Decisions that are fairly permanent and hard to change are the ones you want to focus your attention on. It’s where the stakes are high, and the effects are lasting. Photo: cultureamp.com.
May Busch, who has trouble choosing an appetiser in a restaurant, discovers why her senior colleagues still trust her to make the big decisions back at the office.
I don’t like making decisions even though I’ve always been trusted to make them.
At dinner with colleagues, I struggle to choose an appetiser and main course without going back and forth five times. Once, I even chased the server into the kitchen to change my order!
However, on the big decisions back at the office, I was seen as someone with good business judgment. I was reminded of this in a meeting with 10 chief human resources officers last month, where we discussed leadership development.
One of them said their leaders were too cautious. They spent too much time analysing and discussing. They hung back and waited.
Instead, the organisation needed them to lead — to take more risks, state an opinion, take charge, and be the adult in the room. That’s when she shared an interesting model for helping her leaders make decisions, outlining three types of decisions.
The first is the hat decision: You can quickly change hats without affecting anything permanently. Like choosing the artwork for your office or deciding which vendor to go with when they’re both strong.
When it’s a hat decision, make it quickly and move on.
The second kind is the haircut decision: You’ll have to live with it for a while, but your hair will grow back. Like how to handle a reorganisation, or which strategic projects to drop this year.
While the outcome isn’t permanent, haircut decisions require more assessment, but you won’t have to live with it forever.
The third kind is the tattoo decision: They’re extremely hard to change after the fact and can be painful in the process. Like making an acquisition or choosing your successor.
These fairly permanent decisions are the ones you want to focus your attention on. It’s where the stakes are high, and the effects are lasting.
Listening to these three descriptions, I finally realised why I don’t like making decisions even though I’ve always been trusted to make them.
I’m pretty good at those tattoo decisions. That’s why the top leaders, my colleagues and my team all trusted me and my judgment.
My issue has been treating the haircut decisions — and even some of the hat decisions — like they were tattoo decisions. If you apply that degree of rigour to decisions that are relatively low-risk and inconsequential, you’ll wear yourself out for no good purpose.
We only have so much decision capacity in a day, and we want to preserve that capacity for the things that matter. The key is to know which kind of decision you’re making. Then you’ll know how much energy, focus and brain space to give it.
What’s a decision you’ve been treating like a tattoo that’s actually just a haircut?
May Busch works with good people who want to advance their careers and make the difference they’re meant to make in the world — without sacrificing their values in the process. She is the author of VISIBLE: How to Advance Your Career without Playing Politics, Selling Your Soul or Working Yourself into the Ground. Contact her at [email protected].
