Make a Decision!
Over the years, I’ve advised a lot of clients who have big decisions to make. They spend a lot of time thinking about it, weighing all their options, talking to everyone, then they kick the decision down the road, then begin the process all over again…without ever making a decision. One CEO met with me, laid out his upcoming decisions, we walked through all the variables and we even wrapped up the long meeting a very clear roadmap of key decisions, and how to roll them out, step by step. The CEO then went silent for a full year, requested another meeting, and when we walked through his new considerations, they were the exact same considerations as the prior year. In other words, the decisions were kicked down the road a full twelve months when a good CEO would have made the right decisions and acted in less than a week! This happens all the time.
We see this same pattern of indecisive, delayed behavior from CEOs where they will claim to want to execute on some idea, only to have them sit on the decision. They never have any awareness of the damage they cause their own company. There is a huge cost to indecisive behavior and what it usually boils down to, is the cost of fear. These CEOs are afraid of the implications or discomfort as a result of the decision, even when it’s what’s best for the company.
One of my all-time favorite “The Far Side” cartoons, showed a baker saying to his extremely fat employee, “Well, shoot. I just can’t figure it out. I’m movin’ over 500 donuts a day, but I’m still just barely squeakin’ by.” Notice he didn’t say selling?
It reminds me of the CEO who complains about slow growth, but can’t make a fast decision about anything. See what should be obvious? I pick on CEOs a lot and with good reason. Often they surround themselves with people who tell them what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear. This is what gives me a lot of pride in Middlerock.
We had a recent client call with our entire team and one of our partners gave it to the CEO as straight as he needed to hear it. We were all cheering him on. We’re a crappy practice if we tell people what they want to hear just to keep the gig. It’s not what makes a great company and we’re not out to do anything but turn mediocre performers into great companies the CEOs can be proud to run. We’re not interested in getting by and it’s why we sometimes get frustrated when we see a company that can be something amazing choose to kick the hard work down the road because the decision is uncomfortable.
This is the very reason to hire us. We’ll do all we can to make the decision something worthwhile, and something that has a positive impact for everyone. Even in a bad situation, kicking the tough decision down the road only makes it worse. The public failure of PicoBrew and all our work in wrapping that up could have cost everyone a lot less. They may have been time to save parts of the company.
If we could wish for anything with our clients, it would be for them to face the challenges head on and become decisive leaders. We think there is far more to gain than sitting on a decision another year.