It's a terrifying feeling. It can strike any business person at any time. That moment of panic, when it seems almost impossible to make a crucial decision, can render helpless even the most confident manager. When that instant of decision paralysis strikes, it's time to take a positive course of action.
Decision paralysis results from having a prior course of action turn out badly. The manager becomes afraid of making another mistake. For an executive on the fast track, the fear of having a disastrous action on the record, can act like a stone wall to the decision making process. Rather than risk a career damaging mistake, the executive errs on the side of safety. The problem for the company is that choosing inaction is a really making the decision to do nothing. This lack of action can be even more disastrous for the organization.
Decision paralysis is not natural to a successful business person. The condition is a direct descendant of a corporate culture that punishes mistakes. Instead, the company culture rewards those individuals who keep their heads down, and don't make any waves.
This cover your back thinking is precisely the wrong approach to developing an innovative and dynamic company. A hallmark of great corporations is their ability to develop new products and services and introduce them successfully to the marketplace. These productive and profitable activities are not the result of organizations run by yes people.
Great companies know that numerous concepts will strike out and not be successful. By employing modern market research and making their entire organizations a holistic, innovative idea factory, they can take an insurmountable lead on the competition. If new ideas are stifled by fear of mistakes, and from decision paralysis, the company will fall behind their competitors. That lagging gap may never be closed again.
Profitable companies reward innovation. Instead of punishing mistakes, they encourage new ideas. Creative teams are their success keystone. Yes people, and the indecisive managers who they foster, are made available to competing companies.
Don't let decision paralysis strike your company. Action beats inaction, and creative companies are the industry leaders of today, and of tomorrow.
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