15 Leadership Decisions That Can Make or Break Your Future

Are you a leader in your life? Leadership isn't just about making bold moves in the boardroom. Okay, you might have a vision for your financial goals, your mental and physical health, your relationships, your education, and just your overall lifestyle. But that doesn't make you a leader. You're a leader when you make decisions that help you to realize those visions. A bad leader tries to avoid stepping on toes and forgets the bigger picture. A good leader walks right through those tough times. If you're making the wrong decisions, then you're not the one leading your own life; you're following. And why on Earth are you doing that? Do you even know who you're following?

To see where you're going wrong and right, you can look at some of the best leaders in the world and learn from the difficult decisions they had to make. At some point in your life, you'll be faced with these dilemmas too. So the question is: will you lead or will you fall? Let's get to it.

Number one: Choosing what to neglect for now. When Bill Gates was growing Microsoft, he sacrificed a lot of his personal life. He tells stories of having no weekends or vacations. And if you want to build something that matters, you need to be willing to give up on some things. You're depriving yourself for something greater in the future. Can you do it? Because you can't give 100% of your effort and attention to all of the parts of your life. You actually need to be really strategic about where you direct your energy and for how long. You need to keep it focused on that area.

So many people try to make a major life change while giving the same amount of energy to everything else in their life. But look, okay, you cannot do that. You take aim and then you withdraw slightly and aim somewhere else, and you keep doing that until everything moves forward, step by step.

Number two: Letting go of people you like for the good of the mission. There's an African proverb that says, "To go fast, go alone; to go far, go together." But make sure those you go with are the right people. Now, this one might actually be the toughest decision on our list, especially when you're trying to take the lead in your personal life. It's really hard at a company too, where people depend on you, and they have homes and families and plans for the future. The guilt of letting them go for the good of the mission can eat you up inside.

And when it comes to your personal life, you don't just feel guilty; you also feel grief when you have to make the decision to let someone go in your life because they're not doing the work for both of you to thrive. You're also removing them from your future and changing all of your life plans to fit your new situation. It takes a long time for you to understand how important the mission, your life goals, and values are, and just how much someone else can hold you back from reaching them.

So, as sad as letting them go is, know that it's taken all the strength you can muster, and things can only go up from here. To be a great leader in any part of your life, you need to remember that your obligation is always to your mission, not to any individual person.

Number three: Embracing radical change when everything seems good enough. This study by consulting company McKinsey & Co. shows just how much true innovative leaders outperform those who favor stability. If you want results, you have to embrace radical change in your life. You have to innovate, especially when there's order and stability and everything is going well. Order is always going to lead to chaos. You can never rest, even when things seem good because then the chaos will creep on up, and you won't be prepared to confront it.

If your life is stable right now, it's time to make a change. Change brings some chaos, yes, but at least you've got some control over it. As difficult as change might be, stagnation is way worse. It's the first step toward destruction. Good leaders know that stability will eventually lead to stagnation if they don't throw a spanner into the works themselves. So if there's a part of your life that's going well, see what kind of small controlled changes you can make to it.

Now, that doesn't really mean you should innovate every part of your life all the time, which brings us to our next point.

Number four: Choosing between innovation and stability. So, we know that innovation creates winners, and the question is now: how much should you innovate? Should you keep chopping and changing parts of your life? The companies that innovate the best also keep some core stability in some areas while they're pushing for innovation in others. So if you've been following the same routines in different parts of your life for months, years maybe, and they've worked for you, then should you choose to change it? What good would that do?

Well, businesses always have to chop and change between innovation and stability. It's a matter of when, not if. Innovation is exciting, but it comes with risk, right? Financial and otherwise. Stability feels safe, but it can land you in a rut. The hard part is finding that balance and knowing when to lean into one or the other. Only you will know the answer for that in your situation. The best leaders are the ones who manage to walk this line; they're able to protect their assets and open up new opportunities for growth.

Number five: Choosing long-term vision over short-term gains. You have to think of your life in decades, not just in quarters. And if you're not well, then you'll end up with a future with no idea how you got there, and utterly confused about why you haven't reached your goals. Harvard Business Review says that as a true leader, you have to sacrifice the comfort you get from immediate rewards in favor of going after compounding long-term value. Your job as a leader is to create an exciting, unified long-term vision.

And it can be a tricky balance to hold, especially when life comes flying at you. And that's exactly why we created an app that can support you with this balance. We couldn't find anything like it on the market that kept you accountable with your goals; something that you could build into a routine and covered all the main cornerstones of achievement: knowledge and education, action plans and tools, and an ability to measure your progress.

