The decision not to do something…is a decision.
I would say I am often late to the game with TV shows.?
However, last year, while traveling with my family we started watching Emily in Paris.?
There are tons of critics about this show and the entire premise. I’ll save you the critics details – I find it a great escape full of amazing shots of Paris featuring incredible fashion.??
Don’t believe me? Just ask Peyton Manning , who shouted it out on SNL a few months ago.
However, I do have one hang up with the show.?
It isn’t the unlikely premise about a 22-year old Marketing Executive who becomes a self proclaimed “marketing genius.”??
My hang up is the main character’s inability to make a decision.?
Whether it is love interests, companies to work with, or friends to spend time with…it is like she is always waiting for a better deal to come along.
It isn’t until the third season that someone finally points this out to her.?
Years ago I started working with a budget office in a middle size city.
The team wanted to improve their budget request process.?
We started strong and created a significant list of things to innovate.??
Everything from better and automated workflows to new templates to a new dashboard for the approval process.??
It was exhilarating. We had set up a project plan for about a year and got ready to begin our work.??
Then, nothing. Crickets.?
I never got another request. No emails and no calls. Totally went silent.??
I took it as a failed project. That they didn't like my work and they didn't want to work with me again.?
I blamed my style of work and beat myself up about my personality.??
About 3 months into the silent treatment, I bumped into the Budget director at a GFOA event.??
I said hey and asked if they had a second to give me some feedback. She agreed and we sat down for coffee.??
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I learned that…it wasn’t me.?
It wasn’t my style. It wasn’t my outlandish personality or my annoying commentary about work.?
She said they got caught up with other work – they just didn’t see improving it as a priority as the new budget season was starting.??
Then, she said something I won't forget: “We just didn't make a decision either way.”
In reality, she did make a decision. She made a conscious decision not to improve the process by not reaching out.
If you decide not to make a decision, recognize that’s the same as saying no.
Just like Emily, you said no to the dinner date, no to the other company and no to a friend when they needed you.?
But, you didn't actually say no…your actions did.
When faced with the constant burden of trying to figure things out, we often are stuck making too many decisions…so we start to hold off on making them at all.?
We let our email pile up.??
We let our backlog get longer.?
We struggle to improve our services.??
When we push off all our decisions, our issues start to aggregate and get worse.?
It’s better to make a decision and learn from it than to let the fear of making the wrong decision freeze you up.
Need help making decisions to improve your workplace? Drop me a line here.?
Actions speak louder than words.
Brian Elms
Career Coach | Helping women who are craving more meaning in their work design a career that checks all their boxes | Social impact | Working mom | Advocate for women | Click the ?? to get career insights 2x/week ????
1 年I love this, Brian. Making decisions also helps you clear out the mental clutter of all the open decisions you have hanging out there in the recesses of your mind. It's like buggy software running in the background that can slow you down. As a recovering perfectionist, I'm trying to take this advice daily and just take action steps vs. allowing myself to spin in too much time of wanting to get it absolutely right.