What are the most dangerous decisions? The decisions you don’t know you are making.
Every day, in every company, leaders decide to accept the status quo. Not consciously, not deliberately, but by habit. That is a decision. At first, this is conscious. Later, they are unconscious. That is when they become insidious because inertia has a shocking amount of power.
What decisions are commonly avoided or postponed? Decisions to:
- Address bad behavior
- Reject mediocrity
- Get the right tools
- Seek the right expertise
- Hire external help
- Remove someone
- Divest
Avoiding these decisions creates drag. Drag reduces lift and velocity. Tolerating drag may seem like passivity but the message it sends is loud and clear.
Allowing this drains energy and undermines the credibility of leaders. (Click to Tweet)
Eventually, you’ll have a crisis. Then, decisions happen fast but probably not by the leader who allowed it to happen in the first place.
I help clients in crisis but this type of crisis is unnecessary. How do you prevent it? Change your frame. Instead of looking at your company in the usual ways, change your perspective.
Changing this one thing could help you avoid unnecessary crises in your organization. (Click to Tweet)
Here’s one to try. Three elements: Torque, Speed and Traction.
Torque – Is the organization oriented toward its strategic goals? How well do we anticipate and adapt?
Speed – Are people free to use judgment, as well as data, to make decisions? Do things happen quickly?
Traction – the organization effective? Are processes directed toward the goals or are they bad habits?
Use the self-diagnostic below to rate yourself.
I’ll publish a summary of your comments (all anonymous) in a few weeks.
Let us know in the comments below. What are you great at? Where is the drag? What decisions do you make without realizing you are making them?
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