Years ago I heard a story about a person who was driving down the freeway and approaching an interchange with two possible directions the driver could choose. One person in the car was telling the driver to go right and another person was telling the driver to go left. The driver was unable to make a decision, and ended up running into a cement pylon that divided the two paths.
I have no idea if this story is true, but it illustrates clearly a common problem that businesses experience as they start to grow. I have observed this type of paralysis which results from indecision, and often the results of not making a decision are worse than either of the viable decisions that could have been made.
In other words, sometimes a business just has to quickly make the best decision possible with the available information and move forward, even if that business is not positive the decision is the best option. Often companies don’t have enough information to make a perfect decision, or enough time to wait to make a decision. Competitors can quickly leave behind the dinosaur companies who are unable to rapidly make the necessary decisions.
Sometimes decisive CEOs are criticized for not listening enough to their managers. Strong leaders need to walk a fine line where they ask for and encourage passionate feedback from their managers. However, managers then need to respect the responsibility of the CEO to quickly make a decision.
Those decisions will not always be perfect. However, the ability to quickly move the company forward is an essential attribute of a successful CEO and managers need to support their CEOs in these decisions after the CEO has heard their feedback. Not doing or agreeing with what a manager has advocated is not the same thing as “not listening”. CEOs are going to be wrong sometimes when the are analyzed with the hindsight of perfect knowledge. However, it is often even more wrong to not make a decision.
Posted on November 25th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Business Management, Entrepreneurship
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