Decision Fatigue Is a Leadership Risk

Introduction: You’re Not Bad at Decisions, You’re Exhausted by Them

Let’s be honest.
Most professionals aren’t struggling with how to make decisions.
They’re struggling with how many they’re being asked to make, every single day.

From strategic moves to daily micro-decisions,
From hiring to what to wear for that investor call,
From complex roadmaps to endless Slack pings asking “quick” questions,
The truth is, leaders are making too many decisions, too often, with too little space to think.

And that’s not just inefficient, it’s dangerous.

Because decision fatigue doesn’t just wear you out,
it wears down your judgment.

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1️⃣ What Is Decision Fatigue, Really?

Decision fatigue is the mental and emotional exhaustion caused by making too many choices in a short period of time.

Symptoms include:

• Avoidance
• Indecision
• Irritability
• Defaulting to what’s familiar, not what’s best
• Delegating poorly, or not at all
• Overthinking things that used to feel simple

And the more high-stakes your role becomes,
the more invisible choices pile up on your plate.

📌 Fatigue doesn’t always look like collapse.
Sometimes it looks like saying yes when you meant no.

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2️⃣ Why This Hits Leaders (and Especially Women) Hard

As someone with a portfolio career, I navigate multiple contexts at once.
From product strategy to creative work, mentoring, writing, and business development,
I’ve had to learn: not every decision deserves equal energy.

And yet, many of us, especially women, find ourselves:

• Managing mental load at home and work
• Navigating emotional labor in teams
• Smoothing tension, absorbing uncertainty, covering gaps
• Being expected to be “available” and “decisive” at all times

📌 This isn’t a personal flaw, it’s a systemic drain on clarity and leadership capacity.

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3️⃣ Decision Fatigue Kills Strategic Thinking

You can’t make bold moves when you’re just trying to get through your inbox.
You can’t zoom out when your brain is fried from back-to-back micro-decisions.

That’s how bad strategy gets made:

• Reacting instead of choosing
• Over-relying on past templates
• Prioritizing comfort over clarity
• Rushing to decide just to feel done

📌 Strategy requires space.
And space doesn’t happen by accident.

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4️⃣ How to Protect Your Mental Energy as a Leader

Here are the practices I’ve adopted to reduce decision fatigue and lead with more clarity:

✔️ Design defaults
Create systems for recurring decisions. Automate the simple stuff, so your energy is saved for the hard stuff.

✔️ Batch your decisions
Group similar types of decisions together in your calendar. Avoid “decision ping-pong” between tactical and strategic.

✔️ Build space into your schedule
Leadership isn’t just meetings. It’s thinking time. Protect white space like you would a client meeting.

✔️ Learn to say “this is not a today decision”
Not every decision needs to be made now. Delay with intention.

✔️ Let good enough be good enough
Some decisions need precision. Others just need progress.

📌 Every choice costs energy. Spend it where it counts.

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Final Thought: Deciding Less Might Help You Lead More

The market rewards speed, but long-term leadership depends on clarity.
And clarity doesn’t survive constant, low-level decision chaos.

So if you’re finding it hard to make the “big” calls,
maybe it’s not because you’re indecisive.
Maybe it’s because you’re tired.

📌 The most strategic decision you make this week
might be to make fewer decisions next week.