Monthly archives: September 2026

independent judgement
Reading Time: 11 minutesIs independent judgement needed? The board pack says the initiative is broadly on track. The RAG status remains green. The individual teams can explain what they are doing. Meetings are taking place, actions are being recorded, and progress continues to be reported. Nothing has failed dramatically, yet something does not [...]

Oak CORE: Independent Judgement When Business Drifts

Green Dashboard 1
Reading Time: 8 minutesThe board pack has been circulated with a green dashboard on almost every indicator page. Each functional leader can explain their results confidently and there is nothing in the formal reporting that demands immediate intervention. Yet something in the room still feels off. Sales are taking longer to close. Important [...]

The Ten Questions Under Every Green Dashboard

Conflicting Metrics 1
Reading Time: 9 minutesThe leadership meeting is meant to decide whether to invest, intervene or change course. Instead, it stalls over conflicting metrics – the wrong numbers. Finance has one revenue figure. Sales has another. Operations is reporting a different customer volume, while the service team questions whether the customer base being discussed [...]

Why Leadership Teams Have Conflicting Metrics – How to Fix ...

Leadership Values
Reading Time: 13 minutesLeadership Judgement Series – Part Twelve Leadership values matter most when the evidence cannot tell leaders which of two credible choices they should prefer. Imagine a successful B2B company under pressure to improve margin. One option is relatively straightforward. The company has a large established customer base, switching supplier is [...]

How Leadership Values Guide Better Business Decisions

Leadership Humility
Reading Time: 13 minutesLeadership Judgement Series – Part Eleven Leadership humility matters most when a leader has every reason to feel confident in their own judgement. Imagine the CEO of a £40 million technology business considering an acquisition. They have done this before. They understand the sector, know many of the customers involved [...]

How Leadership Humility Improves Business Decisions

Active Listening
Reading Time: 13 minutesLeadership Judgement Series – Part Ten Active listening improves leadership judgement because it helps leaders understand what people are really trying to tell them before deciding what to do about it. Imagine a business approaching a significant product launch. The launch is part of its annual customer event at a [...]

How Active Listening Improves Leadership Judgement

Business reality
Reading Time: 11 minutesLeadership Judgement Series – Part Nine Business reality can change long before a leadership team’s understanding of the business catches up. A successful B2B company may have spent years learning why customers buy from it. Its reputation is strong, the proposition is understood, sales cycles are relatively predictable and leadership [...]

Why Leadership Decisions Must Reflect Today’s Business Reality

Leadership Bias
Reading Time: 11 minutesLeadership Judgement Series – Part Eight Leadership bias rarely looks like poor judgement from inside the room. More often, it looks like a perfectly reasonable explanation for why one piece of evidence deserves greater weight than another. Imagine a leadership team deciding whether to increase investment in a market it [...]

How Leadership Bias Distorts Business Decisions

Evidence-Based Decisions 1
Reading Time: 11 minutesLeadership Judgement Series – Part Seven Evidence-based decisions are made using the best information available at the time, but that does not mean they should remain unchanged when the evidence moves. A leadership team might make a significant investment in a new proposition after researching customers, testing demand, assessing competitors [...]

Evidence-Based Decisions: Why Good Leaders Change Course