Are you leading or just dancing in circles?

 Too many leadership teams treat decision making like a maypole dance — lots of circling, everyone looking busy, no one truly leading. If that sounds familiar, it might be time to step back and ask: who’s actually making the call?

Decision making isn’t a decorative ritual to be admired from the sidelines. It’s a skill, and like any skill, it needs practice. If your team never gets to make real decisions, don’t be surprised when they never quite step up. They simply haven’t had the chance to build that muscle.

I worked with a client who had risen to a senior position by being superbly collaborative. His team loved working with him. But when the moment came to make an unpopular call — one that required real courage — he hesitated. His team wanted more conversation, more consensus. He took the easier route and avoided the decision. It did not end well.

The trap of endless iteration

It’s not just leadership teams who struggle to move forward. Engineers often fall into the trap of constant iteration — testing, tweaking, perfecting. It’s what they’re trained to do. But that mindset can easily seep into the wider organisation. The result? Paralysis disguised as productivity.

That instinct to polish the perfect solution can kill momentum. Great leaders know when something is good enough for now. They call it. They act. They improve in motion.

The power of the Minimum Viable Decision

You don’t need the perfect answer to move forward. You need the Minimum Viable Decision — the version that’s good enough to act on now, knowing you can refine later. Waiting for the ‘right’ answer is often just fear dressed up as diligence.

This is not a call for recklessness. It’s a call for courage. Progress over perfection. Decisions that generate movement, not meetings.

Ask your team: what does “good enough” look like? Are they equipped and empowered to decide? Or are they dancing around the maypole, hoping someone else will lead?

Decision making is a muscle

If you want your team to grow, let them decide. Not every decision, not the career-defining ones at the start. But enough to build the habit. Enough to build confidence. Because decision making is a muscle. If it’s never used, it never strengthens.

If you’re always stepping in, always choosing for them, do not be surprised when they always defer to you. Ownership grows through experience. Let them practise.

Leave the circling behind. Decide, move, improve. That’s leadership.
Maypole dancing belongs on the village green — not in your boardroom.