June 28th, 2026 by Mike Manazir – (4-5 minutes)
Leadership requires courage before certainty.
In November 2012, I was commanding Carrier Strike Group 8 aboard USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. We’d been in the Arabian Gulf since June – seven months of operations. Admiral Bill Gortney gave me a choice: keep us in theater for over a year and do the flight deck maintenance in Oman, or bring us home, re-skid the deck in Norfolk, and send us back out in February.
My instinct was to stay. I believed it would be better for the crew to complete the mission in one continuous stretch rather than bringing everyone home for Christmas only to send them back out a few weeks later.
The Navy made a different decision.
We returned home before Christmas. Nearly 5,000 sailors walked off that ship into the arms of their families. Even though I told the crew we were getting underway again in February, February felt a long way off. The mood was what I’d call ignorant euphoria.
Then February arrived.
Families were frustrated. Sailors were disappointed. Many asked, “Why can’t they send another carrier?” The answer was simple. The mission required an experienced carrier strike group that was already trained, tested, and ready. That was us.
There was no decision that made everyone happy. There was only the decision that best served the mission. That is the reality of leadership.
Most tough decisions are not a choice between right and wrong. They are a choice between two good options, or two imperfect ones. You weigh what you know, you accept the costs, and you lead your people through the consequences. The question is never which decision avoids pain. It’s which decision you can defend when the dust settles.
Issue Processing Tool
Over the years, I’ve learned that a disciplined process produces better decisions. Here’s one that I’ve seen work very well.
Define the issue and your desired outcome in writing. If you can’t write it down clearly, you don’t understand it well enough yet.
Gather the right people. Not the most people, the right people. The people with experience and expertise on the issue.
Brief them on the issue and the outcome you’re after. Take clarifying questions before anyone starts pitching solutions.
Before any discussion, have everyone write their proposed solution on an index card. Collect them. Then read each one aloud so the room hears every idea before the debate starts. You want to encourage independent thinking, not just gather reactions to someone else’s thinking.
Debate the strengths and weaknesses of what’s on the table. Look for consensus.
Decide.
Identify who needs to know beyond those in the room – your team, adjacent stakeholders, whoever the decision affects. Tell them what you decide and why. People execute better when they understand the reasoning. Transparency into how you decided the outcome is always powerful. Removing uncertainty enables greater understanding.
No process guarantees a perfect outcome. But this one can dramatically improve the odds of making the right call while bringing your team along with you.
Lead to Win Principle
The toughest decisions are rarely between right and wrong. They are often between two good outcomes when circumstances only allow one.
The Question
What important decision are you postponing because you are hoping for a perfect answer that does not exist?
Next Week: How leaders navigate ethical dilemmas when the right choice comes with a personal cost.
“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”
– Theodore Roosevelt
Want more powerful leadership lessons from Mike?
- Begin leading from the heart: Order Learn How to Lead to Win | The Manazir Maxims | Leadership Study Guide for Manazir Maxims
- Book Mike to Speak or for 1:1 Executive Coaching
P.S. Know someone trying to build up their people and lead with heart? Forward this to them. It might be the encouragement they need to keep going.
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Let’s lead to win together,
Mike Manazir
Retired Navy Rear Admiral | Bestselling Author | Keynote Speaker | Executive Coach