Rules Of Management

RULE 61 - Be decisive, even if it means being wrong sometimes

“I don’t know what kind of people you’re used to dealing with. Nobody tells me what to do in my place.”

Karen Allen in Raiders of the Lost Ark

I bet you hate the type of manager who refuses to make a decent decision In case they make the wrong one. The prevaricating indecisive, frightened manager who won’t decide until it’s too late or they get the decision made for them. I’ve worked for a few and there is nothing more irritating than someone who fence-sits because they don’t know which way to jump – and all in the name of fear. They frightened to decide in case they make a mistake – one that might cost them their job. Big deal. Better to jump and make a mistake than to sit there too frightened to make a move. Bring it on.

And suppose it does turn out to be the wrong decision. Well, sometimes out of a big mistake something bright and shiny and magical appears and we land on our feet with a tra-la and mange to look good despite sometimes not knowing what we were doing. This is the magic manager that I want you to be. The instinctive manager around whom anything can happen – and will. If you want to sit on a fence, go find another book to read.

“Better to jump and make a mistake than to sit there too frightened to make a move.”

Now I’m not saying here that you should rash, ill-thought-through decisions. I’m assuming as a good manager that if it’s that kind of decision, you have to looked at the evidence before you and weighed it up, maybe asked for views from others. It’s that point in the process I’m talking about – the point where you are tempted to shirk the decision, in case it turns out to be the wrong one.

This is about courage. The courage to be wrong sometimes. The courage to take a risk. The courage to be scared in a good way (sitting on a fence because you are scared is a lot different from taking a big decision and being scared but exhilarated).

All you’ve got to do is look at the facts, weigh them up, ask advice, listen to your intuition and then do it – make the decision. Be dynamic, be bold.

posted by Right Ranger @ 8:45 PM