Most progress stalls not because people make bad decisions, but because they are afraid of making any decision at all.
Waiting feels safe. More information. Another meeting. One more opinion. But in practice, delay often carries more risk than action. Problems do not stay still while you think about them.
Senior judgement is not about always being right.
It is about being willing to be wrong early, while the cost is still low.
Speed is about feedback, not confidence
People often mistake fast decisions for overconfidence. In reality, they usually come from experience.
When you have seen similar problems before, you learn that no amount of planning removes uncertainty. You move faster not because you know the outcome, but because you know how quickly you can recover if it goes wrong.
Speed comes from shortening the feedback loop.
Make a decision. Observe the result. Adjust. Repeat.
Small failures teach more than big successes
Big, slow decisions tend to fail loudly and expensively. By the time you know they were wrong, changing course is painful.
Small decisions fail quietly.
They give you information without lasting damage. They show you where your assumptions were wrong. They teach you what matters and what does not.
This is how judgement compounds.
Not through flawless execution, but through many low-cost mistakes that sharpen future decisions.
Waiting feels responsible, but often is not
In many organisations, hesitation is rewarded. It looks thoughtful. It feels cautious. It avoids blame.
But indecision has a cost. Momentum slows. People work around uncertainty. Workarounds become permanent. The problem quietly grows.
Making a decision, even an imperfect one, often creates clarity. People can align around something concrete. Reality responds. You get signal instead of speculation.
Learn once, apply forever
The goal is not to fail for the sake of it.
The goal is to fail once, understand why, and not repeat it.
This is why senior people appear calm under pressure. They are not guessing. They are recognising patterns they have already paid for in the past.
Experience is stored failure.
Used well, it lets you move faster, decide earlier, and avoid the same mistake twice.