You’re basing your certainty on assumptions. (#310)
The Confident Leader
BOOST YOUR LEADERSHIP IN UNCERTAIN TIMES
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” – Mark Twain
This Week’s Edition
This week we’re equipping you to eradicate the assumptions lurking in your leadership decision-making.
Clarify Your Thinking
Micah had an idea. He launched the project. He was certain it would work. It didn’t.
Certainty doesn’t necessarily equal right. You can be certainly wrong.
Here’s the leadership move we all make and almost never catch. We take what we’re certain about, and we treat it as fact.
Then we make major decisions and allocate the budget and time to make it happen.
Notice how we don’t call it an assumption.
We call it knowing what’s right. Ability to read the moment. Trusting our gut.
Certainty is not the same as knowing.
That certainty feels efficient. It lets us move fast.
Old Thinking: I know what we need to do. Let’s just get started.
New Thinking: I’ve got a gut instinct. Let’s assess it. Let’s get more information.
Thoughts Lead to Actions
Here’s the cost. A decision built on an assumption is a house built on sand.
It looks solid until weight hits it, and then it fails in the exact place you were trying to reinforce.
When it fails, leaders often secretly blame their team’s buy-in or execution.
Depending on the size of the assumption(s) it’s more likely that the gut instinct you acted on wasn’t thoroughly vetted.
Roll through a series of questions that will help you fortify your ideas.
Here are the Power Questions to run before any decision that matters this week:
- What do I actually know here, and what am I quietly filling in?
- What else could be true that I haven’t let myself entertain?
- Have I asked the people involved, or only asked myself?
- Out of a hundred possible explanations, what makes me sure I grabbed the right one?
Slow down. Ask some more questions. Slow is fast.
Boost Your Performance
Want to stop dressing up assumptions as data before your next big decision? This week’s video shows you the two-tool reset.
What’s Your Opinion?
What’s a decision you’re about to make where you haven’t actually asked, you’ve only assumed?
I’d love to hear your thoughts: robin.pou@robinpou.com
If you are going to be a leader, you might as well be a good one. Don’t let doubt count you out. Have a confident week!
Robin Pou, Chief Advisor and Strategist
We live to make bad leadership extinct so forward this newsletter to others who strive to be confident leaders.
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What is “The Confident Leader”?
During the Covid-19 Pandemic, I began a video series called “Panic or Plan?” It was designed to equip leaders to navigate the doubt they experienced and to rise in the confidence they needed to lead during turbulent times. It took off. I then started this newsletter to equip leaders in the same fashion each week for the doubt that crashes across the bow of their leaderSHIP.
