商业决策未必完美，及时合理才是王道

领导力内部网络是一个在线社区，最有思想、最具影响力的商界人士将在此回答关于职业与领导力的问题。今天我们的问题是：“如何做出艰难的商业决策？”以下为雅虎视频、设计和新兴产品高级副总裁亚当·卡汉的回答。

你的决定不见得一定要完美无瑕。

一个艰难的商业决定意味着，要么你收到的信息不充分，要么你不得不做出的主观判断并没有一个明确的结果。人们常犯的一个错误是，直到获得更多明显的信息时才做出决定。而等待就是缺乏决断力的表现。我们如今生活和工作的市场正在快速进化，速度和适应性对于成功至关重要。在谷歌、两家初创公司和雅虎工作期间，我总结出以下几个帮助我做出艰难决策的心得体会：

今天的好决定，总是好于明天的完美决定

在我的职业生涯当中，我曾不得不做出许多不完美的决定。但我知道，作为领导者，我的职责是服务员工，帮助团队取得成功。

作为领导者，我们有责任启发团队，提供指导，并清除障碍。换言之，你必须解除团队的束缚。限制执行任务，往往会迅速地打击团队的士气，并扼杀成功的可能性。我不止一次发现，等待更多信息或者长时间为一个决定争论不休，意味着团队陷入瘫痪，进而失去产生影响和学习的机会。从这个角度考虑，不作为与拒绝，其实是殊路同归。即便正确的选择是什么都不做，但在做出这个决定时，你至少应该深思熟虑。

要乐观，但也坦然接受失败

领导者必须是乐观主义者——我们要为更美好的未来而不断努力。这条原则与接受失败的能力似乎相互矛盾，因为乐观主义者始终认为，总有一些其他的事情可以做，或者可以尝试。然而，有些艰难的决定并不以你的意志为转移，为了保护团队免受这些决定的伤害，你必须具备容忍失败的能力。许多领导人甚至公司，因为惧怕失败而陷入了无所作为的状态。你必须向所有人证明，你不惧怕失败；做出并不完美的决定，保持正确的路线，总比不做任何尝试要好。

假设你明天将登上头条新闻

领导者应该容忍失败，但不能失去正直诚信。如果你不知道一个决定是否与你的价值观或原则相矛盾，不妨进行一次“头条新闻测试”。假设你的决定和促使你做出这个决定的理由，变得完全透明和公开，你会有何感受？如果你因为任何原因对此感到不舒服，这证明你的决定是错误的。（财富中文网）

译者:刘进龙/汪皓

The Leadership Insider network is an online community where the most thoughtful and influential people in business contribute answers to timely questions about careers and leadership. Today’s answer to the question “How do you make tough business decisions?” is by Adam Cahan, SVP of video, design, and emerging offerings at Yahoo.

Make an imperfect one.

The nature of a tough business decision means that either the information you’ve been presented isn’t sufficient or the judgment call you’re being asked to make doesn’t have a clear outcome. The mistake that’s often made is to wait until more information becomes apparent. Waiting is indecision. In the rapidly evolving market in which we live and work, speed and adaptability are critical means to success. In my experience working at Google, two startups, and now at Yahoo, there are a few things I’ve learned along the way that have helped me make tough business decisions.

It’s always better to make a good decision today, than a perfect decision tomorrow

Throughout my entire career I’ve been asked to make many imperfect decisions. But what I’ve come to learn is that my role as a leader is really about serving my employees and helping my teams be successful.

As leaders, it’s our responsibility to inspire our teams, provide direction, and remove obstacles. In other words, you have to unblock them. Nothing kills morale and success faster than a team that isn’t allowed to execute. What I’ve found again and again is that waiting for additional information or debating a decision at length means paralyzing your team from having impact and learning. Think of it this way, inaction is the same as saying no. If not doing something is the right answer, you should at least make that decision consciously.

Be an optimist, but accept failure

All leaders must be optimists — we must constantly strive for a better future. This primary principle will feel in conflict with the ability to accept failure, because as an optimist, it’s assumed there is always something more we can do or try. But having a tolerance for failure is needed to protect your teams from tough decisions that may not go your way. Many leaders, and even companies, enter a state of inaction because they fear failure. You must act as if you’re not afraid to fail; it’s always better to make the imperfect decision and course correct, than to not have tried.

Assume you’ll be the headline of tomorrow’s paper

As leaders, we should tolerate failure but never sacrifice our integrity. If you’re ever in doubt about whether a decision is in conflict with your values or principles, give yourself the front-page test. How would you feel if your decision and everything leading up to it became fully transparent and public? If there’s any reason why you wouldn’t feel comfortable with that, you’re on the wrong side of the line.