10 Critical Decision-Making Mistakes Leaders Make (And How to Avoid Them)

Here’s the truth: You are going to make decision-making mistakes as a leader. That’s just part of it.

You rarely, if ever, have all the information, and decision-making is based on probability.

That doesn’t mean you can’t avoid making common mistakes that many leaders make. By learning the mistakes that many leaders make, you can avoid the pain that comes with them and make decisions better.

Here are 10 of the common, critical mistakes many leaders make:

1. Making too many decisions yourself instead of delegating

Sometimes leaders think that it’s their job to make all of the decisions. Or they don’t trust people or think only they are capable of making the decisions.

But all that thinking does is hurt you. Not only that, as a leader, you are often more detached and have less information than you think you do. When you make all the decisions, you end up making worse decisions and become a bottleneck.

And, when you become the decision bottleneck:

• Your team waits on you, slowing everything down
• You become burned out from decision fatigue
• Your team members become demotivated and take less ownership in their work and decisions made
• People closest to the problem can’t use their expertise
• You spend time on decisions others could handle better and less time on what you should be focusing on

As a leader, you should put decision-making as close to the problem as possible.

How to fix it: Release your team to make decisions in regards to their work and things delegated to them. Set clear expectations and outcomes, set clear guidelines and parameters, and provide the training and support they need.

If you feel like you can’t trust them, ask why? Often it goes back to the leader: poor communication, poor expectations, lack of training, etc.

Next time someone brings you a decision, instead of jumping in with a solution, try responding with: “What do you think we should do here?” Then guide them through their thinking rather than jumping in with your own answer.

2. Jumping to solutions before determining what you need

It’s easy for us as leaders, and as humans, to rush toward solutions before we even figure out what the problem is or what criteria are important for the solution we need.

We need some new project management software, so we jump in and start looking up software before examining what we need out of the software we get. A project is failing, so we jump in with orders and “solutions” without fully examining why the project is failing.

When you don’t set clear criteria first, you will likely:

• Give too much weight to the first pretty factors that pop up (or that just seem good at the moment)
• Be swayed by whoever argues loudest in the room
• Judge different options by different standards
• Focus on the glitter and niceties for what you really need
• Get attached to the first thing you liked and start overweighting its positives and downplaying its negatives while downplaying the positives and playing up the negatives of alternatives
• Make inconsistent decisions that confuse your team
• End up with a choice that doesn’t really fit what you need

How to fix it: Before considering options, write down your “must-haves” and “nice-to-haves.” Be specific about what success looks like. For major decisions, share these criteria with your team so everyone understands how choices will be evaluated.

For example, when choosing new project management software, list criteria like: “Must integrate with our current systems,” “Must cost less than $X per user,” and “Must allow customized workflows.”

Ask yourself: What decision are you facing now that would benefit from written criteria? What really matters for this choice to be successful?

3. Seeing decisions as binary, one or the other, yes or no

“Should we implement this new system or not?” “Do we hire for this position or hold off?”

We often frame decisions as yes/no or this/that questions, which severely limits our options.

However, just adding one or two more alternatives dramatically improves your decision quality. In their book Decisive, Chip and Dan Heath found that businesses that considered at least one additional option were six times more likely to make successful decisions.

How to fix it: When facing any significant decision, push yourself to generate at least one more alternative beyond the obvious choices. Ask:

• “What are other options we can do?”
• “What if both options are wrong? What else could we do?”
• “If these options weren’t available, what would we do?”
• “How might we combine elements from different approaches?”

For example, instead of just deciding whether to hire a new full-time designer, consider alternatives like: contracting with a freelancer, upskilling current team members, using design templates, or partnering with an agency.

Ask yourself: What current decision are you treating as binary? Can you list two-three genuinely different alternatives?

