As a child there was one vegetable that I hated eating more than any other; that vegetable was rutabagas. Whenever I saw those orange, mashed vegetables on my dinner plate I knew that it was going to be a long night.
The only thing that made a longer night than rutabagas was liver and onions. Anyway, whenever these items made their way to the dinner table of my youth I would push them around on my plate and hope they would go away. I would eat everything else on the plate first, taking my time and saving the worst for last. What I discovered is that no amount of pushing away or putting off until later ever made these distasteful things taste better.
In many ways leaders treat difficult decisions like the things we disliked eating as children; we postpone making them. Let’s be honest for a moment. Not making a decision doesn’t typically make the outcome better or the decision-making process easier. In fact, the delay can make the outcome worse. As a child, I would hate having to eat cold liver or rutabagas. At least they would have been warm if I’d eaten them first.
Think through the possible consequences of the decision
Who will be affected and how? What are the consequences of making the decision? What are the consequences of not making the decision? Taking these steps should help you see how detrimental delaying the decision may be to particular individuals and the team as a whole.
Make the move
Once you have thought through the possible consequences of the decision, make the move without delay. This may sound difficult to do, but remember the rutabaga story and just eat it. The most difficult part of making leadership decisions is often overcoming the inertia of thinking about what may happen.
Begin to cast vision forward
After the difficult decision has been made don’t look back. The remarkable thing about making difficult leadership decisions is that you typically feel much better after the decision has been executed. You often ask yourself what all of the consternation was about in the first place. Our primary role as leaders is to keep the family, team, church, ministry, or organization moving forward toward the common goal.
The bottom line for us as leaders is that we must eat our vegetables; even if they aren’t the ones that we like. If you are facing difficult decisions, and we all do, make them quickly and move forward. What leadership decisions have you been delaying?