Undocumented Features

Stick to Your Guns

January 19, 2008 – 9:07 pm

Today I’m going to veer off the PM path and espouse some plan, simple leadership advice.

A manager of mine once had a decision to make regarding twenty thousand dollars worth of customized work that our company would have to outsource.  There was no easily identifiable ‘hard’ value of it, but it was something that appeared to be a good idea.

Determined to make a good decision and not waste company assets, he held meetings, called in experts, and studied the situation.  The thing is, when your company is a high-end company, and the people your experts are so expert that their time is very valuable, you can only afford to study things so much.  As one of the consultants involved, I kept pointing this out in subtle ways.  Finally, one day after yet another meeting, I pulled him aside.

“Look, you have everyone’s opinion, and it’s obviously split on this.  You need to make the call.”

“Yeah, but twenty thousand dollars is a lot of money.  I think we need to make an informed decision.”

“You better make it soon.  You’ve spent ten thousand dollars in manhours studying it.”

After a quick discussion of the cost per hour of the people involved, he saw I was right.  He made the call the next day.

Another, similar scenario that I’ve seen many times is the ‘hanging decision’.  Everyone knows that the company needs something, but there’s more than one solution to the problem, so the company studies the options.  And studies.  And studies.  The worst is when there’s more than one right answer.  People lose faith in leadership’s ability to lead, because leadership can’t make the call.

Research has shown (here, for example) that firm decisions are better in the long run for your own morale.  It’s better for your people and your company as well.  Will it be the right decision always?  No.  But keeping things in motion is important.  If a decision is important enough, study it, but always remember that the clock is ticking.  People come to work every day and get paid every day, whether they are working to implement your new idea, taking the next step in your project, or waiting around the coffee machine, gossiping over when the boss (that’s you) is finally going to decide something.

There’s been a few things like this in my new job- things that were set aside and considered nice to do’s, that I’ve been deferring.  Last week, I bit the bullet and started calling teams together to take action on all of it.  The response so far is phenomenal.  People are volunteering to work extra hours to implement things that apparently they had been waiting for leadership to take action on for years now, but no one had said the word.  Morale is soaring.  The workplace is getting better instantly.  All because I stepped up to the plate.  If any of the calls I’m making are wrong, the team is still behind it, and we’ll simply revise and cope with it.

Be careful, study things, avoid risk, but do something.  People want leaders to lead, not ponder.  If you have two right options to choose between, pick one and do so with confidence.  If it turns out to not be the best decision, own your mistake, take action to correct it.  People will admire you more for making mistakes but owning them and leading with authority than they ever will for waffling and being indecisive.

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