The 5 Decisions That Steal the Most Executive Time
Some decisions keep finding their way back to you. The question isn’t just how to resolve them, but why they keep returning.
Explore how recurring decisions reveal gaps in your organization’s capabilities, what you can do to address them, and how to reclaim time for the leadership work only you can do.
Key Concepts
Recurring Decisions Are Signals
When the same decisions keep coming back to you, they may be revealing something about how your organization operates.
Look for the Missing Capability
Instead of solving the same problem again, consider what your team needs to handle it successfully the next time.
Reclaim Time for Leader-Only Work
As your organization becomes more capable, you create room for the decisions, relationships, and priorities that truly require your leadership.
The TRACE Framework
TRACE is a practical framework for responding to recurring challenges with greater intention. It helps leaders move beyond solving the immediate problem to understanding what’s happening and building the capabilities their organizations need.
T
Trigger
Recognize the recurring situation and what prompted your response.
R
Regulate
Manage your immediate reaction before deciding how to respond.
R
Reflect
Separate what you know from what you’re assuming.
A
Analyze
Explore what may be causing the problem and why it keeps returning.
C
Create
Address the immediate need while building the capability to handle it in the future.
E
Evaluate
Assess what changed, whether the solution worked, and what you’ve learned.
Presentation Worksheets
Free to download – no form or sign-up required.
PDF · WORKSHEET 1
Five Decisions Inventory
Identify the recurring people decisions that land on your desk most often.
PDF · WORKSHEET 2
TRACE Worksheet
Work through a recurring decision using the TRACE framework.
PDF · WORKSHEET 3
Reinvesting Your Executive Time
Plan where the time you reclaim should
go.
Want to Talk Through What You Found?
Recognizing a recurring challenge is the first step. Figuring out what’s behind it and what to do next isn’t always straightforward. Let’s talk about what you’re seeing in your organization and what it might take to make meaningful progress.