4. Rushing decisions to appear “decisive” (or never deciding at all)

One harmful myth that some leaders have is that being “decisive” means rushing decisions (or they may say, making them “fast”). So instead of taking the needed time to gather the needed information, they quickly decide, being “decisive” or saying there isn’t time, but then later somehow has the time to fix it when it goes wrong.

On the flip side, some leaders get stuck in analysis paralysis, constantly seeking more information and never pulling the trigger. They want to have 100% of the information and “make sure” it’s the right decision.

They fear making a mistake or being wrong.

Both tendencies hurt your team and your results.

How to fix it: First, realize being “decisive” isn’t talking about speed—it’s making the decision confidently and moving forward with it when it’s time to make the decision.

You gather the information, you look at alternatives, but when it’s time to decide, you decide and move forward.

When it comes to not deciding, you need to remember a few things:

• You will never have all the information
• You will make mistakes, so you should see decisions as test and experiments and opportunities to learn from
• Not deciding is a decision. You are deciding to do nothing or stay in the status quo (which can sometimes be worse than a “wrong” decision). So make sure you choose wisely.

Ask yourself, “What is the cost of waiting on this decision?” If it’s a low-level decision that doesn’t warrant more time or it’s a critical decision that should be made now, make the best call you can with the information you have now.

For many decisions, you can always come back later, check and adjust as needed.

Another way to think through it is a framework that Jeff Bezos uses: “Is this a one-way door (irreversible) or a two-way door (reversible) decision?”

Asking that can also help you in deciding when to decide.

Ask yourself: Which decisions have you been rushing that deserve more consideration? Which have you been overthinking that you should just make?

5. Not properly vetting decisions

Too many leaders make decisions in an echo chamber. No one feels safe disagreeing, so everyone says yes to the leader’s face while talking about how stupid the idea is with each other outside the meeting.

When that happens, bad decisions are made, people don’t take ownership of the decision, and it’s more likely to fail.

Don’t be that way. You want people to disagree with you and your ideas because it helps you make the best decisions, gives you more information, and lets you see potential pitfalls that may come. It also gives you ideas that could be better than yours.

How to fix it: Deliberately seek out viewpoints different from your own. This doesn’t mean decision-by-committee, but rather gathering valuable input before you decide.

Try these approaches:

• Instead of asking, “Sound good?” ask “What are your thoughts on this?”
• Make sure everyone speaks up in the meeting
• Consult people from different departments who might see angles you don’t
• Assign someone to play “devil’s advocate” who challenges the popular view
• Consider how this decision might look to customers or other stakeholders
• Instead of asking, “How am I right?” ask, “How might I be wrong?”

Creating psychological safety is crucial here—you need to build a culture where people feel safe disagreeing and speaking up without fearing judgment or negative consequences. You want people to call you out when they think your idea is bad.

Remember, if everyone agrees when you speak, it’s not a good sign, it’s a warning.

6. Falling prey to cognitive biases

Our brains aren’t wired for perfect decision-making. We as humans all have cognitive shortcuts that can lead us astray.

Three particularly dangerous biases for leaders are:

Confirmation bias: We favor information that supports what we already believe. If you’ve already decided that a particular vendor is the right choice, you’ll pay extra attention to their strengths and discount their weaknesses as well as look for information that agrees with you while dismissing information that doesn’t.

Outcome bias: We judge decisions based on their results rather than the process. If a risky decision works out well, we consider it brilliant. If a sound decision leads to poor results due to bad luck, we consider it a mistake.

Sunk cost fallacy: You already invested time and money into a project, but it’s not going well. You want to put more money into it because, if you quit it now, than all the resources you put into it already is “wasted.”

How to fix it: While you can’t eliminate biases, you can work to reduce their impact:

For confirmation bias:

• Actively look for information that contradicts your preferred option
• Ask team members to point out flaws in your thinking
• Consider: “What would have to be true for the opposite position to be correct?”

For outcome bias:

• Focus on the decision quality, the process and information used, not just results
• Ask: “Given what we knew at the time, was this a good decision?”
• Learn from both. You can have a bad decision with good outcomes and a good decision with bad outcomes. Learn from it.

