How To Make Better Decisions Than 99% Of Leaders

It wasn’t his technical background. It wasn’t his access to capital. And it definitely wasn’t his charisma (lol).

It was how he made decisions.

Now, here's the thing that keeps me up at night… Most leaders I work with are incredibly smart. They’ve built successful businesses, led teams through crises, and have more experience than they know what to do with.

But when it comes to decision making? I'm often disappointed.

It seems like something they have given much thought to. And don't just take it from me...

Research from McKinsey shows that executives spend 37% of their time making decisions yet 95% have never been trained in decision making as a skill.What? We’re talking about the one capability that determines everything else.

Growth, culture, innovation, survival.

And we treat it like it should just come naturally. Then we end up with smart leaders making consistently mediocre choices because they’re relying on gut instinct, outdated mental models, or whatever framework they picked up along the way from someone they don't even aspire to be like.

And here’s what really gets me…

Some of the worst decisions I’ve seen came from leaders who had access to every data point imaginable. They just weren't using them.

And then you have the individuals who consistently make better decisions…They simply have a system. What I want to show you is how to build that system.

How to create what I call “Decision Architecture.” A framework that makes good choices inevitable and compounds your judgment over time.

I promise, you will move forward faster than you thought possible.

Just try it.

Let me tell you about two CEOs I know. ..

CEO #1’s company has grown too, but it’s been a roller coaster of big wins followed by costly corrections.

The difference isn’t luck. Again, It’s system.

Most leaders treat every decision like it needs to be perfect instead of recognizing that some decisions are experiments and others are commitments.

They make choices when they’re stressed, tired, or emotionally reactive and then wonder why the results don’t match their intentions.

But here’s the thing that blew my mind when I first realized it…

The quality of your decision making process matters more than the quality of any individual decision. Think about that for a second. You can make a “good” decision that leads to a bad outcome because of factors outside your control. But if you have a consistently good process, those bad outcomes become learning opportunities instead of disasters.

You can think of it like dollar cost averaging. No one can predict the market consistently and predictably, much like life itself.

Stay consistent, the wins will outweigh the losses.

I call this Decision Architecture.

It’s the meta skill that amplifies everything else you do as a leader. Because every other capability you have gets filtered through your decision making process. Strategic thinking, team building, innovation, execution.

All of it.

When I was scaling my previous company, I thought I was pretty good at making decisions. I was decisive, I moved fast, and I wasn’t afraid to make tough calls.

But I was also making the same types of mistakes over and over again. It was frustrating.

• I’d make emotional decisions when I was frustrated with slow progress.

• I’d overthink reversible decisions and under-think irreversible ones.

• I’d optimize for short term wins and expected the long term to just "pan out".

It wasn’t until I started treating decision making as a learnable skill that everything changed.

With frameworks, feedback loops, and continuous improvement.

I think many of us want confidence in our decision making as well. Having a system helps with this. When you have a system you trust, you can move faster because you’re not second guessing yourself.

You can take bigger risks because you know you’ll catch mistakes early. You can delegate better because you can teach others your framework. The leaders who consistently outperform, aren’t necessarily smarter. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't.

But many of them just built better systems for thinking through choices. And once you see it this way, you can’t unsee it.

I'm going to break it down into 5 levels…

Roosevelt understood something that most leaders miss: the compound effect of decision making over time. (Aka the compound interest of success)

Every choice you make doesn’t just impact the immediate situation. It shapes your future options, influences your team’s confidence in your leadership, and either builds or erodes your decision making muscle. Elite leaders think in systems, instead of isolated events.

Here’s the framework:

Most leaders make their worst decisions when they’re tired, stressed, or emotionally reactive. Not intentionally, I doubt many of them even give it much thought.

It sounds counterintuitive, but it's true…

Your energy state impacts your decision quality more than your access to information.

When you’re in a low energy state, your brain defaults to familiar patterns and shortcuts. When you’re in a high energy state, you can think more creatively, consider multiple perspectives, and access better judgment.

