There is a subtle, unmistakable trait I have observed in many successful founders and CxOs I have worked with. In fact, it’s so subtle that one could easily miss it. You need to care about the details, you need to be truly passionate about building a successful enterprise to spot it. It is this: they are exceptionally good at devoting the right amount of time before making a decision.
Many novice entrepreneurs spend an inordinate amount of time, indiscriminately, on every decision. But not every decision deserves or requires the same investment of time and resources.
While I understand that we can’t just rub out our decisions, we really need to think through things. The truth is that this only applies to a small number of decisions. Not every decision we make will have permanent or lifelong consequences. There are reversible and irreversible decisions. Jeff Bezos categorized such decisions into one-way and two-way doors, but I prefer pencil and ink. That is, there are some decisions that are written in ink and can’t just be wiped clean, whereas most others are scribbled with a pencil and can be easily erased.
Leadership is knowing what kind of decision you are holding, and giving each the care it deserves.