There are times when it does not seem as if the right path will ever be clear to you. Managers have to make wonderful and terrible decisions every day, and we don't always have an obvious line drawn to the right choices.

Everyone who has ever had to manage employees—or children, for that matter—will understand that empty, hollow feeling you can get when you realize that you have all the data you're going to get, and the decision still does not feel solid. Sometimes all that data isn't nearly enough. Even high driving, A-type personalities, which is considered the one type that does not need 100 percent of the information, can have moments when clarity escapes them.

Once in a while this indecision happens for a positive reason. Perhaps you have more than one perfect candidate for a job opening. After months of searching you have to decide between the two. How can you decide? Who will be the best long-term employee? Will one fit our culture better? Is one more likely to be here longer? How do you know which one can become productive more quickly? Or maybe you must decide how to divvy up a rare bonus. Which area of the company deserves more? Is it fair to just give everyone the same amount? Does that reward performance, or mere presence? These are the wonderful decisions, which still require that you carefully analyze the details and make a solid choice.