When Doubt is The Best Clarity You Need to Move Forward
Doubt is your spidey sense trying to tell ya something, listen to it.
Frank Slootman, who’s been a prominent figure in the tech industry and the CEO of companies like ServiceNow, Snowflake, and Data Domain, has a famous maxim: When there’s doubt, there’s no doubt.
Frank’s maxim is a framework for decision-making. In the context of leadership, business, and personal relationships, doubt is usually a sign that something is off. In some situations, the very fact that you have doubt is a surefire sign that you should not proceed any further. In other cases, it’s saying that more work is needed to reach clarity on the decision required.
Either way, it’s not to be ignored.
“Trust your instincts. Intuition doesn’t lie.” — Oprah Winfrey
This applies to all facets of life, not just business. Here are the ones that come to mind:
Hiring Decisions: If you’re considering hiring someone and something doesn’t feel right during the interview process, even if the resume is perfect, it’s often better to trust that intuition and not hire that person. Hiring decisions are the most important and consequential decisions any leader will make in a company. Hire the wrong people, and you end up with the wrong culture.
Joining a New Company: If you’re interviewing for a new role and everything seems to be moving along great, but you have this nagging feeling that something is off, you need to walk away from it. If you doubt the job or the company before you’ve even started, that won’t bode well for your longevity or happiness at that company. Move on and something better will come along.
Strategic Partnerships: If you’re thinking about partnering with another company or perhaps you’re contemplating bringing new investors on board, but there are red flags about the integrity or trustworthiness of that party, you should pause and reconsider the partnership. Doubt, in this case, is pushing you to run further diligence to get clarity on who you’re getting in bed with, so to speak.
Product Launches: Before launching a new product, if there are doubts about its readiness or its fit in the market, it might be worth delaying the launch to address those concerns. Don’t just power through it. Believe me, you will fail if you do.
Investment Opportunities: If an investment opportunity seems too good to be true, it’s usually a sign to do more due diligence or avoid the investment altogether. Sometimes your doubt is driven by your lack of knowledge. That’s actually a great thing. Warren Buffett said, “Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.” Educate yourself first, and after that, if you still have doubts, walk away.
Business Expansions: Considering expanding into a new market or starting a new revenue stream but having doubts about the potential return or the competitive landscape? This is a sign that you need to take a step back and reassess. Many epic blunders were driven by CEOs ignoring the deafening sound of intuition saying, “STOP!”
Relationships: If you’re in a relationship and consistently feeling unsure about the other person’s commitment or sincerity, or perhaps you’re thinking of deepening a friendship but have reservations about the person’s trustworthiness or intentions, it is a sign that a hard conversation is in order. Face-to-face communication will give you all the verbal and nonverbal cues you need to decide how to move forward.
“I rely far more on gut instinct than researching huge amounts of statistics.” — Richard Branson
Frank’s book, Amp it Up, is full of maxims like this one. I highly recommend it to all operational leaders and management teams.