THE THIRD COMMANDMENT of GOOD DECISION MAKING: THOU SHALT BE DECISIVE

The third commandment for good decision making from Gino Wickman’s ebook, Decide, is a close cousin of the second, (Thou Shalt Not Be A Weenie) but is stated in the positive. THOU SHALT BE DECISIVE!

LOSE THE HEAD TRASH:  YOU WERE RIGHT

A friend of mine once said to me: “Don’t doubt in the dark what was revealed in the light.”

Most of us carry around a lot of head trash… second guessing ourselves, doubting, squirming at the first sign of trouble or conflict. We face the temptation to go back to an earlier decision that we set into motion and either undoing it or changing it.

Would you be willing to consider the high probability that your original decision was right?

Why should you believe this?  If you made your decision in the context of running your business on EOS, you made your original decision when you were at your peak understanding of the issue.  You had clarity and you understood the context. You understood the ramifications or potential ramifications. You knew there would be some people who would not like your decision. When those naysayers showed up at your door with pitchforks, torches, and axes, that wasn’t a signal that you made the wrong decision.

TWEAK WELL.  NO WISHY and  NO WASHY. 

OK, there’s a chance that you need to tweak your decision. But I can’t emphasize enough: it is critical that your team does not perceive you to be wishy washy. If you’re wishy washy, your team is going to lose confidence in both you and your decision. A reputation for being wishy washy will haunt you on future decisions.

The conversation at the coffee pot will goes something like this:

Person 1:  “Did you hear? Allison just made changes the TPS coversheet rule in her department.”

Person 2:  “Yeah, but you remember what happened last time she stuck her neck out. Frankly, I don’t think this decision will stand the test of time.”

That’s not the kind of coffee chatter you want.

If a member of your Leadership Team grows a reputation for being indecisive, his or her teammates will lose confidence in that leader’s ability to… Lead. Worse yet, if the Leader of the Leadership Team (the “Integrator”) exhibits indecisiveness, the effect on that Leadership Team may move from dysfunctional to crippling.

Look, if you conclude that you do, in fact, need to tweak your decision/solution, do it. Be gracious about it. Be humble. Demonstrate to your leaders how you want them to behave in similar circumstances. Tweaking doesn’t mean you’re wrong.  It just means you’re a sensible human.

EOS TOOLS PROMOTE TEAM HEALTH AND CLARITY

When operating your company using EOS, one of the tools you are taught in our first day together is the Level 10 Meeting Agenda. As you continue to use this powerful tool, you grow your team’s ability to identify your issues and solve them at the root to make them go away forever. Solving requires a decision and action.

As leaders, it is important not only to be decisive but that we convey and display decisiveness to the people who are accountable to us for the long term health, functionality, and cohesiveness of our team.

Indecisiveness promotes doubt, fog, and uncertainty throughout our organization.

Our DECISIVENESS, on the other hand, promotes confidence and clarity.

If you’d like to discuss your organization’s issues or would like to learn more about EOS, please check it out here or contact me directly at will.karbach@eosworldwide.com.

‘Til then…  Stay focused.  Press on.

WK