# Rapid Decision Making for Executive Leadership

**Podcast:** LEITWOLF Podcast - Leadership, Führung & Management
**Published:** 2026-04-09

## Transcript

These thoughts are paralyzing and they lead to no decision at all.
And that's the worst decision at all.
Clarity of decision making begins with clarity about the problem.
And clarity about the question you want to answer.
Hello and welcome to today's Light Wolf Podcast episode.
Tough Decisions.
How to get clarity in just 48 hours.
Your podcast for leading with impact, and my pleasure to welcome you again today to another piece of exchange and learning on one of the most challenging parts of our leadership daily lives.
Making decisions, making tough decisions, and making them in very little time.
That's one of the areas of leadership business life that many of you repeatedly feed back into me.
Sharing that that's one of the things I'd like to learn more about.
So let's invest this time and let's share and discuss what might be helpful to you in taking tough decisions quickly.
You're stuck not because you lack information, but because there is too much at stake.
And that's holding you back.
My cooperation partners and me encounter a couple of typical problem areas in our business lives.
Problem one: hesitating too long.
Perhaps the most common problem faced by almost all managers and leaders.
Whenever I ask leaders, if you look back at your career so far, what is the one thing you would do differently if you did it again?
Another way of asking, what is your biggest mistake so far?
And the answer is always the same.
I should have taken those big, hairy, tough, ugly decisions much sooner, rather than postponing them.
So it is indeed a common problem.
But what do people often do instead of deciding?
They collect even more data, even more opinions, develop even more scenarios.
This is sometimes the right thing when it comes to big decisions, really big ones, like buying or selling a business.
And in these moments, it's conceivable that more information indeed leads to better decisions.
But often it is not the right way to go.
Clarity often does not come from endless analysis, paralysis.
It comes from making a decision when enough information, sufficient information is available.
Not every piece of information, not perfect information, because perfect information doesn't exist.
Just enough information to make a decision.
That's problem area one we often encounter.
Problem area two, fear of consequences.
What if the decision is wrong?
What if someone is disappointed?
What if it costs a lot of money?
What if it goes wrong?
These thoughts are paralyzing, and they lead to no decision at all.
And that's the worst decision at all.
However, standing still is usually much more expensive than just making a decision that then later on proves to be second best.
It's much better to take decision second best than not to decide at all.
And problem area three, too many voices in your head, right?
There is the board who wants the right thing for the long term and the health of the company and sustainability.
There is the investors who want the right thing for their financial return.
There is your team who want the right thing for the team culture.
There is other stakeholders that want yet something else.
There is customers who want great services and great products as a fair price.
They all have different expectations.
And sometimes people try to satisfy all of them somehow.
And that is often absolutely impossible.
At some point, you don't really know anymore what are my own convictions, what is right, right?
And it's impossible to make everybody happy.
If you are a loyal Lightwolf podcast follower, and we've been around now for incredible and unbelievable nine years with more than 500 episodes, you will have heard me share my experience of working with Steve Jobs.
And albeit a long time ago, albeit just indirect most of the time, just one day I met him live in Berlin when launching the first iPhone into the world, the lessons I learned are still in my mind.
He's confronted by a very demanding borderline aggressive journalist asking him a question to decisions he has made the months prior and how they served the interests of differing target audience and stakeholder groups.
And after taking just 30 seconds of silence on stage with many cameras running, Steve Jobs came back and said, Sir, thank you for the question.
I cannot please everyone all the time.
I can just please some people sometime.
Unquote.
And I think that might help.
If you have too many voices in your head, you cannot please everyone all the time.
And that's not your role as a leader.
Your role as a leader is to get the right thing done.
And that might be pleasant to many, many times.
But that might also be very unpleasant to quite a number of people at times.
But that's not the point.
It's being respectful and caring in the in the how, absolutely.
We should always take decisions with respect and care for those affected.
There is no doubt about it.
But the most important thing you as a leader, have to do is to decide what's right.
And if you have too many voices in your head, then ask yourself what is right.
And with that thought process and that clarification of what is right, you will win inner clarity.
And once you have inner clarity, you will be able to take a decision within 48 hours.
So, three more tips from my side how you might find ways to take tough decisions with more ease within two days.
