How and When to Make a Bold Decision
How often do we take a bold step that, while risky, could positively affect our standing at work, home, or in society?
Day in and out we encounter ample situations that call for quick, educated, and bold decision-making. Microsoft made headlines lately with its decision to cut about 14 percent of its workforce over the course of the next few months. That’s about 18,000 jobs, which is the biggest round of firings in the company’s history.
One of the fears people had when Satya Nadella took over as Microsoft’s CEO was that he would stick to its age-old practices, given his long tenure at Microsoft. Pundits questioned whether he would be able to make bold moves.
Today, he rates higher than the national average for CEOs and sits several points above his predecessor, Steve Ballmer. Not fearing a loss of public ranking with such a bold layoff decision, Nadella has gone ahead with the large-scale restructuring at Microsoft.
Sheryl Sandberg, in her book Lean In, makes a call to any individual to take bold steps in what they do. You don’t have to be in a leadership or managerial position for this, but this skill is all the more important for leaders where you are able to build trust, bring in others’ focus, lead with humility, and dare to be vulnerable.
Although it may not always be easy for us to make bold decisions, there are simple but powerful steps to keep in mind about becoming a bold decision maker. These include being quick and nimble, acknowledging that you may fail, and recognizing opportunities that come along the way. Getting diverse input from experts, weighing options, and considering one’s gut feeling all go into taking your next educated, bold step.
When such well-rounded efforts come together in the decision-making process, the individual is able to take ownership of the decision’s outcome—whether it’s right or wrong. And this is the message that is being sent loud and clear, even for nation-rebuilding exercises. For example, Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India, made it very obvious during his campaigns that bold decisions are absolutely necessary to pull India out of its economic crisis.
A simple takeaway for all of us from the above examples is that bold moves are important. Bold moves do not mean hasty moves; they are researched steps with a clear understanding of the time constraints necessary to realize their full potential.
