This year, you’ll make hundreds of great decisions and what if I told you that making significant decisions all the time isn’t good enough to make you highly successful?
Yes, you heard me correctly: making great decisions always won’t take you to the top, nor will it help you thrive once you get there.
What leaders at the top know that you don’t?
They know that making decisions earlier, quicker and with greater conviction, even amid ambiguity and incomplete information, is the key to their success.
Here’s how to become a leader who decides with speed and conviction and fuels your rise to the top.
Stay in Your Lane
Don’t feel compelled to make every decision that comes your way. Only make those where you can most impact the outcome. Delegate the rest to others and trust their judgment. Staying in your lane frees you up to make fewer and more critical decisions.
Know When It’s Reversible and Not
Ask yourself two pivotal questions: What’s the impact if I get this wrong? and how much will it hold up if I don’t decide quickly on this? Knowing which decisions are reversible and which ones aren’t helping you push those that are reversible lower down in the organization so that important information emerges without causing irreparable harm.
Your Judgement is Definitive
Build a group of trusted advisers and go to them for unvarnished opinions and sound judgment. Tell others from the outset that you plan to weigh all perspectives, and ultimately, you’ll decide what, in your judgment, is the best way forward. Let others know that when you decide, you expect them to be on board, even if it isn’t what they’d have chosen.
A Wrong Decision is Better Than No Decision
Don’t pursue the perfect answer; it takes too long and creates a bottleneck that frustrates those around you. Understand that most decisions can be undone, so making a wrong decision is often better than pursuing a perfect solution or not deciding. Just be sure to course-correct it quickly.
Let go of the expectation that you have to make great decisions all the time and trust in your ability to be decisive and agile enough to learn from your mistakes.