Let what a decision costs to walk back set how long you take to make it.
Rising leaders make more decisions than their roles once asked of them, and many arrive with less to go on: a plan that depends on work nobody has finished, a market that is still changing, a request from leadership that assumes facts not yet in place. Two pieces of advice usually follow. Explore every option before you choose. Don’t wait until you know everything. Both are sound, and they apply to different parts of the same decision.
Be thorough about the options and quick about the choice between them. How much time the choice deserves depends on how hard the decision would be to walk back and what waiting would cost. Most decisions can be reversed and are best made quickly, with a set point to check how they are going. A few cannot, and those earn a slower, more careful path.
AI is changing both sides of this. A list of options or a full analysis that once took a week can now be produced in minutes, so there is little reason to choose between only two ideas. The same speed means analysis never runs out on its own, which makes knowing when you have enough to decide the skill that matters. Leaders who build it make sound decisions sooner and keep their teams moving.
Generate Options That Differ in Kind
Most decisions start with one idea already in mind, and the alternatives that follow tend to be versions of it: the same plan done faster, cheaper, or by a different team. Options worth comparing differ in kind. They might include doing nothing for now, a smaller version that tests the idea first, or an approach borrowed from another team, industry, or competitor. Choices that are truly different show you what you give up with each one, and that is where the best decisions come from.
AI makes this fast. Ask it for ten ways to reach the same result, then ask it to argue against the one you favor and to spell out what each option assumes. Narrow the list to the three that differ most and still serve the outcome you are after. Three real options are usually enough to see the trade-offs without stretching the decision out.
I use AI this way to challenge my own thinking. When I was deciding how to reuse my published articles on social media for the most relevant reach, I asked an AI assistant to poke holes in both my approach and how often I planned to post. Pushing it hard on my assumptions surfaced considerations I had not weighed, and the plan we settled on combined several of them. It was significantly different from the one I started with, and none of those considerations would have come up if I had not asked to be challenged.
“Be thorough about the options and quick about the choice between them.”
Decide How Much Time the Decision Deserves
Two questions set the pace for any decision. The first is how hard it would be to reverse. Which client to approach first, how to run a team meeting, or which draft to send can be changed within days if it turns out wrong. A multiyear contract, a system the whole organization will use, or a senior hire is far harder to walk back. The second is what waiting costs: a client opportunity that closes, a team left without direction, a competitor that moves first.
When a decision is easy to walk back and waiting is costly, decide within days and set a date to check how it is going. When it is hard to walk back and waiting costs little, take the time to research it, test it, and bring in the expertise it needs. Most decisions belong in the first group, and making them quickly frees time and attention for the few that need more. Pressure to move fast often happens on exactly the decisions that deserve the slower path, so name which kind you are facing before the pressure decides for you.
I saw this on a committee overseeing our marketing and sales technology. An account leader pushed hard for us to adopt a tool they had used at a previous organization. It was a reasonable request, and it came with considerable cost and real challenges in getting people to use it, the kind of commitment that is hard to reverse. The pressure was constant and at times aggressive. We did the research the decision needed, partnered with our CIO’s team and the provider, and implemented the tool in the way that worked best for the whole organization.
Compare Options on the Few Things That Matter
Once you have real options, compare them against the few things that matter most to the result: what each will deliver, what it will cost in money and time, what it depends on, and how well it holds up if circumstances change. A simple table with the options across the top and those measures down the side is usually enough to show where one option clearly leads and where you have room to give.
Stop researching once new facts would no longer change your choice. Ask what you would need to learn to pick a different option, and whether you could learn it before the decision is due. If the answer is nothing, or not in time, you have enough to decide. When the choice belongs to someone more senior, bring the options and your recommendation together. Showing the trade-offs and the option you would choose tells your leadership you worked through the problem, and it gives them a decision they can make with confidence.
In one role, I was charged with building a global content engine for a business unit, bringing together our offerings, partners, and positioning in material packaged several ways for sales leaders to take to clients and start new opportunities. Two things it depended on were not ready. The offerings catalog was still being finalized by another team, and the list of target executives was still in development, so anything we produced could only speak to clients in general terms. I worked through several ways to get into market quickly and improve as those pieces came together, each with its own trade-offs, and brought them to the business unit’s leadership team with a recommendation. We chose to start with partner content, position our own executives as experts on the topics, and build the full set of material in parallel. When it was ready, it read as a natural next step from what clients had already seen and built on what marketing and sales had started together. It worked very well, and my peers valued having a considered alternative with a confident recommendation behind it.
Commit to What You Know and Plan for What Could Change
Committing before everything is known works when you are clear about which parts of the decision are settled and which are still moving. Separate what you can rely on from what could change, build firmly on the first, and design the second so it can be adjusted. Then write down the choice, the reason for it, the two or three signs that would change it, and when you will look again. A short note is enough, and it gives your team the same picture you have.
With that in place, act on the decision fully and stay close to the signs you named. Adjust when one of them appears, and leave the rest of the decision alone when something new comes up that you already planned for. Changing course for a reason you named in advance keeps your team’s confidence, because they can see the decision is being managed.
The clearest test I faced came while leading a marketing program in the U.S. healthcare sector, tied to legislation and regulation that were changing almost daily. Our solution would be announced the same day the government made the changes final. Internal briefings gave me a sense of where things were likely to end up, so the campaign and its assets had to be built alongside the policy itself. With the team supporting me, we sorted what we knew into what was likely to stay and what could still change, wrote the copy and built the assets around that split, and revised them as each change came through. It was a highly visible program that had to be exactly right, so I tracked every detail and stayed closely connected throughout. Everything was ready when the announcement came, the launch went without issue, and it became one of the organization’s larger successes that year.
Start With One Decision You Have Been Putting Off
Choose one decision on your list this week. Write down three options that differ in kind, ask how hard each would be to reverse and what waiting is costing, and compare them on the few things that matter. Then choose, note what would change your mind and when you will look again, and tell the people who need to know. Practiced on everyday decisions, the habit becomes how you handle the larger ones, and it gives your team clear direction and the room to keep moving.
About John Fildes
I grow the top line by connecting marketing to business strategy. By leveraging powerful positioning, content marketing, and client insights, I help organizations drive qualitative and quantitative results at scale.
I've built an amazing network of incredibly talented people over the years. What I've appreciated most is those who have invested in me, mentored me, and helped me become the talented professional I am today. I pay it forward by doing the same for other high performing professionals and entrepreneurs.
Learn More: Growth Leader | Business Builder | Leadership Multiplier
All views are my own and not those of my current or prior employers.
