The current zeitgeist of business and leadership advice is all about deciding early, and deciding now. To not wait for perfect information, and just keep forward momentum. I think it’s true you’ll never have 100% certainty or perfect information about anything, and chasing it can cripple morale and productivity. But I don’t think it’s as black and white as advice would suggest.
Suppose you need to solve an urgent, but short term process fix with a not ideal, but workable solution. Your cost of waiting is high, but the cost of mistakes may be low. You’re better off making your decision now and moving on.
But suppose you’re hiring someone new on your team. If you’re dealing with a dry candidate pipeline, do you decide on hiring the candidate you’re not enthralled with, but is the best you have at the moment? Hiring now satisfies the short term pain, but potentially creates disaster later if a mistake is made. In that case, waiting and seeking out the right candidate, even if it means to passing on a lot of “okay” candidates is likely the right call to make.
For every decision you must weigh the cost of waiting against the cost of failure. Whichever side the scale leans to is your clue to wait or act now.