skills from the job ad.
• Prove you’ve got those skills.
• Show how they helped the company.

To do that, pack your resume bullet points with achievements.

These taking initiative examples show how

Decision Making Examples for Resumes

Here are five basic initiative-taking examples.

Job ad says: The perfect candidate makes good decisions under pressure.

Your resume says one of these:

• Tasked with making dozens of quick decisions daily. Overall result was a 30% increase in marketing ROI.
• Commended by upper management 5x for good decision making skills under pressure.
• Had to decide on short notice how to handle new internet privacy laws. Pivoted to new live video campaign that increased user data collection 25%.
• Made multiple patient care decisions daily with 95% positive satisfaction scores.
• Tasked with saving money during a tight time. Made decision to switch to QuickBooks, saving 20% on accounting costs.

Ethical Decision Making Examples for Resumes

Jobs in banking, world government, and healthcare value ethical decision making. These decision making skills examples show how to list them on a resume.

Job ad says: The right candidate has good ethical decision-making skills.

Your resume says:

• Led team of 14 employees through a 9-step ethical decision-making process at 5 major company turning points.
• Facilitated facts-gathering for ethical decision-making process during community referendum drive. Resolved differences with community leaders in 3 days.

Difficult Decision Examples for Resumes

Executive-level jobs and top management jobs have difficult decisions.

These sample resume bullets offer proof.

Job ad says: The right applicant has solid difficult decision-making skills.

Your resume says:

• Faced with a tough decision to promote 1 of 5 great candidates. Chose the one most likely to stay with the company and grow. She became our star performer.
• Forced to choose between a loyal vendor and a cheaper alternative. Worked with trusted vendor on a compromise, preserving relationship and saving 10%.

Taking Initiative Examples for Resumes

Do you attack problems and dismantle them? Employers love that. Prove it on your resume with strong examples.

These two initiative skills examples show how:

Job ad requires someone who can take the initiative and get things done.

Your resume says:

• Created and implemented a new order-taking process that saved 5 employee hours a week.
• Initiated a job kanban system with Jira that raised team efficiency 35%.

Consensus Decision Making Examples for Resumes

Nonprofits and government jobs often need consensus decision making skills.

Prove you’ve got them like these decision-making skills examples

Job ad says: We need someone with strong consensus decision making ability.

Your resume says:

• Used consensus decision-making to make 15 organization-level decisions per year. Achieved 99% buy-in for all major decisions.
• Cut consensus decision making time by 25% per choice through faster information-gathering process.

Rational Decision Making Examples for Resumes

Rational decision making is a key business skill.

If you’ve got it, flaunt it like these initiative-taking examples:

Job ad says: Our dream applicant has well-developed rational decision-making skills.

Your resume says:

• Employed 7-step rational decision-making process to pick new graphic design software. Saved $3,000 and team was 99% happy with the choice.
• Used rational decision making skills to facilitate hiring of new software engineer. Cut 1 week from typical time-to-hire.

Perfect.

To prove initiative skills on a resume, show achievements that fit the job.

Then, add metrics. Those are numbers like percents, dollars, people trained, or time or money saved.

4. Decision Making Synonyms for Resumes

You can’t say, “decision making” five times in a resume.

So—you need decision-making synonyms.

Good news.

Here’s a list of 12 synonyms for decision making for your resume:

Decision Making Synonyms

• Initiative Taking
• Self-Starting
• Action-Oriented
• Leader
• Pioneering/Pioneered
• Originator/Originated
• Creativity
• Trailblazing
• Resourcefulness
• Driven/Drive
• Self-Motivation/Motivated

5. How to Improve Decision Making Skills

Improve your decision making skills with seven tips:

• Decide faster. Author Napoleon Hill studied over 500 millionaires. All shared a key trait—they made decisions quickly.
• Keep your eyes on the goal. Knowing the goal helps you make decisions fast because it simplifies your choices.
• Limit options. More choice isn’t always good. Quickly pick the best few options and discard the rest.
• Research. Dig in to understand the problem. Research the best 3–5 solutions.
• Seek advice. Consult someone with experience to make choices easier.
• Hone communication and conflict-management skills. For team decision making, gather input from all stakeholders.
• Fail small, fail often. Test a few solutions on a small scale. Then put more resources toward the one that works.

Key Takeaway

Here’s a recap. How to list decision-making skills on a resume:

• Review the different types of decision making skills. Figure out which one is most important to the job you want.
• Prove your decision-making skills. Do that by showing how they helped employers in past jobs.
• Add metrics to shore up your resume skills list. Dollar amounts and percentages prove your decisions pack a punch.
• Look at good initiative skills examples to see how to word your resume.