As a technical leader you are more likely to not have clear direction on your priorities and tasks. You are in a role where you give direction and priorities. As an executive, reporting to other executives, the detailed kind of priorities and instruction you got in more junior roles fall away. It is important not to slow-down in the face of the increased uncertainty.

Consider a simple two-by-two chart with “speed” across the bottom and “correct” up the side. The upper right quarantine is the fast, correct work to be done. It is probably obvious that this quadrant is where we all want to spend our time. Doing the right things quickly. We all want to be in that quadrant delivering results fast.

We must face reality that we won’t always be doing the right things all the time. When faced with uncertainty about what the correct course of action may be, many people will slow down and analyze to increase certainty. Our technology background has often trained us to spend time thinking through a problem to get to the right answer. We have learned it is important to avoid making mistakes through careful analysis. This experience can lead us in the wrong direction as technology leaders.

I recall working with a senior product executive who would often ask for more time to think or analyze options. He could see so many options and different outcomes, that taking action felt premature and uncomfortable. He was perceived by other executives as reluctant to take risks, and in some cases incapable of leading through uncertainty. It wasn’t until he fully grasped the impact of his tendency to analyze first that he forced himself to change his behavior and take action.

As a technology executive, our world favors action over inaction. Our world is different from when we were deep subject matter experts that favored analysis. An executive world is full of unknowns that are never clarified through analysis. Taking action, evaluating results and adjusting are the tools of an executive to refine the right answer and climb back into the upper right quadrant.

I was recently working with a top technology executive who had a clear responsibility. He had questions about how he should proceed for his boss (the CEO). His uncertainty lead him to want to talk at length with the CEO about how to proceed. She was typically busy and unavailable for the conversations to happen immediately (as is true with most CEOs). He found himself evaluating not only the risk of being wrong, but also the risk of doing nothing.

The risk in waiting to get clarity is higher in an executive role. Especially compared with the risk of being wrong. Depending on your boss, the act of waiting rather than taking action may be worse. She may assume you are moving full-speed to complete. She may infer that no action has other implications to your judgement.

We would all love to be operating quickly against the right priorities. In a world where we aren’t sure whether our priorities are correct, favor action and feedback over waiting and analysis. In the same way that agile inspires us to “fail fast”. Doing something beats doing nothing, and be prepared to be wrong and adjust.

How do you balance being right with moving quickly in your role?