Discernment: The Keystone Virtue Between a Decision and Its Delivery.
Successful leaders tend to share a reflex. We have a bias for action, and most days it serves us well. It’s part of how we rose.
Then a big decision lands on the table, and that reflex takes the wheel. Ready, fire, aim. Act now, and work out the strategy and details later.
I’ve sat in plenty of those rooms. More than once, a leader assumed something decided the week before was already in place. I’d smile and point out that there’s this little thing called “implementation” between a decision and the day it’s operational.
It was a light way to draw attention to something serious. Decisions don’t carry themselves out. People do, and those people need time to hear, understand, and act.
That gap between deciding and delivering is where discernment in leadership does its work.
Separating Facts from Assumptions
The Virtues Project describes discernment as “accessing the wisdom of our intuition to discover what is essential and true.” Detaching from our desire to rush, we seek to distinguish “the true from the false, the facts from our assumptions, and then choose the best path.”
Separating the facts from our assumptions is where most rushed decisions go wrong. In a hurry, we treat what we assume as what we know. We assume the news will land the way we intend, and that implementation will take care of itself.
So discernment doesn’t mean moving slowly. It means knowing which decisions deserve speed and which deserve care.
Virtues are the essence of who we are. They’re described in the world’s sacred traditions as the qualities of the Divine and the attributes of the human spirit. They’re the content of our character and the basis of genuine happiness.
The mission of The Virtues ProjectTM is to inspire the practice of virtues in everyday life by helping people of all cultures to discover the transformative power of these universal gifts of character. The virtues are spiritual life-skills that help us to live our best lives. As a Bahá’í, I also work to acquire these divine qualities because I believe I’ll need them in the life to come.
No Return Policy
Most decisions can be reversed. Pick the wrong vendor or the wrong meeting cadence, and you can change course next month. For those, a bias for action is a gift.
Others don’t come with a return policy. Announcing a merger or a major reorganization is one of them. You can’t unsend an email, and nobody can take back the way someone learned their job was gone. People remember how they heard the news long after they’ve forgotten the org chart.
Peter Drucker, often called the father of modern management, wrote about the gap between deciding and delivering more than half a century ago.
“No decision has been made unless carrying it out in specific steps has become someone’s work assignment and responsibility. Until then, there are only good intentions.”
— Peter Drucker, in The Effective Executive (1967)
That’s the little thing called implementation, in Drucker’s words. When a decision touches people’s livelihoods, those specific steps include who hears the news, from whom, and when.
“A bias for action is a gift when a decision can be reversed. When it can’t, let discernment lead. Before you move, ask whether you could walk it back.” – Al Viller
When Efficiency Costs More Than It Saves
Here’s a pattern I’ve watched more than once. Leaders decide on a reorganization, then choose to share most of it by email because email is efficient.
Efficient for whom? Certainly not the audience that’s impacted, directly and indirectly, by the announcement.
News that changes people’s lives deserves a human delivery. It belongs in person, from someone they know, with room to be heard and to ask questions. Email still has a role. It confirms what people already heard face to face.
I’ve been on both sides of this. When leaders listened to wise counsel and approached communication strategically and systematically, weighing the human side of their decision, things went as well as they can when hard news is delivered. People felt their leaders were honest and transparent. They felt respected.
When leaders insisted on speed, I saw the opposite. People resisted. Many felt disrespected, and trust was often severed.
Then came the unintended consequence. Employees who kept their jobs no longer felt safe, and trust eroded with them too. Productivity slipped. Risk-taking evaporated. Most kept their heads down and did what was expected, and not much more. Others, often the top talent, refreshed their résumés and headed for the door.
Good communication resembles a well-officiated soccer match. The game flows, and you barely notice the referee. Rushed communication creates fire drills and forces leaders to react instead of respond, and then communicators get called in to “fix it.” By then, the yellow cards are already out.
“When news touches people’s livelihoods, deliver it in person and let email follow. The extra day you spend is a sign of respect and an investment in the trust of everyone who stays.” – Al Viller
The Leak Is a Trust Problem
The strongest case for email over face-to-face delivery is the risk of a leak. That concern is fair.
Telling people in person means trusting them first. Every leader who hears the news early has to respect the process and stay quiet until it’s their turn to share. Executives don’t always trust their leadership teams to do that.
So some skip the heads-up and send the email cold. Invariably, a leader walks out of a meeting without having read it, then returns to find team members waiting, angry, and asking questions that leader isn’t prepared to answer.
Others call a meeting with their leaders right before the email goes out. That’s better, but it isn’t ideal. Leaders are people too. They need time to absorb hard news and process it before they can put it into context for those in their care.