So anyways, if you can't find it, you build it, right? And that is exactly what we did. And you know what? We're pretty proud of it. So stick around until the end of the video because we've got a little app gift for you that we think you'll like. Now, as for focusing on your long-term vision instead of your short-term goals, you kind of have to force yourself to learn how to switch the joy around. When you imagine your vision, you should get that burst of excitement you would usually get from achieving a goal.

And when you achieve a goal, you have to imagine that you found another piece of the puzzle that you can slot into that bigger picture. It's a part of an unfinished puzzle. You have to keep on going. You don't have to stick to it forever, but you have to train yourself to be able to do it when you need to. Like if you're always giving into that yearly trip abroad with your friends and digging into your savings for it, you're never going to learn. So ask yourself: am I willing to trade great memories for an uncertain and unstable future every single year? Because, my friend, some trades aren't worth it.

Number six: Taking full responsibility for failure. Leaders who own their failure, not just for themselves but for their team, show you the difference between a great leader and a mediocre one. In life and in success, there are no excuses. It's hard to stand in the middle of a failed mission and say this is my fault. But when you do that, you open up a much clearer path to eventual victory. If something hasn't worked out for you in your life, own your responsibility. Don't blame yourself because that isn't taking responsibility; that's just you feeling sorry for yourself. Acknowledge your role in it, gather up whatever lessons can be found, and then move on.

Number seven: The decision to face conflict head-on. Poet Robert Frost once said, "The only way out is through." Conflict is uncomfortable; most of us are wired to avoid it. But as a leader, you don't have that luxury. If you leave it for too long and try to ignore it, conflict will fester and disrupt your mission. You need the courage to have those tough conversations with yourself and with the people you love. Leaders who are good at handling conflict create environments where problems don't escalate and stop their momentum.

When you ignore it and just hope things will get better, you're allowing conflict to control you. When you face it, you're the one who gets to dictate how it all ends. Which begs the question about our next point: when something ends, do you consider it a failed mission? Because as a leader, sometimes you have to decide to.

Number eight: Shut down a project that is failing. If you've ever had to give up on something, raise your hand. We'd like to meet you because no matter how smart and careful you are, there will be times when you have to throw in the towel for something that you've invested your time, money, and energy into before it's even properly off the ground. You can see it's draining your resources and pulling down your progress on some of the other things you're doing. The hardest part here is accepting that failure is sometimes just a part of the process.

Knowing when to cut your losses is a crucial leadership skill. So look into the different parts of your life right now and be honest: what's not working? Your relationship? Your current job? The city you moved to? "Oh, but I've invested so much emotional energy and time into this." Okay, we get it. All right, but listen to me: if you don't cut your losses now, in the future you'll find yourself in the middle of a situation taking every ounce of energy you have left just to keep it alive, once you've lost everything else. If it's not working right now, it's going to take a heck of a lot more to work in the future, and even the chances of that are slim. A great leader knows when to walk away, so when that time comes, start walking.

Number nine: Staying true to your principles in the face of popular backlash. Taking the lead in your own life can be pretty lonely at times. Not everyone will understand your goals and decisions, and people with good intentions will try to get you to bend. You might lose the approval of some of the people in your life, but that's the sacrifice you have to make to stay true to your principles. If you've ever wondered why some leaders are so stubborn, even when they're being criticized, it's because of this: they know they have to stick to their principles.

That step to letting go of approval so that you can be faithful to your principles is a treacherous one, but so worth it when it helps you to believe in yourself. You've got to be bulletproof when people are coming at you, even if they're loud. It's tough, but if you're not authentic, if you don't trust your gut, you'll lose everything.

Number ten: Choosing who to put in charge. All the greatest leaders know that they can't do everything themselves. Not only do they have to let go of the reins; they also have to choose the right people to take over. You can't control everything in your life if you want to reach your goals. You need help. At some point, you'll have to divide up responsibilities and trust someone else to help you out, whether it's letting your friend plan your next trip because you're swamped and don't have time to do it, or asking your colleague for help with your work, or hiring help for around the house and with your children. It takes a village, no matter what you're doing, and you can go much farther when you give everyone else the chance to step up too.

Leaders who don't delegate end up burning out, and the business suffers because of it. So you actually don't really have much of a choice here.

