Judgment calls are judgment calls. They aren’t exact. They aren’t easy. They don’t guarantee a successful outcome.

What the leader can know is that doing nothing is also a judgment call. Failure to exercise judgment is still a choice of what to do with one’s judgment.

What the leader can learn is that it is better to follow through with judgment and action, alongside helpful perspective from people who truly care about them, than it is to abdicate or hide or be paralyzed by fear.

iStock-1351014262My leadership life is rife with judgment calls. History will judge whether I did well.

  • How to prepare and respond to my first spouse's terminal cancer across an extended period of time.
  • How to respond within the pinches created by customers, employees, colleagues, board members, and volunteers in varying combinations as they feel unsupported or attacked, or withdraw support and do the attacking.
  • Which consultative projects to say yes to and which to offer to others.
  • Which employees to retain and for what reasons.
  • Choosing and guiding organizational strategy among a menu of choices.

Other leaders must manage far bigger potatoes than I. Other leaders have far more naysayers and angry voices around them than I have ever faced. Imagine being a presidential candidate, a professional baseball team manager, an airline executive, or a planning commission chair in your local township, and having to exercise judgment in public view.  Or imagine being God, and having everyone blaming or praising based on their perception of your divine judgment.

Actually, it strikes me that baseball managers and God have a lot in common. Everyone second guesses them. Most fans care about the game they attend without respect for managing for the season, just as many people speak to God only about their own selfish situations and without respect for their lifetime or for the welfare of Creation.iStock-139989343Making judgment calls is to get out of the bleachers with the brew and cracker jacks, and into the dugout. No call will be liked by everyone. One gets their nose rubbed into even their most successful decision. It goes with the territory of being privileged to exercise judgment.

-mark l vincent

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Mark L. Vincent
Post by Mark L. Vincent
June 30, 2022
I walk alongside leaders, listening to understand their challenges, and helping them lead healthy organizations that flourish.

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