We worship the decision. Boardrooms echo with the satisfying thud of final approval. Strategy offsites conclude with polished slides declaring a “new direction.” Leaders point to the calendar, filled with meetings where choices were made, as evidence of progress. This is the modern executive’s seductive fallacy: the belief that making a decision is synonymous with making something happen.  It is not. Decision-making and execution are distinct disciplines, separated by a chasm of complexity, resistance, and grit. Recognizing this schism is the first step toward genuine leadership.

Consequential Decisions Are Different

The central nuance is this: All decisions are not created equal. Most organizational “decisions” are merely procedural rituals—the box-ticking of compliance, the rubber-stamping of pre-ordained outcomes, or the passive selection of the least disruptive path. These are administrative gestures, cloaked in the language of leadership. They create the illusion of momentum while the organization remains stationary. True, consequential decisions are different. They are scarce, costly, and visceral. They allocate scarce resources away from sacred cows. They publicly alter the company’s trajectory and the leader’s own credibility. They carry a tangible scent of risk.

Intention Collides with Inertia

This is where the second critical nuance emerges. Box-ticking is not initiation; it is just box-ticking. The real work begins the moment after the weighty, consequential decision is made. That is when the fragile intention collides with the robust inertia of the status quo. Execution is the messy, unglamorous process of translating a directive in a memo into altered behaviors, rewritten processes, and shifted cultural norms. It requires a different muscle: not the intellect of choice, but the stamina of follow-through, the empathy of persuasion, and the resilience to face a hundred unseen micro-resistances.

What’s the Leader’s Role?

The leader’s role, therefore, must shift dramatically post-decision. From being the architect of the “what,” they must become the chief engineer of the “how.” This means:

• Owning the Narrative: Continually connecting daily tasks to the decision’s purpose. People don’t execute PowerPoint bullets; they execute a story they believe in.

• Measuring the Motion, Not Just the Mandate: Tracking leading indicators of behavioral change, not just lagging financial outputs. Are the new processes being used? Has the cross-silo collaboration actually begun?

• Clearing the Path, Relentlessly: Executives must switch from declaring the destination to removing the roadblocks—be they bureaucratic, political, or resource-based—that stall their teams in the trenches.

The comfort of decision-making lies in its finality. The burden of execution lies in its permanence. We celebrate the launch of the ship; true leadership is about steering it through the storm, knowing the initial fanfare is long forgotten by the crew battling the waves.

Don’t Confuse the Ceremonial with the Consequential

In the end, a decision is merely a seed. Execution is the soil, the weather, and the relentless tending required for harvest. Leaders who confuse the planting for the growing will forever wonder why their field remains barren. Stop judging your calendar by the decisions made. Judge it by the inertia you shattered, the behaviors you changed, and the tangible ground you gained. That is the only metric that separates the ceremonial from the consequential.

About Author

Fay Niewiadomski

I awaken leaders to purposefully discern the best way forward, with such clarity, that they find within themselves the courage, wisdom, and compassion to do what they never dared to do before.

I’ve been privileged to work closely with C-level officers, presidents, ministers, global chairpersons, diplomats, board members, senior business and political leaders, and their teams to successfully navigate complex, high-stakes situations and make sound business and personal decisions resulting in profound and lasting change.

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