There’s an old saying, “If you want something NOT DONE, give it to a committee.”
There’s a concept in business that whether a decision is right or wrong, it’s not the crucial element in a successful, moving business or practice.
Hesitation In Decision Making
This conveys the idea that hesitation in decision-making is by far and away the single most devastating and momentum-killing aspect of business. Many business owners are like deer caught in the headlights, deliberating whether decisions that need to be made are right or wrong and therefore doing nothing.
So, you need to understand that when you are running your business, you will make a lot of mistakes. And the biggest mistake you can make is not making a decision. The correctness of the decision is completely irrelevant. Making decisions fast is what’s important, and whether they are right or wrong doesn’t matter. You can learn from a fast decision. You learn nothing from a slow deliberation.
Doing Nothing
The caveat is that there are exceptions to the rule. It might sound like contradicting myself here now. Doing nothing is the best decision at times, as long as it’s not procrastination. Sometimes it’s hard to identify which it is because subconsciously you can say, “I’m purposely not doing this,” when really, you’re just procrastinating to avoid making a decision.
Voting on Decisions
So, here’s the crux of the matter: By far, the single biggest way to make poor, slow decisions, and bring your practice to a halt, is to vote on them.
This is an absolute NO-NO in any small business. Richard Branson rightly says that running a business is a benevolent dictatorship.
You see, as a leader or business owner, you need to live and die by the sword. It’s your business, so take total responsibility for making decisions about it.
That means you’re going to make a lot of mistakes, and you need to make them because most “normal people” are too afraid to make mistakes. Therefore, they never learn from them.
The most difficult aspect of making mistakes is your ego. Your team will see that you were wrong.
So what? The process of learning from not being perfect will help you become a better person and move you faster forward than you could ever imagine. And it will help your team too.
Yes, it’s a cliché, you need to ‘fail forward fast’. Make decisions, make mistakes, and do the thing!
In Summary
To summarise, your practice is not a committee. If you want decision-making to slow down and tasks not to be done, vote on them.
You are the captain of your ship. You live and die by the sword!
Making a bad decision is not the worst thing you can do. Making no decision is the worst thing you can do in your business. It creates no learning, no momentum, and no fast pivots.
Hopefully, you found value in and enjoyed this email. Looking forward to seeing you soon.
Yours in Service,
Dr. Ryan Rieder, D.C.
