How comfortable are you making decisions in highly ambiguous situations?

Our reader poll today asks: How comfortable are you making decisions in highly ambiguous situations?

• Extremely: I don’t mind ambiguity at all and it doesn’t slow me down 11.69%
• Very: I can deal with most ambiguity and make relatively quick decisions 50.94%
• Somewhat: I don’t like ambiguity and it can slow my decisions down 26.17%
• Not very: I dislike ambiguity and often wait to make decisions 9.34%
• Not at all: I wait for ambiguity to be resolved before making decisions 1.86%

Some comfort with ambiguity. 63% of you report being fairly comfortable with making decisions in ambiguous situations. Well done. There’s no shortage of uncertainty out in the world and “letting everything settle” simply exposes you to new sources of ambiguity. For those not as comfortable with the unknown, one thing that can get you unstuck is recognizing that many decisions are reversible if you get new information. Additionally, know that there is a cost to waiting to make a decision – missed opportunities, frustrated employees and customers, and loss of competitive advantage. Do your best to identify what you don’t know, assess the impact of each unknown variable on the outcome, identify the biggest risks, then make a decision with a plan to monitor those large risks. When you disaggregate the unknown, it makes it a lot easier to make a call and move forward.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.