One of the biggest challenges many women leaders in IT have shared is feeling confident when making critical decisions.
You want to make the best decision possible, so you gather information, seek input from others, and think carefully about how your decision will affect your team, your customers, and your organization.
But even after doing all of that, it’s easy to wonder…
“Am I making the right decision?”
The fear of making a mistake—especially one that’s visible to your leadership team—can cause you to hesitate, overthink, or delay the decision altogether.
Yet your ability to make thoughtful, timely decisions is one of the ways you demonstrate that you’re ready for greater responsibility and new leadership opportunities.
In this week’s episode, I’ll share a practical framework to help you make critical decisions with greater confidence and strengthen your ability to advance in your IT career.
How to Move Forward With Confidence When the Answer Isn’t Obvious
When I talk about critical decisions, I’m referring to decisions that can have meaningful consequences for your customers, your organization, your company—or your credibility as a leader.
The greater the impact, uncertainty, and visibility of the decision, the more emotional weight it can carry.
We’re going to use an example to make this more relatable:
Imagine that you’ve just stepped into a new IT management position and your director asks you to assess the organization and recommend which improvements should be prioritized over the next 90 days.
At this point, you’re still learning about the people, processes, systems, and challenges. You don’t have the benefit of knowing the organization’s full history, but you’re already expected to determine what needs immediate attention, what can wait, and where limited resources should be focused.
Because your recommendation will be visible to senior leadership and may shape their first impression of you, it’s understandable that you would feel pressure to get it right.
And I know this can feel scary—especially if you haven’t had much experience making decisions at this level.
You may feel as though you’re supposed to walk into the position already knowing what to do. But you don’t have to have everything figured out on your first day.
Your responsibility is to listen, ask thoughtful questions, gather the information you need, and use your judgment to recommend the best path forward.
After 30 years in IT, I can tell you that when making critical decisions, there will almost always be some level of uncertainty—there just is. But feeling some discomfort doesn’t mean you’re unprepared or incapable. It means you understand that the decision matters.
So, where do you begin?
If I were stepping into this position, I would begin by meeting with leaders, team members, and key business partners who understand the organization and its work and ask open-ended questions such as:
- What is working well in the organization?
- Where are you seeing challenges with people, processes, or technology?
- What issues keep you awake at night?
- What part of your work excites you most?
- Where could IT make the most meaningful impact on the business?
Asking for input demonstrates that you value the knowledge and experience of the people around you—and that you understand how much stronger a decision can be when you consider perspectives beyond your own.
It’s also a great way to gain trust with your new leadership team. People love to share and be heard!
These conversations will give you valuable pieces of information, but they won’t make the decision for you.
You’ll likely hear about missed commitments, outdated technology, strained relationships between teams, resource limitations, and opportunities the organization isn’t pursuing.
Some of what you hear will be supported by facts and data, while some will be based on individual experiences, opinions, or perceptions. You may also begin to notice concerns that people aren’t stating directly.
Your responsibility as a leader is to look for patterns, validate what you’re hearing through your own observations and further research, and determine which issues deserve priority.
A common mistake is to keep gathering more and more information because you’re afraid you’ve missed something. But there will come a point, when more information won’t necessarily make the answer any more clear.
That’s when a decision framework can help you sort through what you’ve learned without becoming overwhelmed by all the details.
Begin with the strategic perspective:
- Which priorities are most closely aligned with the goals of the business? Where could IT make the most meaningful contribution?
Next, consider the logical perspective:
- What do the facts and data tell you? What do you know—and what are you assuming? Are you looking at the real problem or only a symptom? What risks, costs, and constraints need to be considered?
Then think about the relational perspective:
- How will the decision affect your employees, customers, and end users? Whose knowledge, support, and commitment will you need to implement it successfully?
Finally, consider the intuitive perspective:
- What patterns are you noticing? What isn’t being said? Based on your experience and instincts, is there something that deserves closer attention—even if you don’t yet have all the evidence?
I’ve learned not to dismiss that quiet sense that something doesn’t feel quite right. Your intuition is a beautiful gift—it doesn’t replace facts, but it can point you toward something that needs further investigation.
When that happens, ask yourself if there is a legitimate concern to explore, or if you’re uncomfortable because this is an important and visible decision.
The answer can help you determine whether you need more information—or whether you simply need the courage to move forward.
And when timing allows, I also recommend waiting 24 hours before formally presenting your recommendation or moving forward with it.
That pause gives the time to settle your emotions and allows you to revisit your decision with a fresh perspective.
If something still doesn’t sit quite right, take another look at it. But be careful not to reopen the entire decision simply because moving forward still feels uncomfortable.
A thoughtful decision can be the right decision and still feel uncomfortable.
No framework can guarantee that every decision will produce the outcome you expect. Critical decisions often have to be made without having every piece of information you would like.
Making a confident decision means being able to say: “Based on what I know today, this is my recommendation—and this is how I reached it.”
It also means remaining open to adjusting your direction if new information becomes available.
Senior leaders notice the people who can step into an uncertain situation, listen carefully, sort through competing priorities, and recommend a clear path forward.
As you demonstrate that ability consistently, you become someone they can confidently consider when higher-visibility assignments, greater responsibilities, and new leadership opportunities arise.
It isn’t about making every decision perfectly. It’s about demonstrating sound judgment, taking ownership of your recommendations, and being willing to adjust when circumstances change.
And you don’t need a complicated tool to begin using this approach. The next time you’re facing a critical decision, think about this process.
The more often you use it, the more natural it will become—and the more you’ll learn to trust your ability to make thoughtful, timely decisions.
If you haven’t heard it already, you’ll also want to listen to Episode 7, 5 Steps to Increase Critical Thinking for Women Leaders in IT. I share an experience from early in my career and explain how it shaped the way I approached critical decisions from that point forward.
Stay empowered and lead assertively!