How to make good decisions

John Baldoni, a leadership and communications consultant, maintains that good leaders must consider all possibilities and try to think outside the box to anticipate the unexpected. Top executives, he said, "need to think about the unknown in order to plan for the future of their organization."

One of the greatest dangers facing any team, he also writes in CIO.com, is "group think, or everyone adopting the same point of view.'' He said this can happen when the boss makes it uncomfortable for people to disagree. Baldoni also advises IT executives to turn problems upside down, and "consider doing the exact opposite of what you have done'' to get a full picture of all the possibilities. Other advice: Think about what may happen if you are wrong, projecting the worst-case scenario, and perhaps revealing things about your processes and your people that you may not want to know.

For more leadership advice:
- see this CIO.com article