The first state of ambiguity you might find yourself in is one with highly predictable outcomes.
As we make decisions, there’s always the unknown out there. We face ambiguity in every decision we make. There are four states of ambiguity that you need to appreciate and understand, as you’re trying to make decisions. The first state of ambiguity you might find yourself in is one with highly predictable outcomes.
Let’s imagine I’m going to deal you some cards. I give you the two of clubs, three of clubs, four of clubs, five, six, seven, eight, nine of clubs. If I gave you a hundred dollars to bet on what that next card would be, what are the odds you’re going to pick the 10 of clubs? It’s highly predictable. You don’t need a lot of incremental information to say what’s going to happen next. The next outcome is reasonably easy to forecast. You require little incremental input to eliminate that ambiguity and decisions can be made with fewer parties involved because you don’t need additional information.
Now, let me offer an example of a situation with a highly predictable outcome and how you could react to it. Let’s imagine you have a service and you’re going to make a very small change to a long standing service offering. The source of ambiguity is how are customers going to receive that change? How are they going to react when you make that change? And how many are going to buy that modified service?
What if I told you your customer counts have been stable and predictable for years and that change you’re making is based on an existing and very popular service. You know what’s going to happen in this situation. Now there’s some additional ambiguity you’ll need to resolve. You’ll need to confirm your customer count, but it’s pretty easy to forecast and you may want to do a small focus group to see how that service offering is going to be received once you make those changes.
So again, you don’t need to gather a lot of additional information and you can make the call pretty quickly in a state of ambiguity, where there are highly predictable outcomes.
Want to learn more about decision-making strategies? How about taking an entire course on it? Go directly to the course and start learning decision-making strategies. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!
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Our reader poll today asks: How is AI being handled in your organization?
We have extremely strong adoption – 7%
We have solid adoption in key functions – 24%
We have limited adoption – 47%
Leaders push it, but we have minimal adoption – 10%
No one cares or is using it – 12%
AI Adoption is Growing. Almost 1/3 of you are seeing strong AI adoption at your companies. That’s likely a function of company culture and how strong the use cases are for AI use in your organization. When the return on investment is clear, adoption follows. For those seeing limited adoption, it’s fine to question the use case for AI and the benefits you receive. Many organizations are pushing adoption now because it “seems important” but without clear use cases and benefits, users are unlikely to adopt because it doesn’t make sense to do so. If you’re looking to push AI adoption at your organization, first get clear on the business rationale and benefits. If you can explain those clearly, your teams will see the case for working differently. If the benefits are questionable, perhaps don’t push adoption as it will frustrate your teams.
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When making decisions, you have to appreciate and understand the impact that that ambiguity is going to have on the decision you’re going to make and the risks it carries with it.
As we make decisions, there’s always the unknown out there. We face ambiguity in every decision we make. There are four states of ambiguity that you need to appreciate and understand, as you’re trying to make decisions.
The first state is highly predictable. You know what the future’s going to bring. And with that knowledge, you can make an appropriate decision.
The second state of ambiguity is distinct possibilities, where there are two, three, maybe four possible future alternatives. And what you can do in a situation where there’s distinct possibilities is you can contingency plan based on which of those four might happen.
The third state of ambiguity is a spectrum of outcomes where there’s a very broad, but definable set of outcomes that could happen.
And the last state of ambiguity is complete unpredictability. There’s no way to know what the future is going to hold.
So as you look at making decisions, you have to appreciate and understand the impact that that ambiguity is going to have on the decision you’re going to make and the risks it carries with it.
Want to learn more about decision-making strategies? How about taking an entire course on it? Go directly to the course and start learning decision-making strategies. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!
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Youth leadership specialist J. Chad Mitchell discusses how habit stacking can help young leaders build their influence and keep them consistent.
Today’s guest post is by J. Chad Mitchell, author of ‘Change Your Game: Empowering Young Leaders to Ditch Doubt, Find Their Voice, and Impact the World.’
Goal setting is everywhere. Promotions. Career pivots. Leadership growth. Personal development. Professionals are often clear about what they want next.
But many well-intentioned goals flame out.
Motivation usually is not the problem. It’s a systems problem.
Goals provide direction. Habits create traction. Learning to focus on consistent systems rather than short bursts of effort is one of the most important leadership shifts emerging leaders can make.
Start With What Matters Most
Before talking about habits, effective leaders begin with a more fundamental question: What matters most?
Sometimes professionals adopt goals without critically considering whether those goals align with their values. Leadership habits are more likely to stick when they reinforce what moves you: integrity, trust, growth, service, or excellence.
