When you want to make better decisions, don’t rely on your opinion.
This article introduces our Leadership Series — reflections on inspiration, influence, and the choices that shape meaningful achievement.
When Someone Asks, “Dan, What Do You Think?”
People sometimes ask me about my best Customer Experience.
Or the best Service interaction I’ve ever had.
I always hesitate to answer — not because I lack opinions, but because I don’t see myself as the arbiter of what’s best.
“The best” belongs to the beholder: the Passenger, Patient, Client, Guest — or for my work, the Training Participant.
As marketing strategist Mark Ritson warns:
All your thoughts, feelings and immediate responses … are not just incorrect — they are dangerous. — Mark Ritson, The first rule of marketing is you are not the customer
His point is simple and crucial: confusing what I like with what Customers value is risky business.
It’s Not About My Opinion
In my decades of delivering professional training, no Client has ever said:
Dan, we’re flying you to Shanghai, Brussels, or Phoenix so you can talk about your opinions. Everyone is dying to know what you think.
Did you wince when you read that? I did.
Because in workshops, my role isn’t to pontificate.
It’s to share frameworks, tools, and approaches that help people see and navigate the world differently — and achieve better outcomes.
- Better listening
- Stronger Contact Center management
- Improved trust
- Smarter handling of difficult situations
Approaches people can use and make their own.
Related reading: The Curse of Knowledge: A Cognitive Bias Explained
Let’s Talk About Judgment
Every effective discipline combines:
- a method, and
- judgment
I started my career in finance.
We would prepare the formal budget — following the required methods — and then came the interesting part: working with stakeholders to interpret what the numbers meant and where to adjust assumptions based on experience and shared judgment.
When I teach Contact Center forecasting, we work through the math first — time series methodology.
But the value isn’t the calculation or the resulting numbers.
It’s the application of judgment:
- What might make volume go up or down?
- What could push AHT higher or lower?
- What’s happening now that the past doesn’t reveal?
As I teach it: Just because the past is a good basis for predicting the future doesn’t mean the future will look exactly like the past.
That’s the moment to apply judgment.
Don’t lead with opinion and skip the relevant framework.
Lead with the relevant framework — and then apply sound judgment.
A Real-Life Example
In a people management class, we were discussing interviewing techniques.
Several seasoned Customer Service Managers said things like:
- “It takes me five minutes to know if someone is right for the job.”
- “I can just tell — I’ve been doing this a long time.”
- “If a candidate pauses too much, they’re not suited for Customer Service.”
My concern wasn’t whether they had earned wisdom.
It was what they were leading with: their personal opinions.
And here’s the issue:
- Personal opinion is hard to scale beyond the individual who holds it.
- When these managers move companies, their “magic method” leaves with them.
- And perhaps worst of all — they may be wrong.
Bias is a terrible hiring tool.
That’s why we teach structured interviewing:
- A standardized set of numerically scored questions
- Asked of every candidate for a role
- Scored by one or more interviewers
- Combined with other designed data points
Of course you can still apply judgment to the results of the structured process, just like with forecasting.
Yes, Tanya scored highest in our structured process. But our judgment is that Theresa, though she scored a bit lower, is a better cultural fit. We will offer Theresa the position.
That’s intentional judgment — applied after a structured process.
Not gut feel masquerading as expertise.
I Don’t Lead with Opinion
When I’m facilitating, I put my opinions aside.
What I bring instead are:
- frameworks,
- methodologies,
- structured approaches, and
- stories from Clients across industries
Because the “best experience” varies widely depending on context, culture, and intent.
So when someone asks me for my personal “best” experience, I usually say:
I don’t think my personal opinion matters much here. It’s better to use a robust, relevant process — and then apply sound judgment to what the process reveals.
Whether we’re hiring, forecasting, budgeting, designing a new experience, or even writing an email:
Follow a strong approach or methodology.
Then apply your judgment — earned through experience — to shape the outcome.
That’s where better results come from.
Leadership Articles
Practical lessons on leadership, judgment, and learning — drawn from experience at work and in life.
Leadership Quiz: 10 Decisions Every Team Leader Should Get Right (Part 1)
These 10 quiz questions are designed to test your judgment and understanding of practical leadership for Team Leaders and people managers working in Contact Centers and Customer Service.
Leadership Quiz: 10 Decisions Every Team Leader Should Get Right (Part 2)
These 10 additional quiz questions are designed to test your judgment and understanding of practical leadership for Team Leaders and people managers working in Contact Centers and Customer Service.
Lessons on Working with Senior Leaders at the Getty Museum
My early career at the Getty taught me how to build credibility with senior leaders, understand their goals, and use expertise to help them succeed.
Personality Is Not a Prison Sentence
Your personality is a tendency, not a limit. This article explores how people can grow beyond labels and step into new capabilities.
Nobody Gets Muscles by Watching Me Lift Weights
A German integration course reminded me: struggle is not a sign of failure — it’s the work. Growth comes from carrying the cognitive load.
Why I’m So Glad I Worked in Finance
A reflection on my early years in Finance: business acumen, trade-offs, and the commercial credibility that helps CX leaders earn buy-in.
We All Took a Personality Test — So Now What?
A personality test only becomes useful when leaders apply what they learn to all conversations — not just coaching moments.
What a High-Pressure Finance Job Taught Me About CX
A high-pressure finance job taught lessons that apply directly to CX — especially about what truly matters to senior leaders.
Knowing Better Is Easy — Choosing Better Isn’t
Many organizations already know there’s a better way. This article explains why the barrier isn’t knowledge — it’s the will to change.
Opinions Don’t Travel — Lessons Do
A look at why leaders influence more effectively when they share how they think — not just what they think — along with a model example.
A Strategy Lesson from the London Tube Map
Why strategy fails when teams start with tools instead of clarity — and how better sequencing leads to better decisions.
Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing
I explore two common ways leaders lose sight of what matters most — and the lesson that helped shape my own approach to leadership throughout my career.
Fourteen Editions. Fourteen Lessons from Beyond the Frame
I share fourteen lessons from the first fourteen editions of Beyond the Frame.
Terror in the Boardroom: A Mystery Shopper Story
Senior leaders shape the value of Mystery Shopper Research — through how they react to uncomfortable findings.
No — Your Team Member Does Not Have An Attitude Problem
Most of us have heard a manager say that someone has an “attitude problem.” The problem is that vague labelling doesn’t help us understand what is actually happening or what to do next.
Thank You for Reading
I regularly share stories, strategies, and insights from our work across Contact Centers, Customer Service, and Customer Experience. If this article resonated with you, I’d be pleased to stay connected.
Feel free to get in touch anytime, or explore more of our work below.
Daniel Ord
[email protected]
www.omnitouchinternational.com
