As a result of this column you and your organization will: He who hesitates is lost… may be wrong. Haste makes waste… may be right. Sometimes you can ready, aim, fire and others you must ready, fire, aim. onventional wisdom considers it a valuable skill to be able to make decisions as quickly as possible. But we also caution that speed can be a negative factor as well. Rather than leaping to a conclusion, often the smartest thing that an organization can do is to “think gray.” Many people immediately categorize everything is black or white, good or bad, true or false. A truly effective business leader needs to be able to see the shades of gray in situations in order to make truly wise decisions. “Thinking gray,” however, is only necessary for the weightiest and most difficult issues. F. Scott Fitzgerald described “thinking gray” as the ability to hold two opposing thoughts at the same time, while still retaining the ability to function. For example, in collegiate style debating, teams are often asked to be able to argue both sides of the assigned issue, depending entirely upon the “draw” before the match begins.

Moreover, our typical view of great leaders is that they are bold and decisive, like Teddy Roosevelt or Vince Lombardi. This black-and-white approach to thinking may be a successful strategy, especially in flight - or - fight situations.

• However, many noted military leaders were skill that “thinking gray” on the battlefield.
• Napoleon, Washington and Rommel all knew the value of suspending judgment about many important matters until the last possible moment.
• Forming opinions before it is absolutely necessary closes the mind to new information that becomes available later.

Just as you can think gray without ever needing to reach a conclusion, you can also listen gray without ever needing to deliver a response. Active listening, with relevant and probing questions, can help the speaker realized that they have to be able to support their arguments with data. The top business leaders never just take comments at face value. Rather, they ask, “Who is saying what to whom? Is this communicating the opinions of two or 200?”

The best advice is that you don’t have to make up your mind about a persons credibility until it’s absolutely necessary. Many failed leaders have been taken in by glib, highly educated idiots all the while dismissing deep thinkers who found it difficult to put their thoughts into words.

It doesn’t take a lot of historical research to realize that numerous leaders have been dethroned by their well-intentioned experts.

A good business example is the story about a graphic design firm that insisted that the typeface in a brochure had to be small to preserve the “artistic integrity” of the end product.

• The client, however, wanted to use large typeface because it’s elderly customers couldn’t read the fine print.
• The designers were more interested in impressing their colleagues and winning awards than communicating their client’s message effectively.

An expert must be either a “deep specialist,” or a “deep generalist.” The leader’s role is to integrate the advice of several experts into a coherent course of action.

Bill Laverly, President of W.J. Laverly Real Estate said, “People seem to expect leaders to know everything about everything all the time. Resisting the urge to give your opinion until you know what you’re talking about is a very valuable trait for anyone who expects to be a leader on a long-term basis.”

When it comes to decision-making, the vast majority of us have been brought up with a clean desk mentality. “Never put off to tomorrow a decision you can make today.” Organizational leaders understand the value of this conventional wisdom but may gain advantage by some procrastination on their most important decisions.

No one has an exclusive on good ideas. Please share you thoughts by posting at the bottom of our blog. Click here

This article is provided by Joe Murtagh, “The DreamSpeaker™” www.TheDreamSpeaker.com. For keynotes, facilitation, workshops, consulting and questions or or a free report on The 3 Most Common Mistakes Organizations Make, email us at Joe@TheDreamSpeaker.com or call 800-239-0058.

If you enjoyed this column you’ll love our Books (click here) and Training Programs (click here). Each is filled with hundreds of leading edge profit enhancing ideas from the best business thinkers in the world.This is one of over 300 columns published and part of the reason why The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have called The DreamSpeaker™ about Business Planning Issues.

To receive future bi-weekly issues of Business Journal Columns™.