A Lesson from Ed Bastian
I recently had the privilege of attending John Maxwell’s Masterclass, where I sat in a room with some of the most extraordinary leaders I’ve encountered in my career. One of them was Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Air Lines, a man who has led his organization through bankruptcy, 9/11, a global pandemic, and just about every turbulent stretch you can imagine, both literally and figuratively.
Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing what I took away from each of the leaders in that room, because the lessons were too valuable to keep to myself.
Ed said something that stopped me cold. He said that making a high-stakes decision is actually a signal that you haven’t been making decisions all along. Read that again for me and let it sit for a second.
Decision Making is a Skill, Not an Event
We talk about decision making like it’s a rare event, something we gear up for when the stakes get high enough to demand our attention. But Ed’s point was the opposite, decision making is a daily practice, and if you treat it like one, the big moments stop feeling impossible.
Think about it this way: the more decisions you make, the better your batting average gets, because you’re up at bat more often. You build the skill. You sharpen the habit. And when something genuinely high-stakes lands on your desk, you’re not starting from zero.
And let’s be honest, no one ever taught us decision making in school, so it’s a habit that needs to be practiced.
The Cost of Waiting
Now here’s where it gets personal.
How many of us have sat in a leadership meeting, an L10 for those running on EOS, or any weekly leadership review, where the same item appears on the agenda week after week, waiting on more data, more input, more certainty?
I’ve been in those rooms and been a part of some of those meetings.
There’s a level of frustration that starts creeping in when nothing is truly getting done, when decisions keep getting kicked down the road because we haven’t collected enough information to feel completely confident.
The problem is, that level of certainty rarely comes.
Meanwhile the decision is aging on the table, and decisions don’t age well.
Decision Making vs. Decision Management
Ed made the distinction between decision making and decision management, and it’s one I haven’t stopped thinking about.
Decision making is the moment of choice.
Decision management is the ongoing practice of staying in motion, making the call with the best information available, and course correcting when needed.
The goal isn’t to always be right. The goal is to choose a direction and be willing to adjust.
Leaders who wait for perfect information don’t get better outcomes, they just get to the same place later, with more damage done in the meantime.
I’ve felt this personally when it comes to people decisions.
There are team members I wish I had fought harder to keep, and C players I waited far too long to move on from. Both of those delays cost me, cost the team, and cost the individuals themselves.
The instinct was there. The data was there. What was missing was the decision.
What This Means Practically
So, what does this mean practically?
First, ask yourself regularly whether the decision in front of you is yours to make or someone else’s. Build that habit of triaging.
Second, remove the bureaucracy from decision making inside your organizations – not every call needs a committee, and over-processing signals to your best people that momentum isn’t valued.
Third, don’t make decisions in a silo.
Ed gathers his team of twelve when working through something significant, because he knows that group buy-in produces better thinking and better outcomes. Consult the people around you, value their perspective, and then make the call.
That’s your job as the leader.
The Decision You Need to Make
The best teams I’ve seen aren’t the ones where every decision is perfect.
They’re the ones where decisions get made, progress happens, and the leader has built enough trust that course corrections feel like growth rather than failure.
Where in your business are you waiting for information that will never feel complete enough?
That’s probably exactly where you need to make a decision today.
