Men and kings must be judged in the testing moments of their lives. Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because, as has been said, it is the quality which guarantees all others.

 – Winston Churchill

Leaders are struggling. Tons of decisions need to be made. Some need to be made very quickly. Many seem to have existential consequences. No one has enough information. The future is unpredictable.

Here are principles that will help simplify and focus your decision-making process. Use these – you’ll spend less time deliberating and more time meeting the challenges you face.

I’ve broken these down into three categories:

• How do we approach deciding anything?
• How do we interpret information?
• What decisions should we make?

How do we approach deciding anything? Constructive, positive mindsets or attitudes help generally. In a crisis, they prove especially valuable.

Don’t react. Remain intentional and purposeful. Many feel the temptation to make decisions that are counter to your values. But this is the time to really let them guide you.

• Be courageous: Courage is to act well, even when afraid or uncertain. Churchill recognized that without courage, we tend to abandon our other values. Be brave. Hold fast.
• Be grateful: Gratitude reminds us that we continue to be surrounded by goodness. It helps us find and orient towards opportunity and hope. Difficult situations aren’t solved by leaders caught up in despair and limited thinking.
• Be kind: Fear and anxiety provoke some of the most self-serving choices in people. Act in the opposite spirit. Be kind and considerate of others.
• Be generous: Find ways to give and to share. Invent ways if you need to. There is enough and there will be enough.
• Be creative: Innovate, experiment, try new things. Build something new. This is the time to bring new value, services or solutions. It is the hardest times that often give birth to some of the greatest opportunities. The Great Depression and WWII created some of the most innovative thinking and solutions still shaping the world today.

How do we interpret information? There is an onslaught of news, commentary, and information to sort through. It can be overwhelming and most of it is intended to provoke fear, anxiety or anger.

• Filter out what you can’t control: Pay just enough attention to the news to know what’s going on. But don’t wallow in it. Don’t let what you can’t control rob you of what you can.
• Watch for outliers and generalizations: In a crisis, there is a tendency to paint with an overly broad brush. What is happening in New York isn’t happening almost anywhere else. But it generates almost all of the news stories. Know, prepare for and face your context. Not someone else’s.
• Triangulate your direction: In navigation, triangulation is a way to determine where you are so you can decide where to go. In its most simple version, two known landmarks are identified. Your unknown location can then be determined by bearings of those known landmarks.

 For our purposes, find at least two independent and consistently accurate sources of information. They should be objective and relevant to your decision making.

There will never be enough information not will all your questions have answers. Don’t look for that. Just Get good enough information to move forward, check your position, recalibrate and move again.

How do we make decisions?

• Use your values and vision: If you’ve defined the values and vision of your organization, their value is magnified now.

• Screen out options that violate either your values or vision.

• Identify those that seem to be most in alignment.

• Prioritize by those that are most in alignment.

Define what is important: What’s important is usually not universally obvious. Different people or departments will ascribe importance to different things. Leaders often confuse urgency with importance. Create an agreement on:

• The central qualities that make something important, right now.

• The priorities, responsibilities, and obligations that are most important, right now.

• Don’t waste time on unimportant decisions: Based on the above – set down, set aside or abandon what isn’t important at this time.

Careful pruning during the 2008 recession helped many companies not only survive but find incredible success. The pruning allowed them to focus on what was most important – and that is what matters.

• Become an idea machine: A crisis is a miserable time to stop thinking. Start cranking out ideas. Work with your team to multiply ideas like rabbits. I’ve helped many clients do this. Here what seems to work well:

• Clearly identify the problem, issue or opportunity.

• Make a long list of options for addressing it.

• Give yourself targets. I have found the best ideas come from lists of 20 or more. You can develop 20 ideas within 15 minutes.

• The ideas don’t need to be actionable, practical or realistic. You are exploring. Not contracting. Don’t be shy about ridiculous ideas.

• Don’t discuss or judge the quality of the ideas until the list is completed.

• Typically, the first third are old ideas. The next third is a struggle to develop. The last third comes fast and are where the gold is found.

• Evaluate the ideas:

• If doing this with multiple people, each person should independently develop their list. When completed, they can share their 3-5 favorite ideas.

• Mix or combine good ideas.

• Which ideas are best combination of having the highest impact and being the easiest to accomplish?

• Progress not perfection: You absolutely will make the wrong decision at some point. Or multiple points. It’s going to happen. Most of the time this will be fixable. Sometimes it won’t be.

All leaders make mistakes. Some will never admit and therefore lose credibility and the change to learn. Others get knocked back down and never get back up.

The best leaders recognize the mistakes early, get back up fast, learn from what happened and then get moving again. Mistakes are part of the process.

To sum up

Armchair quarterbacks and forensic hindsight experts abound. No one needs them.

What is needed are leaders willing to make the best decisions they can; without good information. Leaders who are humble enough to quickly make and learn from mistakes. Leaders who are persistent enough to keep pushing for solutions until they find them.

You can do it.

Take good care,

Christian

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