As a CEO, one of the greatest things I've experienced is having to make tough decisions under overwhelmingly negative circumstances. Like the infamous Kobayashi Maru from Star Trek, I don't believe in no-win scenarios, but I know firsthand that there are situations where the options are bad or worse. Every executive, director, manager, or leader will encounter circumstances like this in their career. How you step up to the challenge makes all the difference.
OPINIONS, EVERYONE HAS ONE
First, everyone will have an opinion on what to do or why it should be a certain way. It's great to hear thoughts, to entertain suggestions, and to explore options (if there's time) thoroughly, but ultimately the role of the decision maker is to take decisive action that weighs tradeoffs for the firm, constituents, and shareholders. At no point in during the deliberation do you bring yourself into the equation, and for a good reason, you can't bias a decision based on what's right for you. It has to be what's right for everyone. Where most leaders fail is that they put themselves into the decision rather than objectively looking at the matters at hand and making choices on what things need to be like once the crisis passes. Reviewing data is a great way to get distance and to ground yourself in reality.
I've found the best way to ensure different opinions don't cloud the final decision is to make sure to separate yourself from the rest and spend time working backward from the desired outcome while building out a sketch of how you got there and what steps were taken to drive it further. For some, it may seem bellicose to think through adverse situations, but that's precisely why you're leading, you're supposed to handle it and get on with it.
Now, that isn't to say you're supposed to be a robot and pretend like it's not happening. You need to feel every damn minute as quickly as possible. Process the emotion, cry, scream, break something (don't get arrested or hurt anyone), and get back in and make the call. The sooner, the better.
EMOTING
More than likely your decision is going to affect people profoundly. Expect emotional outbursts. Expect resentment. Expect people to question everything. Have empathy. Have sympathy.
Don't ever doubt the decision taken for a moment.
Emotions are great to comfort us in times of distress or to relate with one another but don't give yourself the cat-of-nine-tails because others don't understand. They're entitled to feel the way they do as much as you are allowed to feel the way you think. You have to remember why you chose to go the way you did and explain it sufficiently to be understood, after that it's just a matter of time.
A good friend of mine once told me you couldn't be the solution if you're the problem and generally, in decisions like this, you will become the fixation, even though the issue more than likely landed on your plate.
Of course, don't expect anyone to thank you for making the decision. When done right the results become self-evident, and even though the decision taken caused much stress and emotional outbursts, most people don't know how to thank you for making the call. That's okay. Surviving and living to fight another day is all the thanks you need.
UNDERSTAND WHY & LEARN
Once the crisis has passed, don't try too quickly to forget about it. You need to study why something happened and extract key learnings, identify responsible parties/behaviors, and learn from it. I've found the best thing to do here is to confront reality directly and without being polite. Truth is things contributed to a situation and speaking with your team about it and presenting solutions to ensure it doesn't happen again is part of the healing process.
If you're in an organization where politics don't make it possible to discuss uncomfortable truths, which everyone already knows, then find a way to extract the critical lesson into a distilled study that can be spoken about in a way that matches your organization. Being open and honest contributes the most to shared learning's adopted by organizations, especially when it comes from problems caused by senior leaders. No matter how hard some would like to pretend, mistakes, lack of accountability, and just plain incompetence needs confrontation to learn and grow.
The good news is that like most things in life practice makes perfect. Hard choices don't stop being hard, but they become less taxing and ultimately a part of the leadership journey. Learning to embrace the circumstances you're in a while remaining objective and sympathetic towards others ensures a healthy mind when making a decision. Understanding why and learning from it will bring you and the rest of your team up to the next level of performance.
After all, tough decisions happen all the time, and it's the leader's job to find the best solution possible and guide their people through to the other side.
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