THE DAY I UNDERSTOOD DECISION-MAKING

“Leaders are people who make fast decisions and are sometimes right.”

- ELBERT HUBBARD (AMERICAN WRITER)

Reading time: 4 minutes

Leading people, subordinates, soldiers, is the single most important subject in the Bundeswehr. There is no other field where you can get more wrong or more right, none with greater consequences, none that shapes the image of the force for longer.

I came across the quote above while reading today, and it took me straight back to a situation on exercise in the Bundeswehr that still shapes the way I lead.

I want to give you a short look at exactly that situation, and I hope other (young) leaders can take something from it.

1. Controlled Chaos

In places, visibility was down to 50 meters, and thickets and closely packed saplings kept us from clearing the ground ahead in good time. We just about held contact with the other squad, and even that took serious effort at times.

A typical thicket: as you can see, you can’t see a thing.

2. The Order

Over the radio, my squad was ordered to flank the enemy so we could take out the threat and carry on with the march. The squad next to us would cover us while we moved.

So we had to get through the obstacle belt or around it, pinpoint the enemy’s exact position on the way and hit his flank without being spotted.

I passed the order on to my men, and we got to work on it straight away.

My point man, an experienced enlisted soldier, had heard the order and wanted to help. He showed me a gap in the obstacle belt that he had already scouted and was about to steer us toward it.

I stopped for a moment. Everything in my head told me it would be smarter to go around the obstacle belt completely and swing out much wider before we moved toward the enemy.

But the gap really was right in front of us, and I did not want to brush off the judgment of an experienced soldier.

3. The Decision

I had to make a decision.

Either trust my own instinct and possibly lose valuable time. Or go with someone else’s call that I was not 100% convinced by.

It went exactly the way it had to. I followed my comrade’s advice and the disaster began. We got completely lost, almost went in from the wrong side, at one point surfaced level with the neighboring squad, and took about four times as long as we normally would have to find the enemy and drive him off.

Only the dense terrain and our very aggressive push, bad call or not, kept us from being spotted and engaged early.

4. Conclusion

I was angrier that day than you can imagine.

Not simply because I could have assessed and solved the situation better from a tactical point of view. It was because the decision that cost us time and energy for nothing was not even mine.

And none of that was my comrade’s fault. I was the leader. I alone was responsible. He was only doing his best to support me the way he saw it. Making the final decision was down to me alone.

That day I learned the following:

1. Trust your gut. Most of the time you already know what the right decision is. You just need the guts to make it.
   
   
2. Decide fast. As General S. Patton said: “A good plan executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.”
   
   
3. You do not always have to be right. Right or wrong, what counts is that it is your decision to make. That is the only way you learn and get better.

Good luck out there!

Shughart

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Sources: cover image: Marcel T. (shout-out to you!), thicket: FieldsportsChannel.tv