When habits align with values, they function as expressions of identity. That alignment helps make consistency more likely.
Goals Point the Direction; Habits Do the Work
Goals are aspirational. They help clarify what success looks like. Habits are the vehicle that gets you there.
Think of a goal as a destination and habits as the road. Without a reliable road, even the clearest destination is iffy. This is a key reason goals fail. The vision exists, but the structure to get there does not.
Modern culture rewards speed, visibility, and instant results. Metrics update in real time. Messages demand immediate replies. Progress is expected quickly.
But leadership development works differently. Trust, influence, credibility, and judgment are built slowly through repeated behaviors.
This is where habit stacking becomes especially powerful.
What Is Habit Stacking?
Habit stacking (hat tip to author S.J. Scott and BJ Fogg from Behavior Design Lab at Stanford) is the practice of attaching a new, intentional behavior to something you already do. Instead of relying on willpower, you rely on structure.
This approach works because it removes friction. When the trigger is already embedded in your day, the habit requires less motivation and mental energy to execute.
For professionals with full calendars and competing demands, this matters. Habit stacking does not require dramatic lifestyle changes. It fits into real life.
Here are a few practical examples:
After opening my laptop each morning, I will write down one leadership behavior to practice that day.
After a meeting ends, I will send one appreciative follow-up.
After reading a challenging message, I will pause for three breaths before deciding how best to proceed (e.g., phone call, email 12-hours later).
After my morning drink at 8:30 a.m., I will make that difficult phone call.
None of these actions are impressive on their own. But relationships are rarely built through big, one-time gestures. Leadership is built through small, repeatable behaviors that shape how others experience working with you.
Why Consistency Beats Intensity
Many emerging leaders believe progress requires bold moves or visible wins. Habit stacking –small actions, practiced consistently, that compound–drives sustainability.
Compounding is easy to understand financially, but applies just as powerfully to leadership. A single well-run meeting may not change much. But consistently well-run meetings build credibility and momentum. One supportive conversation may not feel significant. But repeated support and listening build trust.
Over time, those habits stack into influence.
Building Leadership Systems That Last
Organizations often focus heavily on outcomes: performance metrics, advancement, results. A more durable approach is helping people build systems that make those outcomes likely.
Three principles make habit stacking effective for leadership development:
Start small enough that consistency is almost guaranteed.
Attach the habit to something already embedded in your day.
Anchor the habit to identity, not achievement. Ask, “What kind of leader does this habit help me become?”
When people begin to see themselves as someone who prepares well, follows through, listens carefully, or develops others, leadership becomes how they operate rather than a role they switch on.
Commit to the Long Game
Habits do not change overnight. It takes weeks of repetition before a behavior becomes automatic. This reality is often overlooked in professional development, where quick wins are celebrated and patience is undervalued.
Leadership growth rewards those willing to stay consistent long enough for habits to take root. Across age groups and settings, the pattern is consistent. People grow the most not when they set more aggressive goals, but when they commit to small, repeatable actions aligned with what matters most.
Confidence, integrity, and influence are not activated instantly. They are built through habits practiced over time.
When professionals internalize that habits matter more than hype, progress becomes steadier and more resilient. They stop waiting for motivation. And they start showing up consistently, one deliberate action at a time.
Those actions compound. Reliably.
That is how leaders and healthy cultures are built.
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Our reader poll today asks: When someone is openly hostile and unprofessional, how do you deal with it?
I get hostile back. Fight fire with fire. – 7%
I tell them they’re acting inappropriately and to stop. – 53%
I ignore it and continue acting professionally. – 35%
I avoid the conflict and ask someone to help mediate. – 6%
Tacitly Approving Bad Behavior. While 60% of you are direct with someone who is openly hostile that their behavior is unacceptable, 40% of you let the behavior slide by ignoring it or avoiding it. While this approach can help tensions subside in the short term, it signals to the person misbehaving that their conduct is acceptable since there are no consequences for the behavior. If someone is acting in a manner inconsistent with expected behaviors, it’s best to provide feedback to that effect – either in the moment or shortly thereafter. Ignoring bad behavior will only get you more of it in the future.
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Learn about the consensus-based decision-making style and the situations when it’s most appropriate.
The fourth style of decision-making is consensus-based decision-making. This is where decisions are reached with a cross-functional team. People from different departments are having their input, and buy-in is essential.
You should reserve this style of decision-making for the biggest decisions you’re trying to make. However, recognize this can take a lot of time. You have to get everybody saying yes before that decision is made. So you’re going to have individuals from multiple groups, multiple functions, all working together, coming up with that final perspective for the final decision. And performance of the individuals is measured by the team’s outcomes since everyone is involved in making that call.
