Shownotes
"The little secret executives need to understand is people are never going to be comfortable with your decision making.”
Being a quick decision-maker is often seen as a positive trait. But Tony Ferraro, Senior Executive Coach and Director of Training Services at Floyd Consulting, might disagree.
In this episode, Tony shares insights on the decision-making process that leaders need to take another look at to help ensure their company’s success. Along the way, you’ll learn why doing nothing is a valuable decision-making tactic and understand whose interests you should follow most as a leader.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- Quick decisions can cause your company to head in the wrong direction faster, so it’s important that you go through a process to think it through
- When you’re looking to hire someone, your responses to candidates should only be one of two options: Hell yes! Or No. Decisiveness will help you hire only absolutely crucial people in your organization
- Acting in the company’s best interest—not because of deadlines or the need for approval—can help you make better decisions as a leader
Things to listen for:
[2:53] Why you need to watch out for decision fatigue
[4:31] The power of listening as a leader
[5:26] Why you should always consider doing nothing
[16:12] Making decisions with conviction and moving on
Resources:
Connect with the Guest:
Connect with the Host & Floyd Coaching:
Transcripts
I was joined by our senior coach, Tony Ferraro, and we had a really fun discussion about the decision making process and how leaders can think about decision making a little bit differently. So I hope you enjoyed this episode.
all right, Tony, I'm so excited for our conversation today.
[: [:We talk about this all the time when it comes to our coaching clients, but especially our executive and business coaching clients. We talk about the importance of decision making. we make decisions every single day, but how often are we talking about how we make decisions or what we're thinking about before we make decisions?
And it's something that I feel like as a topic, it's important to, help people realize, wait a second. how am I making some of the biggest decisions in my business in my life? do I have a process? Do I have A system, do I reach out to different people? So I always find it interesting to hear from our leaders, and I thought this was a great topic for Tony to explore with us because Tony, you do coach a lot of CEOs, a lot of executives, a lot of leaders that are making really important, big decisions.
[:you have to do nothing. and that's hard. but there are key decisions that you have to make and that's why, most of the time you're compensated the way you are as a leader because, those decisions have a lot of consequences for a lot of people.
I mean, I coached a couple folks who are, heads of public companies. You make a decision, that affects today, but then when you think about shareholders, stockholders, I mean, one decision you make can affect a hundred, 200, 300, 500,000 people's IRA the next day. So decision making is important and, The dichotomy there is that on one hand you're paid to make decisions, but the trap that, a lot of executives fallen is making too many decisions.
and knowing which decisions they should make and which ones they shouldn't.
[: [:So I want to eliminate. As many as I can during the day so that I'm fresh to make the decisions that really matter. so there's two parts to it. One is, just the physiological and the mental idea of having to make too many decisions. We all know when, we are just this decision and that decision and
each one leads to, Poor next decision because you're still thinking about the other one. So, that's part of it. And then the other part is if you are the head of an organization and you're making all the decisions, in a lot of ways the people right below you are useless.
so a good CEO has to sit back and say, what do you think? And, okay, well that's your area to make the decision and give people the autonomy to make those decisions. And, they have to learn to make decisions too. and,again, it just gets back to probably the number one thing that, that I see is that, leaders stick their nose into things they shouldn't and try to do too much.
and again, it's not good organizationally to do that. so knowing which decisions you should make and which ones you shouldn't is a bit of an art,
[:So when you're talking to some of the, leaders that you're coaching, when they're trying to approach a decision, do you help them guide them through a process or how to be thinking about I mean, one of the benefits of coaching is not only to have that sounding board during your session, but also to give you the tools after the fact so that you're able to take what you've learned in the coaching session and apply it every day or every week, every month, every year as you're growing your business.
So what are some of the things that, you help, leaders Create that process or system around decision making to just be more intentional about them.
[:So a lot of times, with the folks I coach, just giving them a chance to talk it through out loud, they'll go, okay, maybe that's not the right thing or, Okay. maybe I need to tweak it this way so. that's really one of the keys to having a coach is just having someone that, you can.
express this to who doesn't have any agenda and is not affected by that decision and can just listen and maybe ask a question or a clarifying question, whatever that might be, so that, the person gains more confidence in that decision. and then you can just follow up with some other questions.
we're talking about major decisions to ask is, do you really need to make that decision or do you need to make that decision now? Sometimes decisions make themselves and we jump in a little too early to make the decision. Now, you can obviously be inactive and, not make the decision when you should, but more often than not, a lot of things play out.
[:and we've all heard it, whether it's at our job, whether it's at, our kids' school or some other organization, and it just, grates on me when I hear somebody say, something happens. And there are folks who, just jump into action and they use that phrase, well, we have to do something, and I say, no, you don't.
sometimes you do, but sometimes you don't. There's a lot of really, poor decision making that happens when you're under the guise of, well, we've got to do something. cause that's not always the case. Sometimes you need to let the situation, ferment and settle for a second and get your bearings.
