Making difficult decisions as a leader

Four ways for leaders to overcome moral dilemmas and keep their teams happy to avoid an angry workforce

CREDIT: This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared on Management Today

Leaders in business face a seemingly never-ending number of challenges, or ‘mega threats’, where identities within an organisation and/or society blur and lead to polarisation. This is on the rise and an everyday struggle for CEOs and bosses, as is making difficult decisions around relevant policies. Here are four ways leaders can ensure ethics are at the heart of their decisions.

• Don’t over-rely on your moral compass

Dominnique Karetsos, founder of Healthy Pleasure Group, believes it isn’t good enough to only use your own moral compass when making business decisions. People of different genders, races and classes around the world experience events differently. Take the COVID lockdown and the reaction to it, for example; the impact and opinions on it vary vastly.  

Your view on the right course of action is based on your experience, but you must consider the broader moral compass and impact. This can be done by simply listening to everyone –  employees, shareholders, consumers and peers.

• Agency

Ruth Turner, senior director at the Forward Institute, said, “No longer is leadership this paternalistic idea of responsibility”, where those in charge would do the right thing by us and for us. Expectations have changed and many of us do not want anyone making our decisions for us. We want to have agency when decisions are being made and to have our opinions to be at least considered. This is the same for our employees.

• Know and accept that not everyone will always agree 

“I think what’s going to be really critical for leaders is how they navigate these tensions,” says head of solutions strategy at Mind Gym, Roy Diggory. “Research shows that, often, leaders will see these and experience cognitive dissonance. They’ll want to pick a side and ignore the other responsibilities and hope they’ll go away”. 

There will always be workers who oppose decisions and rather than simply ignoring them, and leaders must prioritise communication and not trivialise the issue. Try pausing, thinking through the situation, and then responding in a manner you deem necessary. 

• Lead with fairness

This is, perhaps, the most important thing. Without fairness, a leader is in danger of creating a culture without ethics. Roy Diggory warns, “It’s a knock-on effect”. 

Fairness should be prioritised with every decision your organisation makes. This will help avoid creating a workforce whose morality is as lacking as its leader’s.