Leaders! Lend me your ears for a moment. This will be the critical leadership skill over the next several years. Are you ready? The skill is… Decision making. “Oh. That’s it?” I know. I can feel your eyes rolling. It’s not sexy like “strategic innovation, or “AI implementation.” It will be critical, though. Think of this skill not in the everyday sense, but in a refreshed sense. And, embarrassingly, the refreshed sense looks like this: consider alternatives, decide, execute on the decision, and keep going until it’s done or it proves to be a bad decision. I say “embarrassingly” because even though that is the basic model, it seems that decision making has started to look like this: consider alternatives, make a half-hearted decision, start executing on the decision, rethink the decision, talk to more people, try to execute on the other alternatives to cover your butt, change course mid-stream, get distracted, focus on a new initiative, half-finish the original decision, get frustrated, get redirected by the SVP of something, and retreat to email. I am I getting close to the decision making model in your organization? Well, you’re not alone. We are in the golden age of opportunity. In this age, the ability to decide is a key skill.