As research for her upcoming leadership book on navigating uncertainty, Bobbie LaPorte has worked with many executives who are struggling to confidently make decisions when there is no clear path forward. In her August 30 “Your Next Best Move” video, Bobbie shares some simple questions leaders can ask to improve their decision-making—and take action to keep moving forward.
Your Best Next Move: How can I improve my decision-making under uncertainty?
Hi everyone, Bobbie LaPorte here again with my weekly tip for your Best Next Move – where I help you have more agency in your work, acknowledge your capacity to act, and see what you can do right now.
Many of you know that I have been working on my leadership book on navigating uncertainty (which is coming out this fall). It’s been good to see so many of the concepts I have been studying being used successfully by my clients.
And one of those is the new model of decision-making under uncertainty.
I hear from many of my clients that – in the face of not knowing what is coming – or having enough information to confidently make a decision – they get paralyzed – hitting the “pause” button, waiting for certainty to return.
But that is never going to happen.
Decision-making under uncertainty is very different. Timelines have forever changed; leaders like you must now face the reality of needing to make split-second decisions when there is no clear path forward.
And with the pace at which things are moving and changing in our world, we need to recognize that the cost of delay is much greater now than it was before.
Intuitively, we all know that we no longer have the answers. I know that is a tough admission for leaders to make, but we can’t even see around the corner to what tomorrow may bring, never mind the next quarter.
And yet, as a leader, you must still develop the ability to think about your next move, and not rely on what is known and comfortable, what you’ve done in the past.
I call this ability strategic awareness
It means having the self-knowledge and self-awareness to trust that you are headed in the right direction – to confidently make decisions in the heat of the moment, knowing that you may be headed down a path you have never been before.
And this can definitely be a scary place to be, I get that. What if you choose wrong? What will your boss, your peers think? Maybe your team will lose confidence in you.
Perhaps. But the alternative is even less attractive. If you make a decision that turns out to be wrong, changing course, if necessary, is better than operating in autopilot mode, resorting to what’s been reasonable in the past….or even worse, waiting, becoming paralyzed, fearing the ripple effects of what could go wrong.
No action in these times will surely impact how those around you view you as a leader – much more so than taking action, moving forward, finding your best next move.
So here’s my tip for decision-making under uncertainty:
The next time you have to make a non-trivial decision – before you react – default to autopilot mode, to what you’ve done in the past (which most likely will NOT be the right way), or worse, become paralyzed and do nothing – stop and think: and ask yourself these questions:
- What is the real issue here?
- What do I need to know to move forward?
- What resources do I have to draw on? Who else can help me?
- What move can I make that at least creates forward momentum for my team — knowing you can always change course.
I understand that this behavior change will not happen for you overnight, but you have to take some risk to think differently – now – about decision-making under uncertainty.
As always, I want 2021 to be a year of momentum for you, one of possibility thinking that takes advantage of the agency we sometimes forget we have.
That’s my tip for this week. My book: “When the Curveballs Keep Coming – A Leadership Playbook for an Uncertain World” – will be out in the fall. Stay tuned for more information.
I’ll see you next week. take care of yourselves.
4 thoughts on “How Can I Improve My Decision-Making Under Uncertainty?”
Comments are closed.