LCP LCP LCP
Skip to content

Leadership developmentGreat decision-making isn’t simple decision-making. Leaders must balance the multiple dimensions of all that leadership entails, and this includes decision-making for complicated scenarios in which clear-cut answers don't exist.

Leaders can improve their skills in the types of ambiguous situations that call for such decisions by being intentional about their logic and thought process. The only way to consistently deliver that thoughtful mindset is to practice—and that’s where business simulations are particularly useful.

When I was in the first decade of my business career, I had the great opportunity to work for the CEO of a $2 billion IT services company. He remains one of the finest leaders I have ever known and my most influential mentor. I asked him once how he knew he had made a good decision. He started laughing and replied, “in hindsight!”

He reflected that the best decisions he ever made were the ones over which he lost the most sleep, the complicated ones that called for a lot of thought and for which the “right decision” seemed mired in, as he put it, a gray fog. He added that in some situations he was convinced that he was making an easy decision, yet it often turned out poorly because he hadn’t spent time thinking through all the implications of his choices and determining how to mitigate inherent risks.

At Insight Experience, we work with leaders to help them build the muscle memory needed to make such decisions, the murkier ones in which no clear answers exist—and even the ones in which the opportunities and the risks may seem fairly even.

When you are faced with these decisions, what we call the 49/51 decisions, which factors do you consider? How do you consider you next steps? And what tips you in one direction or the other? The higher you get in your career, the more you will face such decisions, the ones that have greater impact—yet there will be less clarity about how your decisions will play out. And the amount of complexity changes at each level of your leadership journey.

Developing an unconscious competence in—and building a muscle memory for—this type of decision-making is important. Here are some actions that can help:

  1. Put decisions in the context in which you work. You never make generic decisions. Each decision is situationally dependent and full of nuance and complications.

  2. Think consciously about the risks. Do a pre-mortem. Ask yourself: What could possibly go wrong? It is easy to think about what could go swimmingly, but being disciplined about probing the risks can inform a decision in effective ways.

  3. Think consciously about the impact of your decision on the business system as a whole. How will it affect the broader organization?

  4. Plan for mitigation.

Newton's immutable third law of physics states that that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Taking time to build the muscle memory needed for consciously exploring opportunities, including the risks, and mitigating the inherent trade-offs will help you navigate the gray. Experiential learning, like no other learning methodology, also can reveal your blind spots and offer development opportunities. (Real life is experiential learning, too, but it's expensive.) Business simulations are accelerated experiential learning, and they are what we do well.

Learn more about business simulations as a learning methodology.

Subscribe to Our Blog

Let's Talk

We'd love to hear about your leadership development goals.

Leave Comment

Recent Posts

Leadership Lessons From the Political Divide: Turning Conflict into Success-featured-image
Leadership Lessons From the Political Divide: Turning Conflict into Success
Click to view Leadership Lessons From the Political Divide: Turning Conflict into Success

It is a presidential election year in the United States, and political messaging is growing louder and more...

Category:-  Featured , Leadership

Learn More Click to view blog post
Not Your Grandparents’ Leadership Development Program-featured-image
Not Your Grandparents’ Leadership Development Program
Click to view Not Your Grandparents’ Leadership Development Program

It is currently 3 p.m. on a Thursday, and you have just hit the bottom of your third mug of coffee for the...

Category:-  Featured , Business Simulation

Learn More Click to view blog post
Insights and Analytics for Leadership Success-featured-image
Insights and Analytics for Leadership Success
Click to view Insights and Analytics for Leadership Success

At Insight Experience, we believe that effective leadership development goes beyond just delivering content;...

Category:-  Featured , Business Simulation , Leadership

Learn More Click to view blog post
Embracing Change: Leadership Lessons from Autumn-featured-image
Embracing Change: Leadership Lessons from Autumn
Click to view Embracing Change: Leadership Lessons from Autumn

Note: If you like this post, explore the rest of our Season of Leadership series, which includes posts on...

Category:-  Featured , Leadership

Learn More Click to view blog post
The Impact of Microlearning on Leadership Development: 7 Key Benefits-featured-image
The Impact of Microlearning on Leadership Development: 7 Key Benefits
Click to view The Impact of Microlearning on Leadership Development: 7 Key Benefits

Leadership development needs to be as dynamic and flexible as the leaders it aims to cultivate. While...

Category:-  Featured , Microlearning

Learn More Click to view blog post
Lessons I Learned Before I Could Teach Them: How to Run a Meeting-featured-image
Lessons I Learned Before I Could Teach Them: How to Run a Meeting
Click to view Lessons I Learned Before I Could Teach Them: How to Run a Meeting

Welcome to the first blog post in a series focused on practical skills for emerging leaders. In this series,...

Category:-  Featured , Developing New Leaders

Learn More Click to view blog post
Insight Experience Makes the 2024 Inc. 5000 List!-featured-image
Insight Experience Makes the 2024 Inc. 5000 List!
Click to view Insight Experience Makes the 2024 Inc. 5000 List!

Note: Read an Inc. profile of Insight Experience: "In Leadership Development, Your Vendor Should Be Your...

Category:-  Featured , Leadership

Learn More Click to view blog post
Creating a Feedback Culture: If You Build It, They Will Come-featured-image
Creating a Feedback Culture: If You Build It, They Will Come
Click to view Creating a Feedback Culture: If You Build It, They Will Come

As a new leader, building a culture of consistent feedback can feel like a lofty goal. We all know that...

Category:-  Featured , Developing New Leaders

Learn More Click to view blog post