From the course: Executive Leadership (2019)

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Decisiveness and courage

Decisiveness and courage

- One of the world's leading global executive search firms did an extensive study, and I got to see the results. After assessing thousands of CEO candidates over the years and examining in detail who succeeded and failed, their research revealed a key success factor was acting decisively and courageously, why? Because anyone can play it safe, do nothing notable, and blend in. But when senior leaders are vague and wishy-washy, people lose confidence and motivation and organizations flounder. How can you follow someone who won't choose a direction? But it's challenging because executive-level decisions tend to come with significant uncertainty and risk. A leader I coached put it this way. The toughest choices get pushed up to me. If I'm making a lot of easy decisions, I'm not doing my job. I'm doing someone else's for them. I need to make decisions others shy away from. It's not easy. It's one of the reasons Thomas Jefferson called leadership "that splendid misery "that involves the…

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