Allow me to offer an example. At one point, we were launching a brand new website for our company. This was a major investment for the organization, and we needed to make sure we got it right. Now, there was no urgency around making this call, and we knew there would be a lot of meetings, a lot of analysis that needed to be done. And ultimately, we needed agreement before we turned that website on that finance, IT, marketing, sales, operations, and customer service were all on board with that decision.
Needless to say, the steering committee’s job of getting all those people together and driving the input from those organizations was a monstrous task. But in the end, because we had taken our time and gotten everybody to give their input, we had buy-in on the final decision, and when we executed it, it went very quickly and very well.
So as you think about situations where you’re going to use a consensus-based approach to your decision-making, understand it’ll take a long time and you’re going to get input from a lot of different groups, but ultimately, you have that buy-in when you say go.
Want to learn more about decision-making strategies? How about taking an entire course on it? Go directly to the course and start learning decision-making strategies. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!
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Use the S.O.A.P. method to quickly identify and analyze business issues and create an effective action plan that makes a real difference in performance.
Today’s guest post is by Dr. Stephanie F. West, author of ‘S.O.A.P. For Success, A Simple Method To Manage Your Business And Revitalize Your Mission.’
As a veterinarian, I knew how to analyze a patient to identify current and potential issues to address to keep the animal in optimal health. When I moved into operational administration, I naturally defaulted to the same thought process and found it surprisingly useful, and so can you.
The medical community uses a problem-oriented method abbreviated S.O.A.P., standing for Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan to collect, organize and analyze data. I look for subjective and objective issues and capture them in a problem list that I then assess and use to create an action plan. I found that treating a business as my “patient” and using the S.O.A.P. process allowed me to quickly identify issues and underlying causes that could be more effectively addressed.
I discovered this process could also be scaled up to a larger operation. As an example, when I was tapped to lead the veterinary hospital program for a noted veterinary college, I suddenly had to review and run five hospitals and multiple partnerships. At first, I started to document issues in a list, but that immediately became overwhelming. I reverted back to using the S.O.A.P. process and found that it led to fast and effective analysis, action plans, and operational success.
How did I approach this?
Subjective
First, I look for the issues that are often hardest to capture, because they relate to how people feel, and thus are often ignored or glossed over. Your clients or customers, employees, even the general public have feelings and thoughts about your business that can directly and indirectly affect your operations.
Check your reviews, net promoter scores, and read the text comments, both good and bad. Interview your employees. Speak with your vendors and support services. It is surprising what you can uncover by taking the time to capture subjective issues.
I discovered that the team was hard working but almost all employees felt unsupported and out of any communication loop. The clients and public had positive feedback, but I knew that unhappy employees would mean this wouldn’t stay positive for long.
Objective
Most companies have easy access to objective data, such as the financial statements, inventory lists, and other operational data. Just because this information is available does not mean that it is analyzed. Spend the time to review and look at actual and potential issues, and log areas of concern.
In this large organization, I found variation in the operational efficiency of various departments which warranted a deeper look. Uneven staffing numbers and historical funding differences needed addressing. I also saw a very flat organizational structure, with dozens reporting to the few available and overworked managers.
Assessment
Block time in your schedule for the deep work of reviewing your problem list to compare, contrast, and analyze. You will likely find problems with similarities or connections. You will start to identify areas to correct first, and those will make the biggest and quickest difference.
In analyzing my problem list at this veterinary college, I realized that the flat organizational chart was a major issue. If I could correct this by adding middle management, then employees would begin to feel supported and communication in the organization would be easier through departmental groups. Uneven staffing and funding could be addressed through this management team.
Plan
Your assessment will include ranking problems and easily lead to action items. From carefully prioritizing those action items, you can quickly come up with a very effective action plan.
In this case, my first action was to start hiring or promoting middle managers and creating a strong administrative team. Once in place, this team became my extension by delegation, and I was able to positively affect many more areas than I could have reached on my own. My initial “to-do” list melted away as these issues were handled by this new, strong team.
Summary
By using the problem-oriented S.O.A.P. method, I discovered not simply all the little issues in this large organization, but identified one change that simplified operations and resulted in a dramatic revenue increase based on management efficiency. This shows the power of using the S.O.A.P. method in your organization as well, whether large or small.
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Learn about the democratic decision-making style and the situations when it’s most appropriate.
The third style of decision-making that you can use is democratic decision-making. And this is where a decision is reached by a majority vote. Buy-in is desirable, but it’s not essential.
