It happens without an announcement. The person who used to make the call is on leave, or has moved on, or simply is not in this meeting. There is a question on the table, the discussion has run its course, and you notice that everyone has gone quiet and is looking at you.
The instinct is to wait for certainty. You do not feel sure enough, so you ask for more information, or suggest taking it offline, or say something that sounds like a decision and is actually a postponement. Occasionally that is right. Mostly it leaves the room without a direction and teaches everyone in it that bringing things to you does not end in an answer.
Here is what is worth knowing. The people who used to decide were not certain either. What they had was a way of deciding under uncertainty, and that is learnable.
First, ask yourself whether the decision can be undone. Most can. A library choice, a sequencing question, which bug goes first. For those, a reasonable answer today beats a perfect one next week, and you can say so. Let us go with the second option and look at it again after the first release. The only decisions that deserve real hesitation are the ones that are expensive to reverse, and those are rarer than they feel in the moment.
Second, invite the objection before you close. Is there anything that makes this a bad idea that I have not heard yet? People who disagree will often stay silent with somebody newly in charge. Asking directly gets you the information and shows them the decision is not about your pride.
Third, say it plainly and give the reason in one sentence. We will do this because of that. A clear decision with a stated reason is easy to correct later. A vague one cannot be corrected, because nobody is sure what was decided.
Then own the outcome, including if it turns out wrong. Changing course when new facts arrive does not undermine you. Pretending you never decided does.
The room was not waiting for you to be right. It was waiting for somebody to move, so that the work could.
Monday: find one decision that has been sitting open for a week and close it.
– Asael Shinder
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