Joao David Martires

To start I would recommend that you are clear with the expectations on whether the deadline is strict (i.e. hard deadline) or whether there is some flexibility. Then it is important to establish and quantify impact of success and tension metrics. Success metrics are the positive impact you want to drive while tension metrics capture any negative impact. For example, if you want to optimise margins by decreasing the client servicing cost this might come at the expense of customer satisfaction, hence you want to establish acceptable thresholds. No questions data is key to more informed decisions, however following a framework as above helps you to drive execution while avoiding the trap of "paralysis by analysis" with clear hypothesis.

To become a thought leader you need to lead from the frontlines and create your own executive personal brand. This involves reflecting and defining clearly your expertise and what you want to be known for so that you can be more within control. It is also critical in your area of expertise that you stay informed, contribute to relevant industry publications and are extremely confortable to receive public feedback and act on it. Ultimately what anyone should aim to achieve is delivering value to the internal and external audience that you want to impact.

In my experience, as a first step sharing context and a clear decision making process ahead of time it helps different personality types to digest the context at their own pace. As a second step, invite stakeholders to place directly in that document questions to seek clarification and drive discussion ahead of the decision with the aim of clarifying the majority of outstanding questions. Finally, if a decision can be achieved without a meeting decide asyncronously or time box a meeting with clear agenda on what questions require further discussion and who makes the final decision.

Getting alignment of strategic vision and goals of the organisation is key to establish the direction of travel and the company success factors. From here, I am a big believer that to drive execution leading by context and design will ensure: 1. understanding and buy in at all levels 2. a clear breakdown of company goals and success factors to team level goals and success factors 3. organisational strategic alignment