Decisions, decisions.  In business and in life, our day seems to be full of them.  Some small… like where to get lunch.  Some huge… like a major purchase, acquisition, merger, new product, growth, etc…

The big decisions are never easy.  Even with mountains of analysis and due diligence, sometimes making a leadership decision seems almost impossible.  Pulling the trigger on a decision can be agonizing.  How then does one do it?

Here are how the best leaders I have been around make decisions:

1. They start with why. Simon Sinek wrote a great book titled: “Start with Why.”  It is all about having a solid purpose or ‘why’ for your organization. For example, Apple’s main purpose is to: ‘Think Different’ – which they very much do so. Or Disney’s purpose is to: ‘Bring Joy,’ which they do very well. If you take a close look at these companies, you will see that every decision they make aligns with their purpose.

Volkswagen on the other hand, has a purpose statement that says: “At Volkswagen it is our mission to build long term strategic partnerships with our customers.”  Hmmm…  They obviously did not use their purpose statement as their guide when they decided to cheat 11million customers of diesel engines!

Your organization’s purpose is like a ‘divining rod’ used to find water under the ground.  When faced with a strategic decision, the purpose is used to make sure the decision will fit within the purpose.  You cannot go off purpose.  Ever.

2. They ensure alignment with Values. Your organization’s values are the second tool to use in making a strategic decision.  If you allow a strategic decision to be based on short-term gain or executive’s greedily working toward achieving their bonus plan and violate the organization’s values, then bad things will happen.  Look at Enron.  Their number one value was Integrity.  Because of their lack of integrity, former Enron executives are now in jail, the company is bankrupt and former employees of Enron lost their life savings.

Values are sacred.  When they are violated, anarchy follows.  Values need to be lived, talked about often and celebrated.

Robert Murray is a Business Strategy Consultant, partner at Incrementa Consulting Inc., #1 Best Selling Author, and International Keynote Speaker. For further advice, insight and inspiration on how to unlock your inner leader, follow Robert on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.