You'll never have all the information. Lead anyway.

There's a myth that good leaders make decisions once all the facts are in. Wait for the full picture, weigh it carefully, then act with confidence.

It's a lovely idea. It's also nonsense.

I spent close to thirty years in the Army and the Police. In both, I learned the same lesson from opposite ends: the moments that matter most are the ones where you have to decide now, with maybe sixty percent of what you'd like to know, while the pressure is doing its best to cloud your judgement. Nobody hands you the missing forty percent. You act into the gap, or you don't act at all — and not deciding is itself a decision, usually the worst one available.

Business is no different. It's just quieter about it. The market shifts, a key person resigns, a client pulls out, cash gets tight — and you're expected to have an answer before you've had time to gather one. So the question isn't how do I get full information? You won't. The question is how do I decide well without it?

Here's what I've learned actually works.

Separate the reversible from the irreversible. Most decisions are doors you can walk back through. A few aren't. The mistake leaders make under pressure is treating every decision as if it's the second kind — agonising over choices that could simply be corrected next week. Move fast on the reversible ones. Slow down only for the doors that don't open again. This alone will free up most of the mental space you need.

Decide on principles, not just facts. When information is thin, your values do the heavy lifting. What matters most here — the people, the money, the reputation, the long game? A clear principle will carry you through a decision that no spreadsheet can. When I had seconds to act on the job, I wasn't calculating. I was acting on what I'd already decided mattered, long before the moment arrived.

Name the worst case out loud. Pressure inflates risk. Everything feels catastrophic in the heat of it. Ask plainly: if this goes wrong, what actually happens? Nine times out of ten the honest answer is we lose some time and some money and we recover. Once you've looked the worst case in the eye, it usually shrinks. And on the rare occasion it doesn't — now you know, and you slow down.

Set a decision deadline and hold it. Waiting for more information is often just fear wearing a sensible coat. Give yourself a hard time to decide by, then decide. A good decision made on time beats a perfect one made too late every single time.

Then own it — completely. The hardest part isn't making the call. It's living with it while it's still uncertain whether you were right. Your team is watching how you carry a decision, not just which one you made. Decide, commit, and adjust as new information arrives. That's not indecision — that's leadership with its eyes open.

Here's the truth I'd want every leader to sit with: the discomfort of deciding without full information never fully goes away. The best leaders I've known didn't feel it less. They'd just made peace with it. They understood that leadership is the willingness to act into uncertainty on behalf of others.

You'll never have all the information.

Lead anyway.