Elite leaders protect their decision making energy like their most valuable resource.

• They schedule important decisions for when they’re at their cognitive peak.

• They recognize when they’re not in the right state and delay non urgent choices.

So here's what I recommend… Start tracking your energy patterns.

When are you most clear-headed? When do you tend to make decisions you later regret? Build your decision schedule around your natural rhythms.

This is about time horizon perspective.

Before making any significant decision, ask yourself:

• How will I feel about this in 10 minutes?

• 10 months?

• 10 years?

Most bad decisions happen because we optimize for immediate relief or short term gains without considering longer term consequences. The leader who fires someone immediately after a mistake might feel better in 10 minutes, but 10 months later they’re dealing with a demoralized team and a reputation for being reactive.

10 years later, they’ve lost multiple talented people who could have been developed instead of discarded.

The 10 / 10 / 10 rule forces you to zoom out. We all think better zoomed out.

It helps you distinguish between decisions that matter and decisions that just feel like they matter in the moment.

When you start thinking in multiple time horizons, you make choices that compound positively instead of creating problems for your future self.

Jeff Bezos categorizes every decision as either a “one way door” or a “two way door.”

One way doors are irreversible or very difficult to reverse. These require careful analysis, broad input, and deep consideration. (Think hiring a C suite executive, choosing a business model, or making a major acquisition)

Two way doors on the other hand are reversible.

You can try something, learn from the results, and change course if needed. These should be made quickly by individuals or small teams.(Think testing a new ad angle, trying a new software tool, or launching a new product feature or service offering that could always be beta tested)

Most leaders treat two way door decisions like one way doors.

They overthink, over analyze, and create bureaucracy around choices that should be experiments.

This only leads to decision fatigue (or worse paralysis), missed opportunities, and teams that turn into slow moving blobs like the DMV where the biggest breakthrough in five years was switching from fax to email.

Elite leaders move fast on reversible decisions and slow on irreversible ones.

They create more opportunities to learn because they’re constantly experimenting with two way door choices.

Remember, nothing happens in isolation.

Every decision creates ripple effects.

The choice that seems obvious from your perspective might create unintended consequences for your team, your customers, or partners.

Elite leaders think in systems.

Before making a decision, they map out who will be impacted and how. Not just direct impacts, but second and third order consequences.

When you’re considering a change in company strategy…

• How does that impact your sales team’s confidence?

• Your customer success team’s workload?

• Your investors’ expectations?

• How about your personal stress levels?

I'm not saying you need a committee. But you should have full awareness of each decision's systemic impact.

The leaders who consistently make good choices zoom out. They’re considering how their choice affects the entire ecosystem they’re responsible for.

This is the level that separates good leaders from great ones.

Most leaders make a decision and then move on to the next one. Elite leaders create feedback loops.

They document their decision making process. Evaluate and ask yourself…

• What information did I consider?

• What assumptions did I make?

• What outcome did I expect?

• What actually happened?

When you document your decisions, you start to see patterns.

Remember that experience alone doesn't make you better, it's evaluated experience that makes you better.

When you evaluate, you notice which types of choices you consistently get right and which ones give you trouble. You can identify your blind spots and build systems to compensate for them.

More importantly, you can teach your decision making process to others and eventually you can delegate those decisions.

Your frameworks become scalable.

The most successful leaders I know write and they write often. They reflect and evaluate. After six months of this practice, your judgment will improve dramatically. After two years, you’ll have developed decision making capabilities that feel almost supernatural to others.

I'm by no means perfect at this, but I noticed dramatic progress in myself and those I lead after practicing this over time.

Each of these five levels work together.

• Energy state management without reversibility assessment leads to fast but reckless choices.

• Impact mapping without documentation means you never learn from your mistakes.

The real power comes from building this as an integrated system… A system that becomes unconscious competence over time.

When you can consistently make better decisions than 99% of leaders, everything else becomes possible.

Till next time,