ON BUSINESS || Once You Make a Decision — Go All In
When you know the solution to resolve your business issue, don’t hesitate, go all in.
If you can’t commit, then neither will your team.
Sometimes business leaders hesitate and try to find a solution that appeases everyone, but most of the time, you’ll still turn out to be the bad guy regardless of whatever solution you pursue. There is really no scenario where every single staff member or client will be happy with a blanket solution.
Why do we refer to it as a blanket solution? It’s because a small business usually has financial and resource constraints that make customized, individualized solutions infeasible, while larger businesses have implementation constraints where customization for hundreds of employees or clients introduce more inefficiencies for various department than what the solution was originally intended to resolve.
Another danger of offering customization is that once one party sees that the door is open, everyone expects some level of customization, so it’s simply more efficient to not offer the option.
This is why companies offer standardized service packages for their clients. Customization is only available to large accounts where the investment is justified by the expected ROI on an account. It’s why companies have boilerplate employee agreements, so instead of revising how each clause is written for every employee, it usually comes down to negotiating simple numbers in the contract, such as the compensation number and the number of vacation days.
A solution that is the best for the business may not always be the popular solution. As a leader you can expect to make some tough decisions, but you have to stick to it.
If you already know the solution isn’t going to be a popular on but it’s one that you must implement, like a pricing increase to account for inflation, you should do it all at once, with one effective date instead of dragging it on in stages — this only reminds all parties of the pain at each threshold and/or milestone.
As part of management, or as a business owner, your job is to make these tough decisions and stick to them. Someone needs to make the decisions, and you can’t just commit to doing half of the implementation — you must see things through and be affirmative in your chosen route. Don’t make a decision and then walk back on your word; this just makes your team and clients lose their trust in you.
Your duty is to the business, to make the best decision for the business, The best you can do is to make the process and the potential outcome as transparent as possible.
