UF Postings Past: Too Much Spin Can Make You Dizzy…

For better or worse, the business place nowadays is often rife with politics. Really, it always has been. With the many ways of communication nowadays though, the press, bloggers, unhappy customers building websites, activist groups, class action lawsuits, and all the trappings that go with making mistakes in modern business though, it’s no wonder we sometimes get lost in the spin.

The consequences of mistakes in business have grown such that most business people I know have trouble seperating the facts in a decision from the spin that will be put on the results later on. They frame every possible decision in terms of how it may look to the press, the stockholders, the SEC, the customers, the VP down the hall, the list goes on and on. When we do this, we can’t think clearly about the issue itself. It’s even worse when you are in a meeting. Every time someone puts a possible outcome on the table, there’s a whole room full of people spinning it in every direction to find how it could come out badly, squashing the idea. Keep doing this, and you will often find that you have no good solution whatsoever. Even if you don’t, the only decision you will arrive at is the one no one can say anything bad about, which usually means no risk. No risk in business equals no innovation.

What happens is that people confuse possible fallout with substance. Put your spin away. Try leading your meeting off with something like this: “First, let’s decide what to do. We can decide how to sell it afterwards. If we don’t, we’ll spend all day selling and never have a product to sell.”

Set the stage right. First, you all need to decide what to do based on the facts and non-political risks involved. After you have done this, you can think about how to present your decision and do any political damage control. You cannot make the right decisions, the tough decisions in life, if you worry about how you’re going to sell them first. Make your decision, then sell it. This is what leadership is all about.

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