As someone who travels a lot for work, I end up eating in restaurants a fair bit, and I sometimes end up having difficulty deciding between the chicken stir-fry, and the boiled fish. Yep, that’s right, I have eating habits typical of an obese rabbit. But I digress.
You can imagine the confusion I would cause if I simply didn’t decide on a meal. For some indefinite period of time, I would become more and more famished, while the waiter, kitchen and support staff would wait (at first patiently), and then eventually boot me out for being such a twit.
Interestingly, this is exactly what happens to managers who fail to make decisions. People will wait patiently for some period of time, perhaps make a recommendation or two, but eventually they’ll get angry and boot you out.
There are a variety of reasons that managers fail to make decisions, but there are two essential things for indecisive managers to remember:
1) First, the decision you are about to (not) make, is really not all that important. It’s about as consequential as my choice between chicken and fish. Unless you are reading this as the head of some nation-state headed for armed conflict (in which case, I’d love your comments below, Mr. Netanyahu), then don’t flatter yourself by thinking that decision you’re delaying has any serious consequence.
2) The wrong decision today, is better than the correct decision a month from now. At least if you make the wrong decision now, it will become clear quickly, and you can change course. Just ask the guys who came up with the genius idea of “New Coke” a few years back. The old Coke was only off the shelf for a matter of seconds before they realized they’d made a huge mistake. It took a few more seconds to correct course, and get back to the business of pedaling sugar-water to the entire world, and kicking Pepsi’s ass.
So it’s time to quit agonizing and make a decision. When in doubt, flip a coin – the worst you’ll do is relive the New Coke fiasco. Start tomorrow morning by making the important decision of which side of your egg you should crack (with due credit to Jonathan Swift – look it up).