When in Doubt, Check Your Compass
In times of stress and uncertainty, values are your best compass.
As a manager, one of your primary responsibilities is making decisions. You’ll likely make dozens each day. Some small, some significant, but regardless of the size, they’re yours to make.
That also means you’ll be held accountable for them. That’s the nature of the job. Some of your decisions will be wrong. Others will be right but still lead to poor outcomes. Either way, they land at your feet.
Decision fatigue is real. So is poor decision-making under stress.
One way to reduce both is to have a set of guiding principles. Values. Anchors. What must always hold true? What should usually hold true? Build yourself a personal decision hierarchy. something like:
“If I can’t have both X and Y, I’ll prioritise X.”
Whether it’s a decision tree, a rule-of-thumb list, or a set of “do this, not that” guidelines, clarity helps under pressure.
I once worked at an organisation in the midst of massive change. A new CEO, a “right-sizing” of the workforce, and new systems all coming online at once. The CEO told us plainly: “There are going to be gaps. Things we don’t have a policy for. But if you make a decision and can show it aligns with our values, I’ll back you. Even if it doesn’t work out.”
That’s good leadership. And that kind of clarity gives people the confidence to act when it matters.