“I will escalate this matter to my manager and we will get back to you within the next 24-48 hours“. How often have we heard this line emanating from multiple ‘customer service centres‘ around the world. The message is clear and simple. Either I am not in a position to decide or I don’t want to decide. Probably, the latter. Because the culture is stitched in a manner where not making decisions is the way to play safe. Shun responsibility. Maintain status quo. And it offers no weightage to your context, the gravity or the exigency of the situation. Fobbing off by keeping decisions at bay. And the audacity of calling them ‘customer service centres‘ blows the daylights out of me.
This malaise cuts across all levels of leadership and is probably at its worst at the C Suite level. The reason why we have the C Suite community is to take decisions. As that is the only way things move forward. Decide on things like entering a new market, investing in a new plant, hire additional talent, shut down some stores, more R&D on product development, offer the go ahead to an emerging technology etc etc. The core of their KRA is to ‘make decisions‘ where value gets created and NOT not make decisions.
If deferring decision making is your go to strategy, I am sorry, I beg to differ. A lot of us go through the motions of doing a job, go to work, follow instructions, attend some meetings, do some sales and then rinse and repeat it all over again, day after day. Decision making is deferred, infinitely procrastinated or ignored all together.
It would be useful to remember that as much as we are victims of our decision making, we are also victors from it. The coin has two sides. And it is in those decisions the arc of your career or changing the course of your life to much better happens.
Bureaucracy and not making decisions are birds of the same feather. But the progress, growth and betterment of humanocracy (a must read book of the same name by Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini) is contingent on decisions made NOT deferred or not made at all.
Fear is a reaction, creativity is a response! And it applies both in the personal and professional context.
ENDS