If you knew then ...
You are in the middle of it all. Making decisions, statements, and public announcements. You are not sure you are doing the right thing, but you are doing what leaders have to do every day. Make tough decisions. There are critics that will be Monday morning quarterbacking you, but you are steadfast, because you are making the best decision that you can, at that moment in time.
Does this sound like what you have been through recently?
How about our public officials?
Do you think they have had a taste of this during the past month or so?
If we knew then, what we do now … Of course, we could make better decisions. If you knew in January, what the stock market was going to do over the past month, you would be a multi-millionaire by now and laughing at the rest of us. Should you be criticized for not acting then? Decision making is the result of a formula. Inside that formula you have two main components; (The Number of Variables) and (Amount of Time). The more time you have to make a decision, you can get answers to more of the variables. The more of both you have, the better the results of your decision making. As leaders, we often have to make decisions without having answers to all of the variables. This is what makes leadership so transparent. When you have an absence of both of these variables, you as a leader must use instinct, experience, gut feeling, and other things you just can’t put your finger on. This week our Chamber of Commerce was in the final days of preparation for their Awards Ceremony. This event has been on the books for over 3-months. Had they known in December, that Covid-19 was going to happen, they would have never planned the event. They would have been called skeptics, and doomsayers if they claimed they were not going to have an event, because there might be a crisis. But they wouldn’t have lost several thousand dollars due to this. This may be an exaggeration but think about it. When was the right time to postpone the event? January when the Corona started making the news? February when we saw it creep into South Korea, or early March when Italy and others were being affected? You make decisions at the last possible moment, giving yourself enough time to collect data, get information, and answer open questions about variables. But sooner than later, leaders make decisions without all the facts in hand. They have to take some risks to mitigate damages, cut losses, or in this case – save lives. Why are we writing this? We need to give our leaders a break. They are making the best possible decisions that they can, based on the information they have at that precise moment in time. We need to have trust in our leaders that in the absence of all the facts, their experiences, gut feeling, and intuition will lead them to the best decision at that moment. If you are Monday morning quarterbacking, just sit back and wait before you comment. We all need to regain trust in our public officials. They are getting much better information than you are on Twitter and Facebook. They are getting the full story; not sound bites, headlines, and paraphrases. They may make unpopular decisions, but with whatever information they have at that moment, they are making the best decisions possible. Keep all of this in mind as we muddle through the next month or so. We may find out they were overreacting, which is a chance I much rather take, than under preparedness. If you want to criticize them, remember – you could have been a multi-millionaire by now! So who is the bigger fool?