These are the decisions we’ve just got to to make, and we’ve got to move on with life. So individuals are going to interact. You may have a committee where people are going to come together, form an opinion, but ultimately, we set a deadline, we vote, and we move on.
Imagine a situation where you’re trying to choose a new color and floor plan for the office. This is not a huge decision. It’s not a make or break call for the organization, but we do need to make the call and then execute so we can get back to work.
You may assign a committee of people to ultimately choose that color, and you’re going to put it to a vote. Now, not everyone is going to be happy because this is a matter of personal taste so many times. We want as many people as possible to be happy, but we want to make the call and get it done.
So as you think about situations where you’re going to apply democratic decision-making, they should be for those smaller decisions that aren’t going to have a huge impact. But you need to set a deadline for things to get decided so you can move on and execute.
Want to learn more about decision-making strategies? How about taking an entire course on it? Go directly to the course and start learning decision-making strategies. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!
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Leadership shows up through communication. Learn how the Think–Feel–Do discipline helps leaders communicate with clarity, trust, and intention in 2026.
Today’s guest post is by Andy Freed, author of ‘Lead Like The Boss: The Bruce Springsteen Framework to Elevating Your Leadership’
Few skills matter more for leaders than communication. Not because communication is flashy or new, but because it is how leadership shows up most consistently. Long before strategy decks or org charts matter, people experience leadership through words, tone, timing, and follow-through.
Communication is how teams align around goals. It’s how momentum builds. It’s how people decide whether they trust what comes next.
And yet, many leaders don’t put enough intentional work into improving it.
That’s rarely about effort or care. Most leaders communicate constantly. Meetings, updates, presentations, one-on-ones. The volume is high. What’s missing is often intention. Communication becomes something we do automatically instead of something we prepare for deliberately.
As we just entered into 2026, improving communication doesn’t require new tools or better slides. It requires a shift in how leaders think about their responsibility when they speak.
For me, that shift starts with a simple discipline I return to again and again: Think, Feel, Do.
It’s not a formula or a script. It’s a way to slow down before communicating and be more deliberate about how you want your message to land.
Start with intention, not slides
Most leadership communication happens in meetings. Small groups. All-hands. Boardrooms. And more often than not, the first move is to open PowerPoint and start building slides.
I’ve done this myself. A meeting is coming up, so I open the last deck, do a “save as,” and start editing.
Technology makes this easy. That’s exactly why it can get in the way.
Slides make it possible to create content quickly without first thinking through what’s needed. But what’s needed at the start of any communication isn’t content. It’s clarity.
Before opening PowerPoint, leaders should pause and ask three questions. These questions form the backbone of the Think–Feel–Do discipline:
Think: What do I want people to understand when this is over? This isn’t about what you want to explain. It’s about what you want people to walk away believing. If they can’t clearly articulate what changed or why it matters, the message didn’t land.
Feel: How do I want this to land emotionally? People’s ability to hear a message is shaped by how they feel while receiving it. Stress and uncertainty narrow attention. Calm and trust expand it. Ignoring emotion doesn’t remove it. It just means it will shape the message without intention.
Do: What do I want people to do next? Every communication should lead somewhere. Something should be different when it ends. If people leave unsure of what’s expected, the message didn’t do its job.
Only after these questions are answered should slides or messaging take shape. At that point, the visuals support the intent instead of substituting for it.
Anchor to one clear message
As those Think, Feel, Do answers come into focus, they should point to a single central message. Every effective communication has one.
Without a clearly articulated central message, communication becomes unfocused and inconsistent. Leaders introduce nuance, updates, and variations that dilute what matters most. People lose their sense of direction and struggle to distinguish which actions count.
Leadership communication isn’t about novelty. It’s about clarity.
No one would sing along at a concert if the band changed the lyrics every time they played a song. Bruce Springsteen once said he knew he’d written a great pop song when he could hear the audience singing it back to him.
Leadership communication works the same way. When the message is clear and consistent, others begin to carry it forward. They repeat it. They reinforce it. They amplify it.
That’s not just being heard. That’s being followed.
Repeat more than feels necessary
Once isn’t enough to be heard.
Leaders often resist repetition. The desire to say something new pulls them away from their core message. Over time, this creates clutter. Slight variations. Competing signals. Reduced clarity.
The irony is that leaders tire of messages long before teams absorb them.
If something matters, it deserves repetition without apology. Repetition isn’t laziness. It’s how understanding is built and confidence takes hold.
Musicians rehearse. Athletes practice. Actors run lines. Leaders often wing it.
