The Psychology of Decision-Making: How to Identify Your Strengths and Weaknesses

Featured Events | Jun 26, 2023 | Gabelli School of Business

When it comes to making decisions, would you describe yourself as an adventurer, detective, listener, thinker, or visionary? According to author, educator, and decision-science expert Cheryl Strauss Einhorn, determining the type of problem solver you are based on these “profiles” sheds light not only on how you make decisions, but also how you can streamline and improve the process.

Einhorn is the founder and CEO of Decisive, a New York City-based company that trains business professionals in complex problem-solving skills, as well as an adjunct professor at Columbia and Cornell universities. After working as an investigative business journalist for two decades, she developed the AREA method, a decision-making system that aims to address our subjective biases and improve the judgment we use to make decisions.

Einhorn outlined her insights in her recently published third book, Problem Solver: Maximizing Your Strengths To Make Better Decisions, also the topic of this webinar co-sponsored by the Gabelli Center for Global Security Analysis, Museum of American Finance, and CFA Society New York. In a conversation with Paul Johnson, adjunct professor at the Gabelli School, she explained how to unpack the psychology of decision-making to achieve the best results.

“It’s very hard to get out of our own way, especially when we don’t have any language for it,” Einhorn said. “The problem-solver profiles give us a lexicon so that we can mull over the meaning of how we interact, what is our actual perspective, and what are some different opportunities” to fine-tune our approach.