Great Leaders are Decisive
GREAT LEADERS ARE DECISIVE
“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”
– Theodore Roosevelt
Making decisions that are well-informed and time-sensitive is a crucial part of being a successful leader in any organization. Decisive leaders seek out the appropriate information they need to make good decisions. In addition, they show an understanding and appreciation of the knowledge held by their direct reports, colleagues, and leaders. This helps leaders gather information from these resources before making a final decision. Important business decisions can’t always wait until every option has been dissected. Effective leaders can identify and obtain critical information, and gauge when enough detail has been collected in light of the potential outcomes.
What is Decisiveness?
Decisiveness is defined as the ability to make clear-cut and timely decisions with the appropriate amount of information. In the workplace, decisiveness is key to effectively executing plans and achieving goals. It is important to balance the costs of continuing to deliberate, gather information, and delay a decision versus the costs of making a poor choice. Decisive individuals are aware of these competing costs and weigh them carefully. Most importantly, decisive leaders make decisions that are clear and final. This leadership skill can make the difference between plans lacking direction and those focused on achieving business objectives.
What is Decisive Leadership?
Decisive leadership goes beyond making quick decisions; it entails making informed and confident decisions that determine strategic objectives, drive progress, and maintain momentum towards accomplishing business goals. A decisive leader demonstrates a high level of confidence in their decision-making process, even when faced with push-back, challenges, or uncertainty.
How to Assess Your Ability to Be Decisive
In assessing your ability to be a decisive leader, ask yourself the following questions:
- Do I gather the right amount of information before making decisions?
- Do I use all my resources to collect the right kind of information when making decisions?
- Am I able to weigh the costs of analyzing options versus the costs of a poor decision?
- Do I use careful evaluation, or do I rely on intuition to make decisions?
- How do I gauge if a decision is too urgent or important to be put off?
How to Become a More Decisive Leader
Identify and Gather Essential Information
An important part of being decisive is being able to identify the information you need to make a good decision. To clarify, when faced with a choice, analyze the situation to understand what you need to know. Then, use all available resources to collect the essential information. Being a decisive leader isn’t just about making a choice on your own; draw on the expertise and experience of others around you. In short, effective information gathering is a requirement of good decisions on tight timelines.
Know When to Hone Your Focus
We rarely get the chance to focus on one decision at a time because we also often have other priorities, tasks, and obligations. Work on recognizing when some decisions are more urgent or more important than others. We can’t dedicate all of our time to decision-making, so prioritizing effectively is critical. Recognizing the potential benefits or costs of a choice compared to other decisions vying for your attention will help you better allocate your time and energy. Consider prioritizing urgent decisions in the short-term, which can leave you more time and resources to tackle other decisions or tasks that were temporarily set aside.
Understand Your Tendencies
All of us have different habits when it comes to making decisions. For example, some of us prefer to carefully evaluate every option and consider every possible circumstance. Others prefer to “go with their gut” and rely on their instincts for even the most important decisions. Being a more decisive leader requires that you examine how you’ve made decisions in the past. Being aware of how you usually want to approach decisions will help you learn how you should approach them. Remember, neither intuition- nor reason-based decision making approaches are inherently bad. That is to say, switching between them or blending the two will stop you from relying on the wrong approach and making a negative impact on the quality of your decisions.1
How to Improve Your Decisiveness
By implementing decisive leadership practices through these steps, you can become better at making business decisions:
1. Make Note of Your Resources
Take stock of the expertise and knowledge of those around you, especially your direct reports. Research suggests that employees have better attitudes and performance when they participate in decision-making. Using your resources to gather information can not only improve your own decision-making abilities but can also have positive consequences for your team and company2.
2. Prioritize Effectively for Each Part of Your Role
Different parts of your job might require that you determine urgency or importance in distinct ways. Consider if you are accounting for the different aspects of your leadership role when you evaluate whether one decision takes precedence over another. Take the time to develop decision-making guidelines that recognize these differences, because good decisions are unlikely to be the result of a “one size fits all” process. Knowing how to evaluate urgent decisions across different facets of your job can boost your decisiveness. It can also help you focus on the key parts of each situation.
3. Work on Being Comfortable with Uncertainty
Wanting to make the right choice can cause stress and anxiety about decisions3 and make you an indecisive leader. The truth is that you often can’t have all of the information or advice you want to make a decision. Therefore, accept when time constraints or other circumstances have brought you to a decision point that cannot be postponed. Increase your comfort with the uncertainty that remains after making a tough call. Finally, remind yourself that you’ve done all you can with the time, resources, and information available to you.
