Decisions are progress. Decisions help you and your team build momentum. It boosts morale. One of the best traits you can have as a leader is the ability to make decisions quickly.
One caveat: Promoting decision making is not a license to make bad, ill informed, or rash decisions. A decision to gather more information is still a decision.
Long projects zap morale.
Rework
Every project I’ve worked on has stretched over a minimum of 6 months. It’s hard to keep a team focused and motivated for that long. To keep our momentum going I keep my team focused on accomplishing small tasks each week. We celebrated small wins.
We break down the big, difficult, long-term problems into manageable pieces. We ask ourselves: “What is feasible for us to do right now?” Let’s decide on the best course of action for the situation we’re in now, while not losing sight of where we want to be tomorrow.
In other words, make a decision today to keep the momentum going. Make a small step in the right direction. Avoid the temptation to stall.
Commit to making decisions. Don’t wait for the perfect solution. Decide and move forward.
Rework
Our leadership always talks in terms of the future state. That’s because we know that today’s decision to operate a certain way can always be changed later.
Postponing too many decisions creates a backlog of inaction that can kill a project’s momentum. Whenever possible, commit to making quick decisions.
Trust your intuition. Accept that some mistakes might be made. And know that you will always be in a position to improve along the way.
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