For sunk cost fallacy:

• Remember that the time and resources you already put in are gone no matter what you decide – you can’t get them back
• Ask yourself: “If I was starting over today, knowing what I know now, would I choose to invest in this project?” If no, it’s likely time to stop
• Focus on future costs and benefits, not past investments

7. Unclear accountability for implementation after decisions

Have you ever been in a meeting where a decision was made on a great course of action, but when the next meeting rolls around, nothing has happened?

That’s because it wasn’t made clear who was responsible for what. When no one owns the actions, when it’s a general, let’s do this, it’s likely nothing will happen.

How to fix it: End every decision-making conversation with these questions:

• Who owns what actions?
• What specific actions will they take?
• By when will each action happen?
• How and when will we follow up on progress?

Document these commitments and make them visible to the team. This creates both clarity and accountability.

8. Not creating environments where people feel safe to disagree

Ever notice how some people wait until after a meeting to share their real thoughts? Or how teams sometimes quickly agree to avoid conflict?

Decision quality suffers dramatically when people don’t feel safe to disagree openly. You lose access to valuable perspectives and critical information.

How to fix it: Build psychological safety intentionally on your team. It starts with you as a leader by what you say and do – and what you model.

With your words:

• Explicitly ask for feedback and disagreement: “I want to hear disagreement because it helps us make better decisions.”
• Thank people publicly when they challenge your thinking or when they speak up
• Ask: “What concerns or reservations does anyone have about this approach?”
• Distinguish between debating ideas and attacking people

With your actions:

• Never punish or dismiss people for respectful disagreement
• Point out your own mistakes and what you learned
• Set clear guidelines with your team of expected group behavior
• Never tolerate people putting down other people or their ideas

Remember that people watch how you react. If you respond defensively or dismissively, they’ll stop sharing other views.

9. Focusing on short-term results and ignoring long-term consequences

It can be easy to focus on the immediate effects of your decisions without considering the long-term effects or even the unintended consequences. This can lead to consequences that can end up hurting you instead of helping.

For example, a decision to implement strict time tracking might initially improve project visibility but may lead to decreased trust, gaming of the system, and lower morale over time.

Sometimes organizations do whatever it takes to show a “profit” for the quarter, and ignore (or don’t care) how it will affect employee motivation or the company’s long-term growth.

How to fix it: For important decisions, take time to consider what the unintended and long-term consequences could be. Look to see how it might affect other people, your goals, and projects. Ask others and get other viewpoints, because we are sometimes blind to things without realizing it.

10. Rigidity when circumstances change

Sometimes leaders can rigidly stick with a decision after it’s made. They may do this because they think it will show them that they made a mistake or because it will change the status quo and that’s comfortable, or for a number of other reasons. Sometimes people want to ignore reality because they don’t like what it means.

However, as you can guess, that hurts you. It keeps you on a failing path, it can hurt the influence and trust you have as a leader, and it’s the cause of many companies’ bankruptcies.

Flexibility is important.

How to fix it: Here are some strategies you can use to overcome this:

• Establish clear triggers that would warrant revisiting a decision
• Schedule periodic reviews of major decisions to assess if they’re still the right call
• Create an environment where anyone can raise concerns if circumstances change
• Model appropriate course correction yourself
• Make sure your culture is nimble enough to change, not full of bureaucratic policies that make the changes you need hard

And, when you do change direction, clearly communicate it. Make sure people know what changed and why.

Putting It All Together

Becoming a better decision-maker isn’t about never making mistakes—it’s about improving your process and learning continuously.

See decisions as experiments, make the best call you can when it’s time, learn from it, and keep improving.

I hope this list has helped you avoid some of the mistakes many leaders make.

Questions for you: Which of these mistakes do you think affects you and/or your team right now? What’s one change you could make this week to improve your decision-making process?