Sometimes you have to make choices without all the information. Not preferable, but that’s what leadership is all about: making decisions without the clarity you would like to have. If you don’t act, you’ll procrastinate, delay decisions and miss opportunities due to undue caution. Sometimes you have to fly in the fog.

But don’t you worry, because your brain has the uncanny ability to fill in and complete the picture when all the pieces aren’t there. Here’s an exercise to prove it. When reading something that is grammatically nonsensical, your brain will make sense of it anyway. Take the following example:

It deson’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod aepapr, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer are in the rghit pcale. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a pobelrm.

Similarly, to venture forward to make good decisions where there are information-voids, you need to rely on your brain to help you—as long as the first and last parts are there. First, you need to have a good understanding of where you are.

In your practice, think of the decisions you’ve made where something hasn’t gone well. Often, you can attribute the problem to a poor choice you made because you made assumptions that were inaccurate. You didn’t start out right.

“My client got his information to me late so of course he will understand that I have to extend the completion date.” Then you get chided because your client DIDN’T understand why you missed the deadline. You can blame the problem on your client all you want, but it was your assumption that was faulty.

So, the next time you have to fly in the fog, rely on your brain to guide you by taking the time to fully understand the situation. Next week I’ll discuss the last part.