Make the Next Best Bad Decision
Leadership is making your next best bad decision. Whether it is organizational leadership, family leadership, or self-leadership…we all face difficult choices each day.
Decision making is a central life problem. Everyone wants to make “good” decisions while avoiding “bad” decisions. It seems like a straight-forward strategy except for one major issue…what do you do when there are no good options?
Many people choose to wait until a “good” option becomes available. Waiting is a leadership strategy that can serve us well at times, but how long is too long to wait? The reality is that there are situations when no amount of waiting will ever be enough for a good option to materialize. In fact, while waiting the options could go from bad to worse.
Refusing to make a choice from the available “bad” options often leads to stagnation. When we refuse to make a move, we stop moving. A lack of movement not only stalls growth…it freezes perspective. Making a “bad” choice may be the “best” choice because it moves you into a new position to encounter new options.
This is precisely why leadership is so difficult. Leaders make decisions and are accountable for their choices. A good leader is willing to make “bad” decisions to maximize growth and development instead of settling into mediocrity because no “good” choice ever appeared. Organizational failure, family failure, and personal failure can be traced directly back to a failure in leadership.
Refusing to choose is the acquiescence of leadership. The leader who does this may make the claim that they are not responsible for what happens since they did not make a choice, but the choice to not choose is still a choice.
It is like driving a car in a snowstorm. One could argue that the safest choice would be to not drive at all in a snowstorm, but what if staying put would lead to certain death? Let’s suppose that you are in the middle of nowhere and you will surely die in the elements if you do not make the “bad” decision to drive in a snowstorm. Driving is a risky choice, but a choice that is necessary.
Leadership is like driving. You have your hands on the wheel. You choose how fast to go, what route to take, and when to stop for gas. The car cannot make these decisions for you…leadership is required. But what happens when you hit a piece of ice and lose control? Should you fight the car or take your hands off the wheel and your feet off the pedals? The best choice is to wait until you regain traction or stop moving. Releasing control is a temporary choice and not a long-term solution. The time comes quickly to put your hands back on the wheel and your feet back on the pedals. It may be scary, it may be hard, and you may want to quit but leaders don’t give up in the face of adversity.