But this idea that we have to jump in and do something, is just not right. And, leaders will be reactive that way and it just doesn't go well. I remember listening to a, fighter pilot talking. And he says when something goes wrong in the cockpit, the number one thing to do is nothing.
Take your hand off the stick, evaluate what's going on, and then make a decision based on what you know. But he said, where pilots get themselves in trouble if something happens and they immediately make a jerk reaction on the stick or something, and it's completely opposite of what they should have done.
and obviously bad things happen there. So not all our decisions involve crashing into a mountain, from 40,000 feet. Butthose decisions can, really do some damage when your idea that, well, we have to do something. we see it all the time. Look, something national happens.
What do we hear out of our, political leaders? Well, something has to be done, not always, because oftentimes when you're in some kind of crisis mode, it's the worst time to make a decision. Step back and, get your bearings, see what's going on, and then decide if you have to make a decision and if you can answer that question, yeah, I really do need to make a decision, then you make it because a good leader has to be decisive also. But, more often than not, at least been my experience. bad decisions are made in haste
[:it wasn't going well. Let's just say, and I was so uncomfortable, and this is many years ago, and, it was my first business venture and it just wasn't going the way that I planned. And I was so uncomfortable in the mess of it all that I was making very rash decisions. okay, I need to get out of this.
I need to leave and so what was interesting is, all of this stuff started happening and obviously, we ended the business partnership and went along our ways. But what was interesting was a few months later, I really did a lot of reflection on, how could I have handled this in a different way?
the outcome actually was going to be the same. But the decisions that I made, because I made them so quickly, it caused a lot more friction and pain and things that didn't need to go through all of those pieces had I just allowed myself to sit in the mess, be okay with the uncomfortableness of it all, and then just let things play out.
And we see that happen all the time, even with clients. in particular, I'm thinking about one of our clients who was in a phase of not knowing if they should hire someone. They needed to hire someone, but this person wasn't necessarily the right fit, but they also were like, but we need someone.
And they had been interviewing for so many months and, they almost made the decision to hire very quickly. But, because of coaching, they thought, okay, I'm gonna wait it out and ask some more questions. And then over the course of the next week, after they decided to hold on for a beat, this person revealed a lot more about themselves that took care of the decision whether or not to hire or not, and it would not have been a good hiring decision.
but again, we have to allow ourselves to feel that feeling of I have to do it now. If I don't do it now, the sky is falling. When really we have to be thinking, is the sky falling on the other side even quicker? Because we just are trying so
[: [:So you have to be, comfortable being uncomfortable in a decision, but you also have to be comfortable with the people around Being uncomfortable with you and the way you're making the decision. So in other words, making a decision because the people around you say you have to make a decision Now when you don't think that's the case is a bad way to make a decision.
so is the other way. Sometimes people around you are saying, we need to take our time on this. because you've discerned it, that it's a decision that has to be made now. not only, you have to be comfortable being uncomfortable, you have to be comfortable with the around you being uncomfortable.
and the little, secret for, executives to understand is that, people are never gonna be comfortable with your decision making. I worked under two separate leaders, and the first one Made decisions, sometimes a little quicker than he should have, but he was very decisive and he'd make the decision, and that was it.
and over time the criticism of him within the organization was he just makes decisions. He doesn't consult Which wasn't completely true, but people were uncomfortable with his decisiveness. So, he moved on. A new person came in who was very thoughtful, and really discerned decisions almost to a fault.
but I can remember in a meeting somebody saying, can we just get a decision? And I remember I said, wait a minute, six months ago, the problem was we are making decisions too fast now. We can't get a decision. So anyway, the moral of the story is that, You have to be uncomfortable knowing that people are gonna be uncomfortable with the way you make decisions.
if you're really, discerning and doing the right things with decisions, you're in your position for a reason as a leader, and so, make the decisions on your pace. Now, you kind of started to allude to us, so it's a great segue. We were talking about hiring people. we have just one axiom.
We give people when it comes to decision making, with hiring someone that your decision to hire someone, a candidate is either a. Hell yes. Or there are no, there's no in between. And if you can get yourself to that point in hiring where you're saying, this person absolutely is the person we're looking for.
if you can't say that, then you move on and you try to find somebody else. I know that is really hard to hear today because everybody's saying I can't find anybody. And,
you have to have that level of conviction in hiring people, where you're saying this is absolutely the person Or we're not hiring them. and if you do that as a leader, that will actually permeate through your organization and decision making.
