Making Tough Decisions

Recent events have made me question the ability of managers to make tough decisions in business, especially when it involves people. This statement is not made to offend or alienate, but more to question what is required to make those decisions. Let me explain.

I have been involved with a company that to be successful, requires the development of a high performance environment and where people management is critical. Talent is hard to find and the key issue is retaining the current talent pool, whilst developing and nurturing the up and coming talented individuals.

To do this, the manager requires exceptional communication and leadership skills, with an ability to lead and manage highly competitive, energetic and motivated individuals.

The culture needs to be one that enables individuals to achieve their goals, feeling supported with two-way feedback and open and transparent communication to minimise the risk of losing the talent.

Instead, the current manager has created a culture that is truly ineffective by managing through fear and intimidation, creating systems and processes that lack transparency and levels of communication which are almost non-existent.

Individuals within this business have raised the issues with the manager in an attempt to bring about change and “fix” the culture. The result was disastrous and the individuals were subject to recrimination for raising the issues.

The senior management responsible for this organisation are aware of the problem, concerned about it and aware of the impact it is having on everyone involved—but are unwilling or deliberately choosing not to do anything about it.

So, when did it become hard to make a decision and take action that will ultimately affect your bottom line? Right now, this business has a group of people that lack motivation, are unproductive and not engaged.

Here are my tips for managers that need to make tough decisions:

1) Have courage! Nobody said management was easy and although you may have some short term pain, the long term gain will be worth it.

2) Plan and Prepare. You need to know what the effect of your decision will be and how you are going to handle the fall out.

3) Make the decision. Not making a decision is far worse that making one you think is bad. Not making a decision reflects on your leadership ability.

4) Have alternatives. So you made the decision and it didn’t turn out exactly as you planned. Be flexible and have alternatives to address further issues.

The best piece of advice is that when making a hard decision, think of it like a band-aid. As our mothers always said, it was less painful if ripped off quickly.