Your #1 Decision: Enough Rigour Given to It in ‘23?

As my col­leagues and I brain­stormed to pre­pare for an upcom­ing meet­ing with a group of CEOs and peo­ple on the CEO track, we spent time to cre­ate an exer­cise for impact­ful reflec­tion because:

• A CEO makes one or two big deci­sions a year which can cre­ate a mas­sive rip­ple effect on the enterprise
• The qual­i­ty of those deci­sions is often deter­mined by the qual­i­ty of reflec­tion time tak­en and rigourous debates with key peo­ple (inter­nal team and expert advi­sors) before mak­ing them.

Take Your Time

It’s easy for CEOs to get caught up in the chaos of growth, the noise, urgency and dra­ma of prob­lems at hand. But putting atten­tion on a bunch of lit­tle deci­sions — which might add up to a 75 cent or $7.50 impact on the busi­ness — steals time and ener­gy away from the sin­gle biggest oppor­tu­ni­ty or sin­gle biggest prob­lem that could impact the busi­ness by $750,000 or $7.5 million.

Sim­ply, there are 427 lit­tle things you could focus on and make deci­sions about, and one or two that would like­ly have 10 times the impact. Those deserve more of your time and energy.

The Chal­lenge

Reflec­tion: 2023

• Look­ing back on the last year, what is the sin­gle deci­sion that had the biggest finan­cial impact on your enterprise?
• If you could go back in time, how would you make that deci­sion differently?
  • How would you change the process, who you dis­cussed it with and/​or the time and/​or the ener­gy you ded­i­cat­ed to mak­ing that decision?

Look­ing For­ward: 2024+

• What is the sin­gle most impact­ful deci­sion you can make in the next 12 months?
  • To lever­age a big oppor­tu­ni­ty for growth or
  • To elim­i­nate a big prob­lem that affects your abil­i­ty to oper­ate well as a company.
• Who are the key peo­ple you need to help you make this decision?
  • Inter­nal Team
  • Exter­nal Advi­sors or Experts

Addi­tion­al Blogs

• The Impor­tance of Reflection
• 10-Year Plan: Look­ing Ahead to a New Decade
• 1001 Lead­er­ship Challenges

Old Pod­casts

• Using the Sand­box to Pre­vent Dumb Decisions
• Mak­ing Dif­fi­cult Decisions