Number eleven: Investing in your personal development. In business, leaders have to constantly think about the future: what's coming next, where the market is going, and how their team can stay ahead. The same applies to your life. You've got to look beyond the day-to-day grind and think about where you want to be, not just for the next month, but for the next few years. But here's the problem: personal development often takes a backseat. It's easy to get stuck in the cycle of "I'll do it later," right? You're busy; there's work, your social life, laundry to do, and investing in yourself feels like it can just wait. You tell yourself there's always tomorrow to start that course or pick up that book.

It's the same in companies: growth and innovation get sidelined for that urgent stuff, the things that seem more important at the moment. But the truth is, there's never a perfect time. If you're waiting for your life to magically clear up and offer you the space to focus on yourself, it is just not going to happen. Okay? You've got to make time. The hardest part of this decision is knowing when to push everything else aside and prioritize yourself, especially when there are so many other demands on your attention.

Because every time you invest in yourself, you are planting seeds for your future self to harvest. Think of it like this: if you were leading a company, would you let it run on autopilot without ever trying to improve or innovate? Probably not, right? So why would you ever let yourself stay in one place, repeating the same routines simply because they feel familiar or safe?

Number twelve: The decision to step down from leading. Are you even a leader if you step down from being one? You're letting go of control and walking away from something you've poured your heart into; that doesn't seem like the actions of a leader, does it? Well, there is a glass ceiling to everything. Even when you've been a part of something from the start, at some point in your career, with your finances, your relationships, emotions, and your health, you'll have to put all the work you can into a venture, and both sides have reached their growth limit. So, you have to walk away.

It doesn't mean that you're giving up, though; you're letting it evolve and allowing yourself to focus on something new. But sometimes letting go is the best thing you can do. The best leaders know when they've done all that they can; they know when it's time to let go and find another mission for them to take on.

Number thirteen: Choosing to work with difficult but talented people. Some of the most talented people can also be the hardest to deal with. They push your buttons; they've got big egos or just enough to manage, but their skills could be exactly what you need to get to the next level. So how do you decide? Well, it's not easy, but sometimes you’ve got to weigh their talent against the stress they bring you. You'll have to call on this kind of energy when you're dealing with a difficult colleague who you know does great work or a partner who has a wealth of awesome qualities but also one fundamental thing that drives you nuts.

Sometimes you have to step back and compromise because their contribution will give you a better outcome in the end.

And on a similar note:

Number fourteen: Building relationships, even with people you don't really like. You're not going to get along with everyone; it's just a fact of life. But some of the people who rub you the wrong way also have the tools, connection, and expertise to help you grow. So if you want to move forward, you have to put a smile on your face and just suck it up sometimes. Some people might see this as fake, but you're not pretending to be their friend or anything; you're just pretending to tolerate them.

You have to recognize that you can gain something valuable from anyone, even those who challenge you the most. Leaders have to learn to focus on what the relationship can bring to the company, whether they like this person or not. At some point in your life, you'll have to face this decision too, and you can't let your ego get the best of you.

Number fifteen: Deciding who you can trust. Some people are great friends and also great gossips. You don't have to cut them out of your life for spilling your secrets; you just have to remember not to tell them anything important ever again. They've shown you who they are, and now you have to remember it's your lesson to learn.

Trusting the right people can be tricky. Who will you share your business idea or personal goals with? You're being vulnerable with them, and that is a risk. Your challenge is to figure out who's earned that level of trust. It takes some trial and error, some stumbles and fumbles, but with experience and time, you'll be able to put together a pretty trustworthy crew for your life.

And you know, since you stuck with us until the very end, here's a bonus for you: another leadership decision that can make or break your future: knowing if you should keep going or should you take a break. Sometimes you're so close to that goal or a breakthrough that you just need a little bit more time and energy, but you're burnt out. Every push feels like you're climbing Everest and losing oxygen faster than you can breathe.

Sometimes you have to take a break right before the finish line. This is your race, though; nobody else is on the track. You won't come last, but you also won't make your personal best time. But that's okay. A great leader knows that a breather and a break gives you the energy to really nail that last home stretch. You get to do it well, do it fully, and you feel like you've leapt to victory rather than stumbling across that finish line. Taking a break is not the same as giving up; it's gathering the energy and resources you need to come back stronger.

And that's all from us today. Alexir, thanks for joining us. It's been great having you here. And as for that gift we mentioned earlier, if you download our app today, you'll get 25% off your yearly membership. Here's how to do it: first, go to the App Store and search the Alux app and download it, or go to alux.com/app, come back here and scan this QR code, and voila! 25% off that subscription. And hey, we'll see you on the inside!