Rehearsal isn’t about sounding scripted. It’s about removing friction. It helps identify awkward phrasing, unclear transitions, and moments where the message loses momentum.
I’ve learned this firsthand. There are phrases I’m comfortable writing but avoid saying out loud because I know I’ll stumble over them. Rehearsal surfaces those issues before the message matters.
Closely related to rehearsal is sweating the details. Technical glitches happen, but if people can’t hear you, they aren’t listening. No rock band takes the stage without a sound check. Leaders shouldn’t either.
Preparation is a form of respect. For the audience. For the moment. For the message.
Bringing it together
Communication and leadership are inseparable. Improving how you communicate is one of the most practical ways to improve how you lead.
Think, Feel, Do isn’t a checklist. It’s a discipline. One that helps leaders slow down, prepare with intention, and take responsibility for how their words shape understanding, emotion, and action.
As leaders head into 2026, the opportunity isn’t to communicate more. It’s to communicate with greater care and clarity. That’s where trust is built. And that’s where leadership becomes felt, not just heard.
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Our reader poll today asks: How well do you understand your organization’s finances and financial drivers of performance?
Extremely — I know our finances inside and out – 22%
Very — I know the major financial performance drivers and metrics – 49%
Somewhat — I know a couple of key drivers but not much more – 17%
Not very — I know profit matters but beyond that, I’m lost – 7%
Not at all — I am completely in the dark on our finances – 4%
Know Your Numbers. 71% of you report having a solid grasp of the financial drivers behind your organization’s performance. Well done. Knowing how your business works from a finance perspective accelerates your ability to improve performance, diagnose problems, and prioritize your efforts on the most impactful work. If you’re in the 29% that is less familiar with your organization’s financial drivers, it’s a worthwhile time investment to learn how the company works financially. Meet with a colleague in the finance department and have them walk you through key reports and metrics. Ask them to explain how the numbers work and which areas of the business impact which numbers. Financial literacy will only serve to make you a more effective leader.
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Our reader poll today asks: How influential of a leader do you feel you are in your organization?
I’m extremely influential – 14%
I’m very influential – 26%
I’m somewhat influential – 40%
I’m not very influential – 16%
I’m not at all influential – 5%
Building your influence. 60% of you report being somewhat (or less) influential in your organization. Influence doesn’t just happen. You have to invest in it. Two keys to doing that are perception and visibility. On perception, do you know how people see you? What are you known for? How do you come across to others? Are you seen as credible and experienced or do you lack those attributes? Visibility stems from putting yourself out there in front of new people across the organization. This doesn’t have to be through big presentations (although that is a route). You can build visibility one-on-one by identifying people you want to know about you and the value you deliver. If you’re not sure how you’re perceived, ask. If you don’t like how you’re perceived, focus on changing those perceptions. And put yourself out there with people whose opinion and perspective matters. A concerted effort on your part in these two domains will go a long way toward building how influential you are.
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Learn about the participatory decision-making style and the situations when it’s most appropriate.
The second style of decision you can make is participatory. And this is where you’re going to make a decision with input from the people who are going to be impacted in that final call.
Now remember, participatory decisions are made when the decision is much bigger, there’s a lot more risk involved. So getting that additional information from more people is going to reduce that decision-making risk. Also, by getting that buy-in, you’re reducing execution risk because people have had an opportunity to give their input and have a say in the final call that’s made.
Now as far as that final call in participatory decision-making, there’s still that smaller decision making authority. It may be an individual or a smaller group. So that aspect of it can feel a little autocratic, but we’ve gotten input along the way. And those individuals are going to interact with each other as this decision is being made. So getting all the people in the room so they can hear each other’s perspectives is going to help you drive to a better decision.
Allow me to offer an example. Recently in my firm, we looked at raising prices on some of the services that we offer. Now this is a really big decision and it has a huge impact on the financials of my firm. So I couldn’t rush off and just make an autocratic decision without getting input from the other people I work with.
So we sat down, we had a conversation, we weighed the pros and cons. People had their say, they brought up things that I hadn’t thought of. And we highlighted some risks that we were going to have to mitigate along the way. Now, ultimately as the leader of the firm, I had to make that call. But I got the input from the people who are going to be involved in executing the decision so we get better execution on the back end.
So as you think about making decisions in a participatory environment, remember you should be using this style where the decisions are bigger, you have a little bit more time to make it because you need to gather more input along the way which takes time and takes meetings. But ultimately, that smaller decision-making body is going to make the call.
Want to learn more about decision-making strategies? How about taking an entire course on it? Go directly to the course and start learning decision-making strategies. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!
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