LIKE MANY YOUNG leaders, early in my career, I thought a great decision was one that attracted widespread approval. When my colleagues smiled and nodded their collective heads, it reinforced (in my mind, at least) that I was an excellent decision-maker.
But as time wore on, I saw the fallacy of this approach. Seeking broad consensus requires considerable com-promise to incorporate each person’s perspective. The result is a decision that is the lowest common denominator: a choice that everyone can live with, but no one is really happy with.
Worse, consensus seeking is almost always excruciatingly slow, and the higher up a leader climbs, the less often they are afforded the luxury of time. During my years as a senior executive, I was regularly asked to make quick, critical decisions in response…
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Harvard Business Review Special Issues (Digital) - 1 Issue, Fall 2023