One evening when I was out for a walk I noticed something or Making decisions

One evening when I was out for a walk I noticed something


Since we moved to the village we have taken to going for a walk , early evening after dinner, we go through the main part of the village, this is a habit we picked up when we were living states side, last night Margaret said something that caught my attention, she said "she had not noticed that seed planter before in one of our neighbours garden" . I off course started to think, well why had she not and came to the conclusion it was darker than usual and a lot of the houses had there lighting fired up out front, so you could see cleared.

I was then distracted as a thought flashed through my mind about our perception of issues and challenges in business and the circumstances around us that influence our decision making process in them. I thought of an experiment to run where I tested my theory but quickly decided not to bother as I remembered early lessons on observation of work / life situations, and how the observation effects how the individuals perform, so you do not get the normal routine operations, they are change ever so slightly because of the knowledge that they are being observed, this is true for researchers in the wild as well.

So I did come away with a lesson that is very poignant to the work situation for me, we are going through a restructuring of the business, the whole process is very painful , but will be a subject of discussion in a few weeks once I can get my head around it in a stable and less emotional way. In this process you have to make a lot of choices which will have long term effects on families and friends, it is hard to take the personal part out of making the choices but you have to, so you make the correct ones, you could be telling your friend he has lost his job and you have to be unbiased in how you treat them differently from the others effected the same, and you need to make the correct choices for the people that will be left to give them the best chance of success.

In these complex and emotional situations as a leader you need to be able to detach from the people and make the hard choices, use the team around you to get to the correct decisions, because your ability to make them will be influenced by what is going on around you. The situation does not need to be a restructuring it can be a project or product you have emotional ties with, but as leader you need to back off and make the correct choice and use your management team around you to make that decision. These are complex and diverse times we are working and living in and it will take extraordinary leaders in industry to see success, and stability in the economic progress of our country or any ones country. We need to switch the lights on and see clearly, act on what you see, understand the emotional consequences and empathise, try to understand the influences around you, there effect on you but also the others involved in the process, those who will be effected by the change and those who will make the change. The leader then needs to make the best decision for the good of the company and the stake / shareholders.


So the take away from this , be aware of the influences around you and how they are coloring your judgement and deal with it, if you don't you will be at best a mediocre leader at worst you will ruin your company and effect negatively the lives of those who follow you.



Slainte


Keltie