I was just talking to a client where I'd done some training at their organization and, talked to 'em a couple weeks later and he said already, I asked somebody about something and they said, hell yeah, or they said, that's a no cuz I So it, it's a good decision making philosophy in general, to say, yeah, this is exactly what we need, or we're not gonna do it. But it's really important when it comes to people, and we all know when there's tight labor markets, just as you were mentioning, somebody comes in and they're not good at this, or they're kind of okay.
but I really do need someone, is a horrible reason to hire somebody. So either somebody's a hell yes, and everybody agrees, or you just start to process over again because over time, what do we hear the cost of a bad hire. Can be up to 15 times the person's salary. Think about that for a minute.
when you consider having to hire somebody new, all the compensation that goes into getting rid of somebody, then just all the damage it does to your organization and on the transition. Just getting yourself to step back and make that decision in hiring, is hugely important. And I will say that a lot of our clients they're getting closer to that point.
And now when you hire somebody, think about that. How differently do you view somebody when they come in for their first day of work and you're just convinced they're the person that's there for the job, rather than the person coming in going, well, I hope this works out because you're gonna be dealing with it.
[:That it weeds out the candidates that are not for you and then keeps the ones that are for you so that you're going through the process, not just gut, we have a lot of gut instincts and not to say that we shouldn't listen to those, but without a process if we're only going on gut. And so we have to use both of those things.
Both of those things are important. And when it comes to decision making, it's the same thing, whether it's hiring or you're making a decision before we make a decision, we kind of know we either. feel that heck yes or that no. When we make a decision, we've gotta make the decision and feel committed, and feel good about it. this is the direction we're going. It might not be the right direction, Because every decision we make, there's no guarantee.decisiveness is important,
We're not saying to like, wait forever to make decisions. That's another distinction, I'm even envisioning this balance of, you can't make decisions too quickly, but you also cannot wait because as the leader, You need to be a bold, courageous leader that has faith in the decision that you're making.
And it's just important for us to have a process so that you know, hey, before I make a decision, these are the things that I'm thinking about. These are the people that I'm gonna be talking to. And then mapping out, everything that I need, to know is in front of me
And then when you make the decision, you're like, Bam. I trust and actually believe this is the way to move forward. Again, you might be wrong and that's all well and good because it happens all the time. But now you've decided, at least you can be confident that, given all of the information that I had at the time of making the decision, I made the best decision that I could.
And then the next decision that you make, Guess what? You have all of that data and if it's a failure, you have all that failure as data. That's all that it is to make a better decision in the future. And so I think it's, such an interesting conversation becausethere is that fine line and that balance, and I always find it interesting in talking to any leader about how they make decisions because some people are very, Quick to make decision, then they don't really care and they're like, I'm just gonna keep going.
Even if I make tons of mistakes. And others are a lot more thoughtful in the decision making process.
[:And the best thing you could say to them as a coach to say, okay, well, did you think this through?, did you make a decision based on the best information that you had possible? Yes. Okay, then fine. You made the right decision. It's just, it came out differently, based probably on factors, not in your control.
So, one of the last parts of decision making is when you make a decision, make it with conviction and get on with it. and don't look back.
And, part of that process, and one question you can ask yourself is, look, did I make a decision that was, based on the best interest of the mission of the organization?
If you did that and really did that, then you should feel good about that decision. But oftentimes I make this because I was pressured by this person. I made this decision because I knew it would help.
This department or this person would react to it better, or, I made a decision for a hundred other reasons beside this is the best decision for the mission of the organization. And so if you keep Mission King and make your decision then that goes a long way on allowing you to really have conviction.
And sometimes those are really tough decisions.sometimes, a decision to have somebody leave or you have to make some layoffs or downsize or whatever it is, or pivot, if, if those decisions are truly based on the mission of the organization, then you can have conviction about, because that's your role as a leader is to advance the mission.
So, make a decision if you have to. Don't make it if you don't have to.make a decision with conviction and then get on with it and then evaluate Your decision making on, did I make it in the best interest of the mission of the organization, regardless of all the external factors around me?
If you do just those three things and run your decision through those filters, you got a real good chance to make a good decision. Doesn't always work out.
But, the point is though, if you do those things, make a decision and then feel good about it because as you said, even if it doesn't work out great. Now you got data. Don't do that again, how's that gonna affect your decision next time?
Because life's a bunch of decisions and you make 'em, and you get on with it
and you go from
there.
[:Trust that decision or not, right? Like that's another piece of, having a team that, can disagree and commit to moving forward to making things happen. And so if you're, curious to know a little bit more about coaching and how coaching is a really beneficial way to help you make those better decisions because you have a third party person that you're talking to they are.
There to help you make the best decisions to help you and your business and grow and, achieve the goals that you have. We would love to talk to you about that. And you can go over to floyd coaching.com to learn a little bit more about that.
thank you all for listening and until next time, lead with culture.