Are You Lying to Yourself? Facing the Facts in Business

A recent sermon in the church focused on confession, being open, and bearing one another’s burdens.? My work week had included several conversations that reverberated in my head while the pastor preached.? It was one of those sermons that felt so timely; I didn’t need any life application stories from the preacher as I was overflowing with my own.??

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.? Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.? Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself…

Gal 6: 1-3

Causes of Stress in Running a Business

Running a business, heck, running anything, is an endless series of decisions.? Whether your business, your household, your church, or a sports league, constantly having to make decisions that affect the organization and other people can be stressful.??

Have you ever considered why decision-making tends to increase stress in so many people???

When the options are clear-cut, decisions are easy.? One of my early mentors had a favorite saying, “anybody can work in black and white; high performers thrive in the world of grey.”? I’ve come to understand that thriving in the world of grey means learning to be comfortable without perfect information.? We almost never have perfect or complete information to make our decisions easy.??

The stress comes from fear that we are making the wrong decision based upon the information or lack of information available to us as we decide.? This is all normal and, frankly, not the main point of this post.??

The point here is simply that decisions without perfect information cause most of us some degree of stress or anxiety.??

How Do You Handle Decision Anxiety and Use Decision-Making Strategies in Business?

What I’ve seen people doing in my close circle is creating information they would like to have to make the decision easier.? “Creating the information they would like to have” is a nice way of saying they let themselves make decisions with information they wish were true.??

Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

There are as many coping mechanisms and behaviors associated with tough decisions as there are people making tough decisions.? We all fall somewhere along a continuum from total mental funk through mild discomfort along to energizing eagerness.??

Of all the ways to cope with decision anxiety, trying to wish the actual facts into something more soothing for your tension has to be near the top of bad ideas.???

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

We can run, but we can’t hide from the burdens brought on by the facts of our situation.?

Deal in Facts

The biggest source of anxiety for me is where the decision may affect other people in a negative way.? The temptation to wish a better situation into existence can be strong, especially when all the options look grim.??

But when you think rationally, avoiding the true facts can only make things even worse than they already are.? If we let ourselves stick our heads in the sand, we lose the opportunity to make the best decision possible under adverse conditions.? We lose the opportunity to help bear one another’s burdens.

This is the area where I’ve watched clients, family, and friends try to create new “facts” out of thin air.??

• The customer not responding to feedback inquiries on our latest bid becomes “the project must be delayed.”??
• The largest delinquent account told us they mailed a check two weeks ago that we haven’t received becomes: “They agreed to pay the past due balance, so we’re good.”??
• The doctor said my cholesterol is sky high, and I need to make changes to my exercise and diet becomes: “Both my parents lived into their 80s without diet or exercise.”??

The bulleted examples are actual situations where the decision maker’s wishes were just that, wishes.??

• We were losing the bid to a competitor and didn’t work for the opportunity to save it.
• We continued selling service to the customer and wrote off a substantial receivable when the customer filed for bankruptcy.
• Additional medications and associated health problems continue to mount up as we disregard the physician’s advice.

I wrote previously that “anybody can work in black and white; high performers thrive in the world of grey.”? A major reason it is so easy to lie to ourselves through decision-making is the facts are not always clear.??

You have to work to make the facts clear, as facts are like weights on an ancient scale.? There will be some favoring one side and others the opposite side.? We often look for “facts” we prefer while somehow discarding the “facts” we don’t like.??

• It was possible the project had been delayed.? It was equally as likely the customer was going in a different direction.??
• The delinquent account did say they mailed a check.? But it’s been over a week, and all we know is what they said.? They’d been getting more and more delinquent. They likely lied about mailing a check.
• Family history gives some indication of our health risks.? It’s no guarantee, and our own medical exams carry more weight than family history.??

This is one of the forms of “confession” in a business or decision-making context.? Aside from simply making the best decisions possible, we are called to be forthright, honest, and humble in sharing truth with a small “t.”? It’s dishonest to willfully represent situations in a false light.??

For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself…

Don’t fall into the trap of sugar-coating things to avoid being humbled by bad news.

Avoid Assumptions

So often, we want things to be a certain way, and we look for information to affirm that’s how it is.? In the research arena, this is referred to as confirmation bias.? This is very problematic when running our businesses.??

By not confronting and considering all the facts that you can verify to make decisions, you almost guarantee you will neglect taking actions that will improve the situation.??

A critical discipline that requires our vigilance is remaining objective in gathering the facts and data with which we make our decisions.? We must be honest with ourselves about what we know to be true versus what we think might be possible.? If we aren’t honest with ourselves, we can’t be forthright and reliable to others.

Is the data from a reliable source?

Are the facts verified?

Do the facts or data make sense?

Does history or experience support what I think is true?

Are there conflicting pieces of information?

Pretending we have a rosy picture while ignoring the storm clouds on the horizon is not optimistic; it’s negligent.? If you have surveyed the horizon, checked the weather, and closed all the windows before leaving, just in case, enjoy the rosy picture.??

In God We Trust, All Others Bring Data.

Bear One Another’s Burdens

Whether dealing with business decisions or personal trials, we are called to “bear one another’s burdens.”? To effectively help people in business or struggling friends, we have to face the truth.? We can’t face the truth if we do not speak the truth to one another.??

This is the main point of this post.? To restore one another from transgression and bear one another’s burdens, we must deal with the actual transgressions and burdens, however uncomfortable they may make us feel.? We don’t help our business, our employees, or our brothers or sisters by avoiding the truth of our burdens with one another.??

It’s simple but not easy.? Don’t lie to yourself when facing tough decisions, and implement your decision-making strategies in business.

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