Matthew Waller, dean emeritus for the Sam M. Walton College of Business, and Adam Stoverink, executive director of the Walton MBA programs, are co-teaching Leadership & Organizational Behavior this fall to Walton full-time MBA and Walton Executive MBA students. The class explores Walmart as a semester-long case study, bringing leadership theories and principles to life through compelling examples and executive guest speakers.
Decision making is a core leadership behavior that directly shapes strategy, collaboration, and organizational impact. In a recent conversation with Karrie Claybrook, Senior Director of Marketing for Walmart Health & Wellness and Financial Services, and an alumna of our MBA program, we explored how leaders can strengthen decision making by recognizing biases such as confirmation bias, availability bias, anchoring, overconfidence bias, and sunk cost bias. We also examined structured approaches, including the WRAP framework and the 10-10-10 rule, that help leaders make more resilient choices. Drawing on her broad functional experience across Finance, Corporate Affairs, Merchandising, Operations, and Marketing, Karrie emphasized the importance of being effective rather than simply right when working cross-functionally, a perspective that aligns with emotional intelligence and collaborative leadership. Her story of launching one of Walmart’s private label bandages further illustrates how decision making anchored in empathy, and customer advocacy can drive meaningful innovation. This article bridges theory and practice to show how leaders can reduce bias, improve judgment, and enhance their effectiveness by treating decision making as a deliberate and practiced behavior.
Decision Making as a Leadership Behavior
Decision making is a behavior that leaders practice and refine. The quality of a leader’s decisions shapes both the direction of an organization and the trust of its people (Kahneman, 2011). When treated as a leadership behavior, decision making becomes a skill that can be observed, evaluated, and improved through deliberate practice.
Common Biases That Distort Judgment
Even experienced leaders are not immune to cognitive biases that can quietly undermine their decision making (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974). In our discussion, we highlighted five (Aronson, 2018):
- Confirmation Bias: Seeking information that supports existing beliefs.
- Availability Bias: Relying on information that comes most easily to mind.
- Anchoring: Giving disproportionate weight to the first piece of information encountered (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974).
- Overconfidence Bias: Overestimating the accuracy of personal judgments.
- Sunk Cost Bias: Continuing an endeavor because of past investment rather than future value (Arkes & Blumer, 1985).
Recognizing these tendencies is the first step. Leaders who are mindful of them are better positioned to pause, reflect, and apply corrective frameworks.
Frameworks for Stronger Decisions
Two frameworks provided students with practical tools for improving decision quality.
The WRAP framework helps leaders Widen their options, Reality-test their assumptions, Attain distance before deciding, and Prepare to be wrong (Heath & Heath, 2013).
The 10-10-10 rule encourages leaders to consider how a decision will feel in 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years, which brings long-term perspective to short-term pressures (Welch, 2009). (Karrie added to this discussion by suggesting we also consider 100 years.)
These approaches equip leaders to counter bias.
Being Effective vs. Being Right: A Cross-Functional Perspective
Drawing from her broad functional experience, Karrie emphasized an important leadership truth: when working cross-functionally, it is often more important to be effective than to be right. Leaders who focus on being “right” may overlook the perspectives and priorities of their collaborators. Effective leaders listen, adapt, and work toward shared outcomes. This requires humility and a willingness to understand others’ contexts before advancing one’s own position (Goleman, 1995).
Emotional Intelligence and Decision Making
This principle connects directly to emotional intelligence. Leaders who demonstrate self-regulation and empathy are better equipped to navigate cross-functional collaboration (Goleman, 1995). Listening first, understanding priorities, and managing one’s own impulse to argue or persuade enables leaders to build trust and credibility. In turn, this emotional awareness strengthens decision making by ensuring that choices are not only rational but also relational.
Bandages: A Case of Empathic Decision Making in Action
Karrie Claybrook illustrated these concepts with a story. While working in Walmart’s health and wellness private brands, she noticed that traditional first-aid products did not always meet the needs of all customers. She and her team created a first-to-market variety pack of skin-tone bandages that offered customers options better suited to their individual needs.
This decision reflected leadership in action: using empathy to identify unmet needs, applying judgment to turn an idea into reality, and mobilizing the scale of Walmart to create change.
(The “Belonging Through Bandages” story and photos are featured on Walmart World: Belonging Through Bandages).
Bridging Theory and Practice for Future Leaders
Our MBA students walked away from this discussion with more than academic concepts. They experienced how decision making can be strengthened by awareness of bias, supported by frameworks, and elevated through emotional intelligence. They also saw how one leader’s decisions, informed by empathy and effectiveness, can create meaningful change.
Decision making as a leadership behavior is about building processes, habits, and mindsets that improve this behavior over time. Leaders who commit to this discipline make better choices, cultivate stronger relationships, and build more effective organizations.
References
Arkes, H. R., & Blumer, C. (1985). The psychology of sunk cost. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 35(1), 124–140. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(85)90049-4
Aronson, E. (2018). The social animal (12th ed.). Worth Publishers.
Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence. Bantam Books.
Heath, C., & Heath, D. (2013). Decisive: How to make better choices in life and work. Crown Business.
Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1974). Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. Science, 185(4157), 1124–1131. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.185.4157.1124
Welch, S. (2009). 10-10-10: A life-transforming idea. Scribner.
