I like decisions.
Not necessarily the moment in which they have to be made. I am more interested in what happens before.
Many decisions feel difficult for a simple reason: we try to choose before it is clear what we are choosing.
“Do I stay or leave?” “Do I promote this person or not?” “Do I accept the offer?” “Do I change the strategy?”
Two options. It looks simple. The question itself may be poorly built.
Sometimes the first problem is the question
Imagine a manager asks: “Do I promote X or hire someone from outside?”
We can immediately start comparing candidates.
Or we can ask: “What will this role need over the next 18 months?”
Suddenly, different criteria appear.
Perhaps the issue is not who deserves the promotion. Perhaps the issue is what the person in the role will need to be able to do.
The shift looks subtle, but decisions are very sensitive to how we frame the problem.
Criteria before options
When a decision carries weight, we tend to spend a lot of time looking at the options.
It may be more useful to start with the criteria.
What matters here? What do I want to protect? Which outcome matters most? Which compromise can I accept? What do I not want to sacrifice?
Without clear criteria, we often choose what feels most urgent, familiar or least uncomfortable.
Then we build the arguments that justify the choice.
Humans are a sophisticated species, including when we are fooling ourselves.
What am I assuming is true?
Decisions are built on assumptions.
“If I refuse, I will never get an offer like this again.” “If I say it, the relationship will deteriorate.” “If I delegate, quality will fall.” “If I change direction, the team will think I was wrong.”
Some of these may be true.
Before building a decision on them, it is useful to recognise them as assumptions.
What do I know? What do I believe? What am I assuming? What can I verify?
In many situations, this separation changes the quality of the decision.
From idea to practice
Want to put the idea into practice?
Work through the decision in executive coachingPressure narrows the options
Under pressure, the world becomes binary very quickly.
Yes or no. Stay or leave. Accept or refuse. Confront or stay quiet.
Sometimes there is a third conversation we have not had, a piece of information we have not requested, a condition that can be negotiated or an experiment before the final choice.
This is not about postponing forever. It is about not confusing speed with clarity.
A decision does not end when you make it
There is another part we talk about less often: review.
We made the decision. What happened? What did we anticipate correctly? What did we miss? What would we do differently next time?
If we never return to the way we make decisions, we can repeat the same process whether it works or not.
Experience does not automatically create learning. Reflection on experience can turn it into learning.
Clarity does not remove risk
A good decision is not one in which we know exactly what will happen. That would be prophecy, not management.
It can, however, be a decision where we understand the problem more clearly, know what matters, notice our assumptions, explore alternatives, accept the consequences and can explain why we are choosing.
We learn the rest afterwards.
For leaders working with decisions where stakes, people and business meet in a place that is rarely tidy, executive coaching can provide space to see the problem more clearly before choosing.
Perhaps the most important part of a decision is not the moment you choose. It is the way you arrived at that choice.
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