ShortMenu,UglyOptions

The first and most profound lessons folks learn as they move into leadership positions are the constraints of decision-making.  Monday morning quarterbacks are quite fond of second guessing leaders on the difficult decisions they (must) make.  That second guessing is almost always accompanied by the preface of, "Well, if it were me, I would..."

The reality is this:  The decisions that most often present themselves to those in leadership positions are the difficult, ambiguous, and complex ones.  Other folks in the organization readily make the decisions that are easy and low-risk.  The tough decisions, the politically risky ones, the ones that have the look/smell/feel of dilemma, most often get "kicked up the food chain."

Thus, when it's time to make those tough decisions, the menu of remaining options is almost always short and almost always ugly.  The higher up the leadership food chain you get, the shorter and uglier the options become.  

Welcome to leadership.