The Decision That Keeps Coming Back

It came up at the last leadership meeting. There was a good discussion, several views were expressed and everyone agreed it needed to be sorted. Then the meeting ended.

Perhaps it is a senior person you know isn't quite right for what comes next. A customer or market you keep saying you should pursue. An investment you cannot quite commit to. A responsibility that needs to move from you to somebody else. A part of the business everyone knows needs to change.

Nothing dramatic happens. It simply remains undecided.

And undecided things have a habit of taking up considerably more space than they deserve. They appear in conversations and sit in the back of your mind. People work around them. Other decisions begin waiting for them until, eventually, everyone becomes accustomed to the fact that this particular thing is simply how things are.

That is when an unresolved decision starts becoming expensive

Not necessarily in pounds and pence, although sometimes it does. The cost can be time, energy, attention, confidence and progress.

The interesting thing is that many of these decisions are not waiting for more information. You probably know more than enough already.

What makes them difficult is what happens after you decide.

There may be a conversation you would rather not have. Money may be at risk. Someone may be disappointed. You may have to let go of something that has mattered for years. And once you choose one direction, another usually disappears.

So the decision comes back to the table. Not because you are indecisive. Because it matters.

While the decision waits, the business does not

Founders, CEOs, Managing Directors and Business Owners make decisions every day. Most barely register. Others carry consequences for people, customers, shareholders, families and the future of the business itself.

What they cannot have indefinitely is somewhere to hide. People begin making decisions around it. Plans acquire an unspoken caveat. Workarounds become normal. Someone capable may become frustrated waiting for clarity.

Another month passes. Perhaps another quarter. Nothing catastrophic happens and the business carries on.

The business has learned how to live with a decision that still needs to be made.

That may be the real cost of leaving it there. Not necessarily the crisis that follows, rather the progress that doesn't.

What if the decision you keep postponing is the very decision your business is waiting for you to make?

You probably already know which one it is.

When the pressure is high. When the game has changed. When the next decisions matter.