Life rewards action. This is true in every arena, and it’s certainly true in business. We live in an age where leaders must make one fast decision after the other. If we move too slowly, we’ll find that markets shift, customer needs change suddenly, new competitors emerge, and new products and services rise up to topple old ones.

The bottom line? If we don’t move quickly and efficiently, we will surely miss valuable opportunities and be left behind. 

What this means is that, quite often, we can’t seek consensus in our decision-making. We must seek consent instead. While it’s good (and necessary) to collect input from people inside the organization, when we try to please everyone, we just get mired down and nothing happens.

This is a truth I saw play out every day in my work in the healthcare and business worlds, and that I still see in my current community development role. Very little change comes out of consensus. You’re never going to make everyone happy. In fact, when you try to, everyone ends up unhappy.

This is a hard lesson to learn because most of us are pleasers by nature. Yet because people have different motives, personalities, and priorities, there will always be disagreements and resistance. This is why consensus rarely works. 

The goal should always be to make the best decision that positively impacts the highest number of people as quickly as possible. This doesn’t mean being reckless. There is a sweet spot between efficient and impulsive, and the decision maker’s job is to find it. 

Many wonderful books have been written on decision-making. If you’re a leader, you might want to check some of them out. In the meantime, here are a few things I’ve learned about making quick, smart decisions and seeking consent rather than consensus.

Impose a short deadline on the decision. This will get you (and everyone else) focused and motivated. Long deadlines (or worse, open-endedness) create procrastination and second-guessing. 

Solicit input from all stakeholders. The more perspectives you get, the better. This allows everyone to feel heard. All stakeholders deserve a vote, even if they don’t get the outcome they voted for. Plus, I find that great ideas and thoughtful points of view often come from unexpected sources. 

If you’re weighing multiple options, sort the wheat from the chaff right away. Throw out all but the very best choices immediately. Too many options lead to analysis paralysis. Narrowing the field will speed up the process.

Don’t hold out for a “perfect” decision. There’s no such thing. You’ll never get to 100 percent, but you can probably get to 80 percent.

Expect discomfort. Decision-making leads to change (unless the decision is to leave things as they are), and change brings creative tension. This is what Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline, describes as the space that exists between where people are now and where they want to go. When you start feeling creative tension, the temptation is to back off and start lowering goals. Don’t. This is where consensus creeps in and stops your progress.

Keep an open mind in the face of dissent. If someone raises a valid concern about a decision you’re trying to push through, carefully consider it. Are they right? Ask them to be specific. Do some more research. Good leaders are not afraid to change their mind when all the evidence is in. (In fact, being willing to say, “I was wrong,” makes you more respected.)

Be aboveboard and transparent. If you or others are going to benefit in some way from a decision, say so up front. 

Settle on an option that the majority of the people can live with. Remember, leaders are not dictators. They need the support and goodwill of the people around them. The final decision will not please everyone, but most people should be able to accept it. If the opposition is overwhelming, it’s not the right decision.

Remember that some people are contrarians. They will never agree or cooperate with any form of change, so don’t waste your time and energy trying to convince them. Instead, focus on educating, engaging, and building relationships with those who are friendlier toward your decision.

Do a gut check. Facts and logic are good and necessary, but most decision-making is deeply rooted in emotion. Does the decision “feel” right? If not, table it for another day. 

Be willing to accept the possibility of failure. Often, fear of failure paralyzes us and makes us reluctant to make decisions in the first place. Yet failure is part of life. It’s how we learn and grow. We can always recover from a bad decision, but it’s hard to recover from an existence in which no risks are taken at all. In business, risks must be taken if you’re to get anywhere.

One final thought on the issue of consent vs. consensus. How you treat the people around you will determine the likelihood that they’ll accept your decision—even if they personally disagree with it. 

When you consistently treat people with respect, transparency, fairness, and gratitude every day, you’re building a strong emotional bank account with them. A decision they may not love is a withdrawal. But the good news is that you will have already made so many deposits that the occasional withdrawal will barely make a dent.