Ed's Blog» decision making

Three Words

Ed McLaughlin — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 03:35:12 +0000

Character counts. Always.

Yet somewhere along the line, companies started to favor rhetoric and excuses instead of results and accountability.

How do you know when a company lacks character? Simple. When discussing poor results, leadership:

Makes excuses
Rationalizes limited progress
Formulates arguments to minimize accountability

Not so with companies of character. They tell the truth. They take responsibility for shortfalls and failures. And they refuse to play the victim just so they can feel good about themselves.

Character is a choice. And one alternative is more likely to lead to success than the other.

Choose wisely.

When To Make A Decision

Ed McLaughlin — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 02:59:23 +0000

A friend of mine regularly talks to me about his job. A couple of years ago, his company’s managers were slow to make decisions. While other firms in his industry changed how they worked, his business sat still. “They didn’t have enough information to support doing things differently,” he told me. Eventually, some of their largest customers migrated to the competition.

Now the opposite is true. With less revenue, the company started showing signs of financial strain. So the CEO and other senior managers made some very quick decisions. Those decisions were made with limited information, and they backfired. Now the company is in serious trouble.

The main rule of decision making: as soon as you have a reasonable amount of information, decide what to do. Any more or less could be catastrophic.

Time To Say Goodbye

Ed McLaughlin — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:24:37 +0000

I never looked at hate as a positive emotion.

I recently spoke with a friend of mine who works for a large organization and is, unfortunately, quite unhappy. He told me how the company ignores change. That no one is willing to take any risk. That many non-performers managed to avoid layoffs, while good people were shown the door. All while his demeaning manager (who sounded like the type of person Bob Sutton talked about in his book) created a miserable work environment.

Oh – and he mentioned that he doesn’t believe in what the company does.

So I made a suggestion: quit.

“No way,” he told me. “I can’t do THAT.”

Wondering why? I hardly think that his reasoning will surprise you.

Money.
Stability.
Fear.

“I’ll be fine,” he said. “I can play the game as well as anyone. It’s just a job.”

For a split second I almost believed him. But he didn’t stop there.

“I just wish I didn’t hate it so much.”

This may sound odd, but I now think that hate can be a positive emotion. In this case, it’s trying to tell him something.

It’s time to say goodbye, to move on. If you can’t change things, then go find something else. There are other places to work where you can make a real difference in the lives of your colleagues and customers. Better yet, go start a business of your own.

What would you do?