Employees love to hear “Yes.” And, contrary to popular belief, they can actually live with “No.” But what stops them dead in their tracks? What brings productivity to a crawl?
“Maybe.”
A friend, Mike, reminds us that “Maybe” is the curse of execution, the curse of progress. “Maybe” is like telling your team, “Sort of.”
Sort of what?
“Well, you know. Kinda.”
Kinda what?
“Well, we’ll see.”
Ambiguity (fog) is the enemy of change. If we can’t see it, hear it, think it, nor intuit it…it isn’t happening.
Your “maybe” is my headache, because it means I have to guess. And guessing in the professional arena means gambling with my career. Sorry, but I have a mortgage to pay, so gambling is out. Which means…I won’t bother guessing. I’ll just do what I’ve always done (until you make up your mind).
Which means nothing is changing fast.
More often than not, it isn’t whether we ‘do or we don’t’ that determines success. It’s having a direction that does.
Either we are – or we aren’t. Decisiveness rules the day.
Consider adding this question at the end of more meetings with your team, “To be clear, what decision are we making at this time?”
