Decisions are the fuel that propels organizations forward.  ~Joel Trammell

I once read a quote about decision making that has stuck in my mind: “A good decision made too late is just that, too late.”  The complexity of work (the number of decisions that need to be made) dramatically increased when we moved from the industrial age to the information age and has continued to escalate along with the increasing rate of change.  Unfortunately, for some leaders, this avalanche of decisions has been more paralyzing than liberating.

In some cases, leaders know that more options will be coming down the pike so they hold-off making a decision, believing that a “better option” may soon be available.  For others, with so many options from which to choose, they fear making a decision that may not be the absolute best choice.  So they too, hold-off.  Still others delay because they believe they need 110% support from every person they have involved in making the decision.

In the meantime, while a multitude of decisions hang in the balance, the organization doesn’t move forward.  It may even fall behind while competitors leave them in the dust.

I’m not suggesting that leaders need to make snap decisions, on the contrary; but I am arguing that they need to make decisions if they want to move their organization forward.

Joel Trammell, a former CEO provides his approach to what he calls decision triage.  He sorts decisions into three categories

Insignificant choices that present a chance for improving skills is the first category. Trammell says that certain decisions, on their own, won’t affect the organization overall in a considerable way. Yet the process of making such decisions provides an opportunity to coach and encourage the growth of staff.  Once a staff member has made a well-reasoned decision, don’t change it, even if your solution would have been different.  A different choice isn’t necessarily better, and you want staff to build confidence in their decision-making abilities.

The second category is easy but significant choices that require input. Sometimes the pros and cons of options are clear, but it’s important to get the decision right because it will affect the entire organization. These decisions require feedback and ultimately buy-in to get them right.  If the decision affects multiple groups, engage all the appropriate staff to find out which decision they would make.  They might have additional information or ideas that will help with making a better decision.

The final category is difficult and significant calls that require risk assessment. These decisions will make a difference to the organization and the options are complicated. It isn’t clear that you’re even considering all of the options.  It’s crucial to gather input from staff, but ultimately, the leader has to make the final decision.  Some are low risk because they are relatively easy to reverse.  Leaders should make these decisions quickly to keep the organization moving.  High risk decisions are almost impossible to reverse.  These decisions require careful analysis and thorough discussion.  Seek outside advice, assign a devil’s advocate, and conduct an official postmortem.

Begin your triage, start making decisions, and propel your organization forward.

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain—and most fools do.  But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.  ~Dale Carnegie

Are you ready for the 21-day leadership challenge?  Go for 21 days without blaming or criticizing others.  This challenge is suggested by Steven Shallenberger in Becoming Your Best: The 12 Principles of Highly Successful Leaders to increase accountability.

I’m beginning to believe that as we rise higher in organizations, the tendency to cast blame or criticize also increases.  Maybe it’s because there are more and more individuals below us to point to when things go wrong.  Or, maybe it’s because we feel that we need to protect ourselves from appearing less than highly competent, all the time.  It could be pride, ego, or simply fear.  Whatever the reason, it’s never helpful.

I’ve seen leaders blame the economy, their staff, the weather, taxes, statistics, and politicians—to name a few—for what didn’t go well.  Blaming and criticizing doesn’t equal accountability; it’s more a reflection of insecurity.  Borrowing from the book How to Win Friends and Influence People by Carnegie, the following excerpt is an example of a response that was effective and didn’t include blame or criticism.

Bob Hoover, a famous test pilot and frequent performer at air shows, was returning to his home in Los Angeles from an air show in San Diego.  As described in the magazine Flight Operations, at 300 feet in the air both engines suddenly stopped.  By deft maneuvering he managed to land the plane, but it was badly damaged although nobody was hurt.

Hoover’s first act after the emergency landing was to inspect the airplane’s fuel.  Just as he suspected, the World War II propeller plane he had been flying had been fueled with jet fuel rather than gasoline.

Upon returning to the airport, he asked to see the mechanic who had serviced his airplane.  The young man was sick with agony of his mistake.  Tears streamed down his face as Hoover approached.  He had just caused the loss of a very expensive plane and could have caused the loss of three lives as well.

You can imagine Hoover’s anger.  One could anticipate the tongue-lashing that this proud and precise pilot would unleash for carelessness.  But Hoover didn’t scold the mechanic; he didn’t even criticize him.  Instead, he put his big arm around the man’s should and said, “To show you I’m sure that you’ll never do this again, I want you to service my F-51 tomorrow.”

As leaders, we need to be accountable.  I think Shallenberger’s challenge is a great way to practice our own accountability.  Will you join me and go 21 days without blaming or criticizing?

You will be the same person in five years as you are today, except for two things: the people you meet and the books you read.  ~Charlie “Tremendous” Jones

Charlie Jones, author of the bestselling book Life is Tremendous, had it right according to Steven Shallenberger author of Becoming Your Best: The 12 Principles of Highly Successful Leaders.

One of Shallenberger’s 12 principles for highly successful leaders is: apply the power of knowledge.  He makes these three suggestions to increase your knowledge.

• Develop the habit of reading at least one book a month.
• Invest 3 percent of your income in acquiring more knowledge through seminars, training, books, and personal development courses.
• Surround yourself with people who inspire and lift you.

Others agree.  John Coleman, who wrote For Those Who Want to Lead, Read makes the very same argument.  Coleman said:

Deep, broad reading habits are often a defining characteristic of our greatest leaders and can catalyze insight, innovation, empathy, and personal effectiveness.

Reading can also make you more effective in leading others. Reading increases verbal intelligence, making a leader a more adept and articulate communicator.  Reading novels can improve empathy and understanding of social cues, allowing a leader to better work with and understand others — traits that author Anne Kreamer persuasively linked to increased organizational effectiveness, and to pay raises and promotions for the leaders who possessed these qualities.

