When Doing Things Right is Not Enough: Doing the Right Things in Uncertain Times
Lessons on Leadership, Clarity, and Making Decisions in Shifting Times
During a workshop, I shared Peter Drucker’s famous line: “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”
As expected, a cynic in the room smirked: “So does that mean leaders don’t need to do things right?”
I smiled—it’s the kind of surface-level objection that always shows up. But then Annia leaned forward, her eyes bright with curiosity. She asked:
“In uncertain times, when everything is shifting so fast, how do you even know what the right thing is?”
That’s when the real conversation began.
I explained that leadership often means acting without all the information. You won’t always get it right. The challenge is to make a decision, live with the consequences without losing confidence, and keep the trust of your team. There’s no simple formula—leadership rarely is.
Annia pressed further: “Can these insights and deeper understanding be learned in a reasonable amount of time? It sounds like a lot of work.”
She was right. It’s not a course you finish in a month or two. It’s a way of dealing with the world: daily practice, building awareness, questioning old beliefs, training flexibility, and learning to see patterns others miss. It takes time. But it’s possible.
Then she asked her final question: “And how do I know if it’s worth my time and effort?”
That question struck the core: motivation.
If leadership is about doing the right things, and you want to be a leader, then learning how to know the right things is essential. But why do you want to be a leader? If your answer is weak—“it pays better,” “it sounds cool,” or “my boss told me to”—this path may not be for you. But if your answer comes from curiosity, from a genuine desire to grow, from imagining how knowing the right thing to do could change your work and your life—then yes, it’s worth it. Absolutely.
In that moment, I demonstrated in a small way what the process of getting to “the right thing” can look like:
- I got to the core of her question: Motivation.
- I tied it back to Drucker’s quote on leadership.
- I guided her to ask herself a deeper question: Why do I want to be a leader?
- And I contrasted weak motivations with stronger ones, so she could feel the difference.
Often, getting to the core is the hardest part. But once you do, the next steps become clearer. And that’s why practice matters—it trains you to navigate complexity with clarity and flexibility.
Annia’s expression that day already told me her answer. Two years later, she continues her training, quietly surprising both herself and those around her with steady progress. She’s now in the running for a second promotion—a reminder of what motivation and doing the right things can lead to over time.
So I’ll leave you with the same question I left her: Do you want to be a leader—and why? If your answer is yes, and your motivation is strong, I’d be glad to hear from you.