Underneath the leak argument sits a deeper issue: a culture of trust and accountability. Companies need to trust their leaders to do the right thing and hold accountable those who don’t. When leaders know a breach carries a consequence, they’re far more likely to honor the request to stay quiet until it’s their turn to communicate.
Sadly, in companies where layoffs are a regular exercise, trust is already low. Each round chips away a little more, and the cycle turns vicious until trust is gone. It can turn the other way. In a virtuous cycle, leaders are trusted, they honor that trust, and it grows with every hard conversation handled well.
Four Virtues That Travel with Discernment
In Lead with Light™, a keystone virtue rarely acts alone. It leads a constellation of companion virtues that keep it clear and whole. Take one away, and the keystone dims.
Discernment travels with four companions.
Courage. Discernment that stays silent helps no one. Someone has to tap the brakes in a room full of senior leaders eager to move, and often, that someone was me. Asking for more time is rarely popular. It takes the willingness to feel the fear and do it anyway.
Detachment. The card names it plainly: “detaching from our desire to rush decisions.” For a leader wired for action, detachment means letting go of the satisfaction of checking the box and the need to move first.
Patience. Patience makes room for that little thing called implementation. People trust news most when it reaches them through channels they’re used to and trust, which usually means their own leader. That takes days, not hours, especially in large organizations.
Empathy. Empathy puts you in the seat of the person receiving the news. It also seats you beside the colleague who keeps their job and wonders whether they’re next. Giving both of them room to be heard, and then listening like you mean it, tells them they matter.
A word on balance. Overplay discernment, and it tips into indecision: the meeting that ends with “let’s revisit next week” for the third week running. Courage keeps it honest. The card says we “hold decisions lightly until the truth emerges.” Lightly doesn’t mean forever.
What Discernment Looked Like When It Went Well
The best change communication plans I worked on shared a rhythm. Without names or specifics, here’s the sequence:
- Put the people affected first. Every timing choice served them.
- Tell leaders before their teams, at least a day ahead, and earlier still for leaders who were affected themselves.
- Deliver the news face to face, from each person’s own leader, with HR in the room.
- Let the calendar have a vote. Midweek, never on a Friday, with time zones in mind.
- Give the teammates who stay their own conversation later that same day.
- Send the email last, as confirmation, once everyone affected has heard in person.
None of that’s complicated. It does take time, and it takes a leader willing to spend it.
Put Discernment in Leadership to Work This Week
You don’t need a reorganization to practice discernment. Bring these into your next meeting or decision:
- Test for reversibility. Put the question to the room: “If we get this wrong, can we easily adjust or walk it back?” If you can, move. When you can’t, slow down and consult.
- Split facts from assumptions. Draw two columns: what we know, and what we’re assuming. The second column is usually longer than anyone expects.
- Map the people before the message. Who’s affected? Whom should they hear it from? Who needs to know first?
- Budget for implementation. Ask the people who’ll make it real how long it takes. Then add time for the news to travel through the channels people trust.
- Invite the clash. Ask, “What are we missing?” Then wait out the silence.
- Set a decision date. Holding a decision lightly works best with a deadline, so discernment doesn’t drift into delay.
Hard Choices Shape Who We Are
Philosopher Ruth Chang offers a thoughtful lens in her TED talk, How to Make Hard Choices. She argues that hard choices invite us to shape who we are, instead of simply uncovering what we already prefer. For a leader, that’s character work. The talk runs about 15 minutes.
A Spiritual Perspective
“The shining spark of truth cometh forth only after the clash of differing opinions.”
— ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, son of the founder of the Bahá’í Faith, in Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
Bahá’ís call this consultation. Discernment works best in company. One line on the back of the card reads, “I take time for reflection and prayer,” and that pause makes room for the voice a bias for action would have skipped. On a personal note, prayer and meditation are part of My Morning Routine.
Parting Thoughts
A bias for action probably helped you get where you are. Keep it. Use it on decisions you can reverse, where speed is a gift.
When a decision can’t be undone, especially one that changes people’s lives, let discernment lead. Separate the facts from your assumptions. Make room for implementation. Bring courage, detachment, patience, and empathy along for the walk.
How we do what we do — how we lead — is as important as what we achieve. That’s never truer than in the moment people learn their working lives are about to change.
If this post helped, share it with a leader who’s about to make a big call. For more on virtue-driven leadership, subscribe at alviller.com.
Be clear. Be kind. Lead with Light! ✨
If you liked this article…
You may find the following interesting:
- The Whisper That Yearns to Be a Roar (the article that inspired the series on virtuous leadership)
- Trustworthiness: The Virtue That Holds It All Together
- The Quiet Strength of Leadership – Humility
- Lead with a Generous Heart
- Let’s Talk Change: Be Honest
- Make Better Choices. Become a Better Leader
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