Tip number one define the real decision-making problem.
In my career, yeah, 25 years in corporate, 12 years as an entrepreneur to successful healthy startups.
Hundreds, thousands of moments when I was involved in decision making.
Quite a number of times I realized that at the beginning of the decision phase, we were somewhat clear about the problem to solve, but not really.
So, therefore, suggestion number one: define the real problem for decision making.
Take a few minutes.
If you can, take 30 minutes.
Write down one sentence.
Write it down.
Reflect on what you've written.
Improve this.
Think about it until you can really articulate the problem you want to solve.
Second, write down the real decision we need to take is dot dot dot.
Right.
Think about this decision from the perspective of all stakeholders, the investors, owners, leaders of the company, board members, customers, your team members, yourself.
So write down the real decision you have to take is dot dot dot.
Once you've done this exercise, undistracted, fully focused, relaxed, and calm.
Oftentimes you'll realize that the problem definition and the definition of the decision you have to take has slightly evolved.
It might have moved a little bit into a related area.
Or you might have been able to define it more shortly and more precisely.
Every little change in problem definition and decision definition will help you define better and then solve better and decide better whatever you need to decide.
So that's my first idea for you.
Write down the real problem you need to solve.
Write down the real decision you want to take, and you'll realize it's slightly different than you thought at the beginning.
Clarity of decision making begins with clarity about the problem.
And clarity about the question you want to answer.
Tip number two: the 48-hour decision-making framework.
Set yourself a limited time for taking the decision.
Set 48 hours, which for most decisions is enough.
During this time, you only clarify three things.
Which option contributes most to our strategy?
What does it cost not to decide?
What is the biggest risk involved in the lead option?
And how will we manage it?
And what decision would I take if I were brave enough to simply do the right thing?
Then decide.
Not perfectly, but consciously.
Why not perfectly?
Well, because perfection is impossible.
It's humanly impossible to take a perfect decision.
And it's not necessary.
You don't need perfect decisions.
You need decisions that are good enough.
Right?
So take them, don't take them perfectly, but take them and take them consciously.
And take them better fast than perfect.
And every decision you take after that kind of preparation and reflection will be the right decision at that time.
Then take it and execute it.
If then over time you learn there is a better way, well, then adapt along the way.
But don't wait, wasting your time.
So tip number two, the 48-hour decision-making framework, invest just two days and then decide.
Better fast than perfect.
And tip number three, the 80% principle.
In the vast majority of decision-making cases, having 80% of the relevant information is absolutely sufficient.
The last 20% usually only comes after the decision has been made.
And if you keep on waiting for another one and another one and another 1% of more certainty or clarity, you're wasting the most important resource you have, your time to market.
In most of the moments when you decide after 80% of all the information is there, the crucial information is there and is good enough, and then you take a decision with 80% of information, and the remaining 20% of information you just collect along the way when you execute, when you learn how to fine-tune the decision, when you learn how to implement the decision.
That's saving you half of the time and making the impact of the decision you take multiply many, many times.
Strong leaders make decisions often with 80% certainty and clarity.
Then they create 100% clarity about the decision, the reason why for the decision, and the direction, and they create 100% energy about getting the decision to implementation.
And during implementation is the time when you optimize the last X percent to really get to the full potential of your decision.
So in a nutshell, three ideas for you how you could take tough decisions in just 48 hours.
Tip one, define the real decision-making problem.
Tip two, the 48 hours decision-making framework.
Decide in two days.
And three, the 80% principle.
80% of all the information and the right information is often more than good enough.
The quality of leadership is not measured by how many decisions you avoid.
It is measured by how clearly and courageously you take them.
So my suggestion for you for the coming week.
Which decisions are you currently putting off?
Give yourself 48 hours.
Try the rules and ideas and questions I've shared in this podcast.
Give yourself 48 hours.
Define the problem clearly.
Define the decision to take clearly.
Make it conscious.
Take a conscious decision.
It's going to be the right decision.
And then put it into action with full energy and keep on learning about little improvements along the way.
I hope you've enjoyed this podcast.
It's been a pleasure as always to have you here on the show.
And I can't wait to have you here again in the next Lightwolf episode, maybe already next week.
Thank you and have a fantastic week.