Every day we make decisions. In fact, we make so many choices that we lose count of them and of their results. While many of the decisions we make are small ones, like whether or not to have another cup of coffee, many are large and crucial to our businesses and our lives. All too often, the choice is made to do nothing.
Whether we know it or not, doing nothing at all is a decision. It might be inaction due to time constraints or neglect; or it could be the result of believing that doing nothing is better than making a mistake. In most business related cases, however, any action taken on a problem is better than ignoring the issue entirely. Always keep in mind that taking no action on a problem is an action in itself. Doing nothing is very often the resulting decision for many business people. Usually, it's the wrong management choice.
For many people, making business decisions is a very difficult task. Torn by fear of making a mistake and blindly hoping the problem will go away by itself, no action is taken at all. It's a difficult concept for many people to grasp that doing nothing may also be a mistake. From an early age, people are taught that the only mistakes are ones made through activity. Errors of ommission are much more common, but are less likely to be thought of as what caused the disaster. The lack of action is often more about lack of personal responsibility, self preservation, and ego than about making any sort of positive contribution. No one can blame anyone if they didn't actually do anything is usually the mistaken rationale.
Instead of being intentified with making a wrong and often highly visible decision, many people have conditioned themselves to place doing nothing at all as their default position. That mind set has to change, for the benefit of the company, and for a person's non-work life as well. It's time to change those default settings to a more advanced mode of thought and action.
Practice making decisions and putting them into action. You may start small with relatively harmless choices that maybe only you notice. You might make a few errors, but experience will show you that in most cases the mistake was less costly than letting the issue slide. The good results will almost always outweigh the bad, boosting your confidence that you can choose wisely.
After you become more comfortable with making decisions and acting upon them, you can move up to more visible problems. Since you now understand that a wrong choice of action is still better than none at all, your level of confidence will improve as well. Work with other members of your management team on solving many of your commpany's more pressing issues. Once a decision is reached, set up an action plan, develop a time table for activities, and create a followup mechanism to ensure everything decided upon was completed as planned.
A bit of magic will also happen for the benefit of the business, and for you personally. Some of your management actions will net some very positive results. Higher sales, better production, positive customer service, and many more profitable and public image improving rewards will appear. Instead of fear of mistakes, your mind will look for possible problem solutions. Rather than sit back and let things take their own course, your choice now will be to make some positive changes.
Good things happen to people who take action on issues.
Make some decisions and act upon them today.
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