As a leader, you often have to make decisions before you can see how everything will come together. You have considered the information available, listened to your team and evaluated the risks as best you can, but you still cannot accurately predict the outcome.

Good decision-making in leadership is not about waiting until you know how everything will turn out. It is about knowing when you have enough information to act, while accepting you will learn more as the situation develops. That is where trust comes in, not blind or ignorant trust, but a willingness to take the next step even though you don’t fully control the outcome.

Sometimes You Have to Move Before You Know

Leaders can often get stuck thinking about their decisions before they act. As long as additional information is available that could help improve the quality of the decision, waiting can be the right choice for avoiding risk. The added information may make you aware of a potential negative consequence that you were not previously aware of.

However, there comes a point when you have enough information to make a decision. You simply have to stop gathering information and take the next step.

Any new strategic direction, restructuring or investment in an untested idea comes with some level of risk. You cannot know the outcome without taking the first step. At some point, you have to make the decision, understand the risk and be prepared to accept what comes with it.

Trust Does Not Mean Ignoring Risks

There is a difference between trusting a decision and recklessly hoping for the best. Recklessness assumes there is no need to worry about what could go wrong.

Considered trust is different. It is the result of making sure to address all risks and ask hard questions. It means having honesty with yourself and making decisions that represent the risks you are aware of before moving forward.

That distinction is important, because uncertainty does not always mean risk is out of control. Sometimes uncertainty is just an element of a good leadership decision.

What Can You Actually Control?

When the outcome appears out of control, making predictions about everything that could possibly happen is a self-defeating exercise. Instead, consider looking at the facts that you have, the things you are assuming, what could convince you otherwise and what step you can take moving forward.

There is a more productive way to work through uncertainty. You can trust the next stage of the process without knowing exactly what the full outcome will be. The important thing is to make a decision based on what you know now, rather than waiting for a level of control that may never come.

Leave Space For New Information

Trust in the decision-making process should never mean assuming you have got everything right. Anybody making decisions for others needs to leave room for receiving news they didn’t want to hear.

A leader who has made the right call for now can always learn something new that changes the outlook of the situation. Their good judgement should include the willingness to hear what they need in order to correct mistakes and continue to grow.

This willingness depends upon the trust and confidence of the people around them. Anybody who can’t admit a mistake has the capacity to make bad decisions by working from only partially understood information.

Take the Next Step

The outcome will never be completely within your control. Your preparation, judgement, questions and willingness to respond to new information are.

That is where considered trust comes from.

You do not need to have every answer before you move forward. If you are facing a decision where the path is unclear, StoneLark can help you create the space to think it through, challenge your assumptions and decide what comes next. Explore StoneLark’s coaching and advisory support to find a more considered way forward.

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