Zen and the Confident CEO

It’s how good your decisions are, not how you feel about them.

An AI-generated image in traditional Japanese style of a CEO and a Master. — The CEO and the Master. Image generated with AI by DALL-E.

A CEO came to see a Master, and said: “Master, I’m so proud of my business. I have been leading it for seven years, and never wavered in giving it direction.”

“Your confidence is commanding,” said the Master. “So I gather that you make decisions with good judgement?”

“Certainly, Master. I rely on intuition, and make decisions quickly. When a problem presents itself, I make the call and never look back.”

“I see,” said the Master. “But then I wonder, if you don’t look back, how do you know you made the right decision?”

At that moment, the CEO was Enlightened.

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Article index

Scrum: A Scrum Koan; A Daily Scrum Koan; Scrum and the Road to Enlightenment; The Developer who did Everything Right; The Pathway to Heaven is Paved with Thoughtful Questions; A Story Point Koan; Zen and the Definition of Done
Security: A Lightweight Information Security Management System (Part I) ★; A Lightweight Information Security Management System (Part II) ★; A Lightweight Information Security Management System (Part III) ★
Communication: A Developer’s Guide to Collaborative Communication; On The Law of Demeter and the Power of Nuanced Discourse; Marshall Rosenberg and the Angry Luthier
Project management: In Praise of the Messy Development Cycle; Lost in Translation? Build a Project Dictionary; Why the Project Trilemma Doesn’t Apply to Application Development; The Importance of Marrying the Right Project Management Tool; Zen and the Nature of Flow; The Nature of Flow; Stop Asking for Estimates; The Art of Creating More Value With Less Work; How to Achieve Flow in Software Development; A Student and her Tardy Teachers; Zen and the Contest of the Two Teams; A Game of Okaloa Flowlab; A Game of Prisoner’s Dilemma; How to Reduce Lead Times; Why Two is a Great Team Size; How to Turn Around a Stalled Development Process; Two Ways of Achieving Nothing
Technology: A Return to Simplicity
Collaboration: An Inquiry into Liberating Structures (part I) ★; Zen and the Paradox of Liberating Structures; Exploring the 1-2-4-All Micropattern (An Inquiry into Liberating Structures, part II) ★; Scattered to the Four Winds; Exploring The Nine Whys (An Inquiry into Liberating Structures, part III) ★; Zen and the Nature of Scale
Testing: Specification by Example for Reluctant Product Managers ★; Software Testing for Reluctant Product Managers ★; Why You Need a Staging System for Acceptance Testing, and How to Set It Up; Don’t Use Consumers (or Users) as Guinea Pigs; Beethoven, Obama, and the Perils of A/B-testing; Zen and the Art of Rubber Duck Debugging
Legal: Dev Agencies, Drop the Fine Print! It’s Plain English That Reluctant Product Managers Need
Design: The Masterpiece; Design as an Emerging Property of User Needs; Zen and the Case of the Blue Roses
Off-topic: My Festive Season’s Wishes to all Reluctant Product Managers
Science: A Guide to Understanding Scientific Studies (part I) ★; A Guide to Understanding Scientific Studies (part II) ★; Beware the Man in the White Coat: A Guide to Understanding Scientific Studies (part III) ★; Zen and the Art of Listening; The Story of the Little Fact
Business: Zen and the Art of Gambling; The Sunk Cost Fallacy in Software Development; How Cost of Delay Improves Investment Decisions; Zen and the Discovery of Cost of Delay; The Sorcerer and the CFO; Zen and the Nature of Ideas; Zen and the Confident CEO
Hiring: How to Find Great Developers
Contracting: How to Minimize Vendor Lock-In as a Reluctant Product Manager
Marketing: SEO (Mostly) Doesn’t Matter. Focus on the Audience Instead (Part I); SEO (Mostly) Doesn’t Matter. Focus on the Audience Instead (Part II); The Three Shoemakers
Philosophy: Zen and the Principles of Construction; Zen and the Lazy Workers’ Boss; Zen and the Three Door Problem; Zen and the Art of Decision-Making; Zen and the Overzealous Student; Zen and the Feelings of AI; Zen and the Complaining Students; Zen and the Quest for Truth; The Tradesman’s New Kimono; Zen and the Meaning of Why; Zen and the Art of Collaboration; Zen and the Nine Whys; Zen and the Perils of Micromanagement; Zen and the Nature of Quality; Zen and the Nature of Thought; Zen and the Art of Investment
Books: The Books on the Reluctant Product Manager’s Bedside Table
Product management: When is a Product “Viable”? When it’s Finished
Risk management: Don’t be a data hoarder; Why the Risk Matrix is Broken – and What to use Instead
Domain modeling: Zen and the Shopkeeper’s Enigma