Leadership Decision-Making Styles
Leadership decision-making styles varies significantly depending on a leader’s personality, team dynamics, and situational demands. The same leader may use multiple different styles, depending on the nature of the decision and the context in which the decision is being made. Below are several common decision-making styles, along with examples of when each may be most appropriate:
Autocratic Leadership
The leader makes decisions unilaterally with little or no input from others. In crisis situations — such as emergency response or military operations — an autocratic leader might act quickly without waiting for team consensus to ensure immediate and decisive action.
Democratic or Participative Leadership
The leader involves team members in the decision-making process, seeking input and feedback before reaching a decision. A project manager might hold regular meetings to discuss ideas and concerns with the team before finalizing a project plan, ensuring collective buy-in.
Laissez-Faire Leadership
The leader provides minimal direction and allows team members to make decisions independently. In a creative industry, such as advertising or design, a leader might grant freedom to team members to explore innovative solutions, intervening only when necessary.
Transformational Leadership
This style focuses on inspiring and motivating team members to achieve change and innovation. The leader often uses vision and empowerment as key tools. A CEO in a tech startup might use transformational leadership to encourage a culture of innovation and risk-taking, engaging employees in the vision for the company’s future.
Transactional Leadership
Decisions are made within a structured system of rewards and penalties. This style emphasizes clear roles and performance metrics. In sales or manufacturing environments, a transactional leader might set specific targets and use bonuses or corrective actions based to drive results.
Consensus-Based Leadership
The leader prioritizes collective agreement, ensuring that all perspectives are considered before making a decision. In collaborative environments or community organizations, a leader might facilitate discussions until a common agreement is reached among all stakeholders.
Consultative Leadership
The leader actively seeks input and suggestions from team members but retains the final decision-making authority. A department head may solicit opinions on a new policy change, weighing the suggestions carefully before making the final call.
Adaptive Leadership: The Power of Situational Decision-Making
Each of these leadership styles has its own strengths and weaknesses and are best suited for different decision-making contexts. The best leaders adapt their decision-making style based on the situation, the task at hand, and the team’s experience level. This flexibility is known as “situational leadership” — the ability to adjust one’s leadership style to maximize effectiveness. For example, a manager might take an autocratic approach during a critical deadline but shift to a more democratic style when planning long-term strategies. Being flexible in how decisions are made allows leaders to capitalize on the efficiency of transactional leadership practices and autocratic decision-making, while also leveraging the long-term effectiveness of transformational leadership and consensus-based processes.
Examples of Leader Decisiveness in Business
Below are several real‐world examples of how decisive leadership has made a transformative impact on businesses:
Steve Jobs at Apple
Jobs was known for his bold decisions — whether it was discontinuing product lines to focus on a few revolutionary ideas or launching the iPhone in 2007 despite widespread skepticism. His unwavering focus and rapid decision-making not only revived Apple but also redefined entire industries.i
Jeff Bezos at Amazon
Bezos’s decisiveness is evident in his willingness to reinvest profits back into the business and pivot from an online bookstore to a global ecommerce and cloud computing giant. His “regretminimization framework” led him to take calculated risks that positioned Amazon at the forefront of multiple industries.ii
Reed Hastings at Netflix
Hastings decisively transitioned Netflix’s business model from DVD rentals to streaming, seizing the opportunity in the untapped potential of digital content delivery. This bold pivot not only revolutionized home entertainment but also set the stage for the streaming era.
Satya Nadella at Microsoft
Upon taking the helm, Nadella made the strategic decision to focus on cloud computing. This decisive pivot not only rejuvenated Microsoft’s fortunes but also positioned the company as a leader in the fast-growing cloud services market.iii
Lou Gerstner at IBM
Hired from outside the company, Gerstner made several tough, timely decisions that saved IBM from collapse in the early 1990s. Instead of dismantling the company, he restructured its strategy, shifting from a hardware manufacturing to integrated IT solutions — a move widely credited with IBM’s resurgence.
Why Decisiveness Matters
Each of these leaders demonstrates that decisive action — whether through business model reinventions, operational overhauls, or technological advancements — can not only rescue a company in distress but also set it on a path of sustained growth and industry leadership.
Leadership Resources
WATCH: Decisiveness – Leadership Roll Call
READ: What Sets Successful CEOs Apart?
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1 Phillips, W. J., Fletcher, J. M., Marks, A. D. G., & Hine, D. W. (2016). Thinking Styles and Decision Making: A Meta-Analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 142(3), 260-290.
2 Pereira, G. M., & Osburn, H. G. (2007). Effects of Participation in Decision Making on Performance and Employee Attitudes: A Quality Circles Meta-Analysis. Journal of Business Psychology, 22, 145-153.
3 Chen, C. Y., Rossignac-Milon, M., & Higgins, E. T. (2018). Feeling Distressed From Making Decisions: Assessors’ Need to Be Right. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 115(4), 743-761.