Use Communicators not to serve coffee to Pink elephants.

The atmosphere in the meeting office feels like 10 pink elephants just casually arrived and decided to stick around for another 2 months, with no one having the cojones to decide - are we kicking them out or making them coffee?

Of course, as a communicator, in order to communicate something, you have to know what you're communicating. No brainer here.

The problem occurs when the decision is not being made - at all. I've seen this too often - CEOs, managers, team leads, whichever position, faced with some tricky situation, not being able to make a swift decision when it's of the utmost importance for any situation to be resolved and communicated to all team members.

Would you be a champ, and make a decision?

The best example was the covid times we went through, each of us from our own personal and professional position. I've seen managers getting completely lost in this particular situation, focusing on minor and irrelevant issues, in their greatest fear of - making a decision. Even a bad one. They would stare at the problem like lost deer staring at car lights, completely paralyzed at what's ahead of them.

Probably a decade ago, I was listening to a panel and one CEO was asked what is in his opinion, a top skill a leader should have, and his immediate answer was - fast decision making, being aware that it might be the wrong one and facing the consequences. I remember his answer resonated in my mind back then, and so it does in any situation years after.

So many times we are scared to make a decision, especially in times like these where complex scenarios arise almost daily. Is it perfectionism or just a lack of skill? Very individual if you ask me, but of utmost importance, if you are handling a course of the company in any way.

So, how can Communications help out?

Pretty individual also, but I always try to go through all the scenarios of the decision with the decision-makers. Giving them pros and cons of how the decision might affect the collective, giving frank feedback and making the whole process as human as possible.

We all make mistakes, and hiding that fact, just makes it worse. In this process, egos must be left outside of the room, rather filling it with empathy and understanding. I see a communicator's position here as the one giving space, support and wider context for a decision to be made.

Even if it's the wrong one.