Being a great leader isn’t easy. It involves mastering many different dimensions of leading. Ultimately being a great leader means being the person that others want to follow. Among other things, that means they trust you to make hard decisions well.
You act with integrity. You carefully weigh all implications of any decision. You consider all available information, but you don’t over-analyze. You make decisions and act with confidence and authority. When you make a bad decision (it happens to all of us), you acknowledge it early; you own it; and you take corrective action.
Over the next several months I want to look at 10 of the hardest decisions business leaders face. As I look at each one, I will share resources that can help, including tools/frameworks, books, case studies, and other articles. Along the way I will also write new articles introducing the tools and frameworks that I’ve found most useful in making those hard decisions. As I build out this collection of resources I will also make them available at my SDG Strategy Lab website.
But before we dive into those ten specific decisions, let’s first discuss, in general, how to make hard decisions.
Whenever I’m approaching a hard decision, I step back and apply a simple three step process:
- Clearly define the goal. What positive outcome do we expect if we make the decision well?
- Choose the right decision framework. How can we evaluate different options in a structured way that aligns with the decision being made?
- Answer the essential questions. To complete the evaluation, using our selected framework, we will need to do some focused work.
As simple as they sound, none of those steps should be taken lightly or flippantly. They require careful consideration, seeking the best wisdom available. (For me, that includes praying for God’s wisdom.) Sometimes it pays to bring in outside, impartial help to lead the process, ask hard questions, and challenge assumptions.
Over the next few weeks I will introduce you to a few tools and frameworks that I have found to be generally helpful for all kinds of hard decisions.
Read my full discussion of this topic here including the 10 hard decisions, the tools/frameworks we will look at first, and suggested reading.
I hope this new discussion will be helpful to you as you wrestle with hard decisions in your own business.