I was reminded of the importance of maintaining a healthy reading regimen when I opened my Christmas cards.  One of my friends, an MD at a major teaching hospital, always includes his list of the “best books of the year” along with brief descriptions in his Christmas card.  He follows Coleman’s recommendation to the letter.  His list of books is absolutely deep and broad.  It includes nonfiction covering a wide assortment of topics, biographies, and fiction.  There might be a book in the sciences but his reading goes far beyond his profession.  I’ve found him to be one of the most thoughtful and diverse thinkers I know.  I’m grateful that he’s “one of the people I’ve met” as Charlie Jones suggests.

Bill Hybels said, “Great leaders read frequently.  They read voraciously.  They soak up lessons from academia, from politics, from nongovernmental organizations, and from leaders who are leading well.  They refuse to let themselves off the hook in this regard, because they know that all great leaders read.”

What’s on your reading list for 2015?

You have to set a goal with a time limit that causes you to take action today.  I picked 90 days because I wanted to give myself enough time to accomplish something but not so much time that I wouldn’t.   ~Tom Mendoza

Not long ago I was facilitating a strategic planning session with a group who had developed a strategic plan several months earlier.  I asked the group, “Are you on pace with your current plan?”  One person spoke up and said, “Well, yes, we’re on pace with everything because we just developed it four months ago.”  Then another person responded, “I’d say we’re behind on everything because it’s been four months and we’ve done nothing.”

This is what I see frequently.  Organizations create strategic plans with long term goals and then it just sits there.  They assume they have lots of time to reach their goals, so they procrastinate.

Michael Hyatt, when CEO of Thomas Nelson said “In our company, we have adopted 90-Day Objectives as a way of life.  All of our divisional leaders are required to submit their goals.  We require a formal progress report each month.  It’s not complex or very sophisticated.  But I believe it has gone a long way toward creating a focused and disciplined organization that produces consistent results.”

Fast Company recently published an article that provides five reasons to set 90-day goals.

1. 90 Days Isn’t Too Long. Annual goals (12 months) seem so far away that you assume you can always start on those goals later. Ninety days, however, can hold you accountable to the long range goals, but in smaller chunks.  In other words, I have to get started on my goals, today, if I’m going to achieve it in 90 days.
2. 90 Days Isn’t Too Short, Either. Ninety days allows you to look just far enough into the future to make it challenging, but still be achievable.  It also helps to eliminate the lengthy to-do list and forces you to focus on what’s really important.
3. You Can Reset Quickly.  I’ve seen clients set annual goals and when they realize it wasn’t the right goal, they wait until next year to reset.  Who has time to wait a year to reset goals?!  As I’ve heard other clients say, “We’re going to try new things and fail fast.”
4. You Don’t Spread Yourself Thin. Having lots of goals isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  But, when you give yourself 90 days, you focus on a few at a time, because you know there’s another 90-day period arriving shortly to focus on other goals.
5. You Can Make Personal Goals Part of the Mix. When you’re working on two to three goals four times per year it can allow for space to think about other areas of your life as well.  Integrating goals for vacation time, exercise, reading, spending time with friends, etc. can help to achieve the work-life balance you’ve been dreaming about.

90-Day Goals: Enough time to accomplish something but not so much time that you won’t. What are your goals for the next 90 days?

Dream more than others think practical.  Expect more than others think possible.  Care more than others think wise.  ~Howard Schultz

You’ve got mail!  Remember that?  For a number of years now, I’ve developed a Christmas tradition of watching the movie You’ve Got Mail.  I watch it because I like Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.  Even more so, I watch it because it highlights two business icons that were thriving at the time of the release (1998), AOL and big box bookstores Borders and Barnes & Noble.  We can’t really say that those businesses are “thriving” any longer.

But this time when I watched the movie I realized that I had forgotten that at the very beginning another icon was also highlighted, Starbucks.  While AOL, Barnes & Noble, and Borders have either struggled or gone out of business, Starbucks continues to thrive.  I quickly made a mental note that I could immediately name the person leading Starbucks, Howard Schultz.  But I couldn’t recall AOL’s primary leader back in the day (I’ve refreshed my memory (i.e., Google) and it was Steve Case), and I have no idea who the leaders were for either Borders or Barnes & Noble.

Howard Schultz has authored a number of books; I’m not sure why, but I’ve not ready any of them.  That will change in 2015.  Schultz has a very clear leadership perspective, and I can see why Starbucks thrives when he’s at the helm.  Here are a few Schultz quotes to give you an idea of what I mean.

From Pour Your Heart into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time

In this ever-changing society, the most powerful and enduring brands are built from the heart.  They are real and sustainable.  Their foundations are stronger because they are built with the strength of human spirit, not an ad campaign.  The companies that are lasting are those that are authentic.

To be an enduring, great company, you have to build a mechanism for preventing or solving problems that will long outlast any one individual leader.

From Onward: How Starbucks Fought for its Life without Losing Its Soul

Grow with discipline.  Balance intuition with rigor.  Innovate around the core.  Don’t embrace the status quo.  Find new ways to see.  Never expect a silver bullet.  Get your hands dirty.  Listen with empathy and over communicate with transparency.  Tell your story, refusing to let others define you.  Use authentic experiences to inspire.  Stick to your values, they are your foundation.  Hold people accountable, but give them the tools to succeed.  Make the tough choices; it’s how you execute that counts.  Be decisive in times of crisis.  Be nimble.  Find truth in trials and lessons in mistakes.  Be responsible for what you see, hear, and do.  Believe.

At least for Starbucks, Schultz’s leadership works.  He certainly gives us a lengthy list of possible leadership mantras for 2015.  What’s yours?