How to Include Decision-Making Synonyms on Your Resume

Quick Navigation:

When you want to highlight decision-making skills on your resume, you can add interest with decision-making synonyms. Employers want to hire candidates they can count on to make intelligent decisions for their business to thrive, so these types of soft skills are very important to show on a resume. This article shares some tips for including other words for decision making to add variety and impact to the skills listed on your resume.

What is decision making?

Decision making is the process of arriving at a conclusion about two or more choices. When you make a decision, you choose between different paths to select the one with the most strategic value. Decision making requires leadership, analysis, information gathering and objectivity, to name a few traits. For this reason, decision making is an important skill that employers sometimes seek in candidates.

Why put decision-making synonyms on a resume?

Decision making can take a number of forms. For this reason, using decision-making synonyms on your resume can help you properly display your decision-making experience in a way that helps highlight your skills to employers when they look at your resume. When you demonstrate strong decision-making skills, employers know you can comprehend information, decide on the best choice and enact the right solution. Decision making is a soft skill comprised of other soft skills like critical thinking and intelligence. It is a high-demand skill to demonstrate on a resume. Doing so correctly may mean listing your decision-making skills in a few different ways.

Popular decision-making synonyms for your resume

If you’re looking for ways to describe decision-making on your resume, try these synonyms and phrases to help you demonstrate your skills at each stage of the decision-making process:

Identifying problems

The following terms are related to the problem identification phase of decision-making:  

  • Analytical
  • 5 whys technique
  • Detail-oriented
  • Investigative

Collecting information

These phrases are good ways to talk about how you collect information:

  • Data-driven
  • Skilled researcher
  • Consensus building
  • Poll conducting

Considering how to proceed

Here are some decision-making skills related to making the best choice:

  • Problem-solving
  • Brainstorming
  • Risk assessment
  • Scientific analysis

Taking action

Try these skills on your resume that demonstrate how you act decisively:

  • Strategic leadership
  • Critical thinking
  • Being accountable for results
  • Action-oriented

Other synonyms for decision making

If you still need to describe your decision-making process in a few words, try these synonyms:

  • Decisiveness
  • Operates with authority
  • Sound judgment
  • Objectivity

How to list decision making correctly on your resume

Here’s how you can list decision-making skills in the skills section of your resume:

1. Firstly, brainstorm decision-making skills

The decision-making process generally occurs in several steps:

  • Determine what needs to be decided. To make a decision, you have to identify that a decision must be made. Once you have fully defined the decision you are faced with, you can move on to the next step.
  • Collect any determining information. Once you’ve defined the decision, you need to collect information that will help you determine what choices can be made. You can do this by researching online or using other resources at your disposal, like conducting a survey or speaking to employees involved in a specific situation that needs a decision.
  • Consider what you’ve collected, and decide how to proceed. You likely have identified several different paths you can take. To make your choice, weigh all of your options and decide the best way to proceed based on your chosen strategy and desired results.
  • Take action. With a choice made, you are ready to take swift and decisive action. By acting with confidence, you’ll inspire others to do the same.

Each of these steps has skills that can be developed within it. Think about your decision-making process and create a list of skills that complement it for your resume.

2. Next, decide where you want to highlight skills on your resume

Generally, the section to display this information is near the bottom of most modern, chronological resumes, in a section with a heading that says ‘Skills.’ 

3. Finally, determine how to format your skills section

Skills are usually listed as bullet points with no additional context, but when you do see additional context next to a skill bullet point, it’s usually to show how well-versed a candidate is in a particular skill. 

A skills section that lists decision-making skills might look like this:

SKILLS

  • Detail-oriented
  • Decisiveness
  • Risk assessment
  • Scientific analysis
  • Objectivity

It could also look like this with proficiency levels included after each skill:

SKILLS

  • Detail-oriented: Advanced
  • Decisiveness: Advanced
  • Risk assessment: Advanced
  • Scientific analysis: Intermediate 
  • Objectivity: Intermediate

Either way is appropriate for demonstrating your decision-making skills, so you must choose which best suits your resume and skills section.

Tips to improve decision-making skills quickly

You can use these tips to develop your decision-making process so you can sharpen your skills before your next job search:

Be rational

First, it’s important to approach decision-making rationally. It’s normal to feel a little nervous when you have to make a big decision. Take steps to clear your mind before you face a decision, so you can look at it rationally.

Manage your emotional response

A key to successful, objective decision-making is to remove personal emotion and desire from your decision-making process. It’s likely there will be some scenarios where you will need to include some degree of emotion in the decision-making process. However, as a general rule, it’s good to make a decision free from the personal bias of emotion.

Take the time you need to be thoughtful

If you need time to make a decision, take it. It’s better to take the time you need to reach the correct conclusion than to rush into a decision with only part of the information. Allow yourself to take in all of your options, and do any brainstorming you need, even at the expense of time-constraints.

Think about short and long-term effects

When making a decision, consider more than just the immediate outcome. Instead, think of the outcome right now, in one year and five years from now. This way, you are considering all of the possible effects and impact.

Prioritize

When many decisions must be made, it’s important to prioritize the most meaningful decisions and the ones that have the most prominent effect on other decisions and actions.

Plan for issues

Sometimes when you make a decision, everything will fall into place as you predicted. However, things can often change and turn out differently from how you hoped. To be better prepared for the reality of decision-making, plan for issues by having a Plan A and a Plan B. This way if Plan A runs into any issues, you can execute Plan B without sacrificing your timeline for success.

Other skills like decision-making skills

Here are some skills related to decision-making that you may also want to include on your resume:

  • Time management
  • Logic
  • Communication
  • Collaboration
  • Interpersonal skills
  • Active listening
  • Troubleshooting