Which leadership quality is essential for effective decision-making?

The courage to take risks is essential for effective decision-making because it empowers leaders to navigate uncertain situations and pursue opportunities that may involve potential downsides. Effective decision-making often requires weighing various options, anticipating possible outcomes, and being willing to make choices that are not guaranteed to succeed. Leaders who possess courage are able to step outside their comfort zones and take calculated risks, which can lead to innovative solutions and significant organizational growth. This quality fosters an environment where experimentation and learning from failures are encouraged, ultimately leading to better decision-making outcomes and more resilient teams.

The other options do not align with fostering effective decision-making. Strictly following protocols may limit creative problem-solving and flexibility, lack of empathy can hinder understanding team needs and generating buy-in, and delegating all responsibility can lead to a lack of accountability and ownership in decision-making processes.