Here's something the best decision makers know that most new managers don't: you are going to get some of them wrong. Not occasionally. Regularly. Three or four in every ten decisions, if you're making real ones, will turn out to be the wrong call.
That's not failure. That's the job.
The problem is that nobody tells you this on the way in. So new managers arrive believing that good decision making means getting it right every time. They don't. Nobody does. And the pursuit of certainty — the endless data gathering, the consensus seeking, the decisions quietly pushed upwards — doesn't make decisions better. It just makes them later. And later, in most cases, is worse.
Chasing certainty is just fear in a suit.
The ways people avoid deciding
Most decision avoidance doesn't look like avoidance. It looks like diligence. It looks like thoroughness. It looks like good process. But underneath it's the same thing — a manager who doesn't want to be wrong and has found sophisticated ways to delay the moment they have to commit.
Collecting more data. There's always one more data point. One more report. One more person to consult. The data rarely changes the decision — it just delays it. At some point the information you have is enough. The question is whether you're willing to act on it.
Seeking consensus. Getting input from others is smart. Needing everyone to agree before you'll move is something else. Consensus sounds collaborative. Often it's a way of distributing blame in advance — if everyone agreed, no one person can be held responsible when it goes wrong. Real decisions require someone to own them.
Delegating upwards. This is the most damaging habit of all. Taking a decision that is yours to make and pushing it to your boss — framed as "keeping them informed" or "wanting their input." Sometimes that's genuinely appropriate. Often it's abdication dressed up as deference. And bosses notice. Every time you send a decision upwards that you should have made yourself, you're telling them you're not ready for more.
Every decision you push upwards is a signal you're not ready for the next level.
Why not deciding is a decision
There's a comfortable illusion that not making a decision keeps your options open. It doesn't. It just means the situation decides for you — usually on someone else's timeline, with less information than you had, and without any of the control you would have had if you'd moved earlier.
Indecision has a cost. Momentum lost. Opportunities closed. Teams left in uncertainty. People who work for indecisive managers don't feel safe — they feel stuck. They stop bringing things forward because they know nothing will happen. The culture of the team quietly calcifies around the manager's inability to move.
A wrong decision made quickly, owned clearly, and corrected fast does less damage than a good decision made six months too late. Speed and direction matter. Perfect is the enemy of done — and done is almost always better than waiting.
The skill nobody talks about — course correction
Here's the reframe that changes everything: the goal isn't to make perfect decisions. The goal is to make good decisions fast and fix the bad ones faster.
The best decision makers aren't the ones who get it right every time. They're the ones who know quickly when they've gotten it wrong — and move without ego to correct it. No defensiveness. No doubling down to avoid admitting a mistake. Just clear-eyed assessment and a change of direction.
That takes confidence. Not the confidence to always be right — the confidence to be wrong in public and correct course without it breaking you. That's a skill. And it's one that's built by making decisions, not by avoiding them.
The managers who are paralysed by the fear of being wrong never develop this muscle. They avoid decisions until they're forced — and then, when things do go wrong, they have no experience of recovery. The managers who decide regularly, own their mistakes clearly, and correct fast become known for something far more valuable than being right: they become known as people you can rely on to move.
The goal isn't to always be right. It's to be wrong less — and recover faster.
When to escalate — and when not to
None of this means every decision should be made alone. Some decisions genuinely require escalation — ones with significant financial risk, irreversible consequences, or implications beyond your remit. Knowing the difference is part of the job.
But the test should be honest. Ask yourself: am I escalating this because it genuinely needs to go higher — or because I don't want to own the outcome? If it's the latter, make the call. That's what the role requires.
The managers who go far are decisive. Not reckless — decisive. They gather enough information to move, they commit, they own it, and when they're wrong they say so and fix it. They don't wait for the perfect moment, the complete picture, or everyone's approval.
Three in ten will be wrong. Make the call anyway. The ones who do are the ones who get remembered — and promoted.