I frequently see the debilitating effects a seemingly big failure has on a persons psyche and decision making ability. When we fail at something that we had big expectations for, we can end up depressed. At this point many of us beat ourselves up asking questions like, “what did I do wrong?”, “Why didn’t it work?”, “Why did this happen to me?” with these and other self deprecating thoughts running though our mind we often render ourselves “decision-less”.
I had a private client who was so overwhelmed with his own impending financial ruin that he couldn’t get out of bed. When I eventually drove down to his office to meet with him we discovered he had enough capital to keep the doors open for another five weeks. He was faced with a major decision; either he closed the doors or he picked himself off the floor and threw everything at turning things around. Fortunately he chose the latter and together we were able to pull things out of the fire.
When things go “pear shaped” it doesn’t pay to sit around for too long wondering what happened and beating yourself up. A wise man once said “Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end.”
The truth is no one has exclusivity on a difficult time. We are all either in a crisis, coming out of a crisis or about to go into a crisis. That’s life, shit happens! I often tell young blokes just starting out in business that the reason many builders and contractors fail is that they don’t make timely decisions. They know when facing a challenge that a decision needs to be made. They know they need to make a change, or they need to do something different, but they just can’t or won’t make the decision to do what needs to be done.
The hallmark of great leadership is the ability to make a decision. This is simply a discipline thing. The well known Personal Development mentor Brian Tracy has an excellent method for dealing with decisions. Make up your mind that you are going to mentally handle a necessary decision. Once. When something tough comes up and you need to determine the course of action you should take, stay with it. Handle it once and force yourself to make a decision. You have at least a 50 – 50 chance of getting the decision right the first go around. 50 – 50 is pretty darned good odds of getting it right.
If your decision doesn’t look like it is working, then make a correcting decision. This time you know more, so it’s more likely to be the right decision.
If you find decision # 2 is still off course, then again make the necessary decision to change your course. Don’t wait, make the change. As the old saying goes, third times the charm. Your third decision will almost always put you on the right path.
Not making any decision is making the wrong decision – especially if change is necessary. You’re probably facing a few important decisions in your business right now. Remember to exercise your free will and be decisive. We are getting many calls from builders and contractors who have business challenges and don’t know how to solve them. Unfortunately a lot of the challenges I see are self-inflicted due to the avoidance of making tough decisions. If you are having problems and would like to bounce a decision off us, give us a call. Doing nothing adds to the dilemma you are in and will not solve the problem. Make a decision, get it straightened out so you and your business can move on.
