Our floors were in dire need of repair and there always seemed to be a conflict with us or the contractor we wanted to do the work, which kept delaying the decision to redo the floors. Our contractor came by to give us a final estimate on the job and offered two weeks in January. This sounded wonderful until we realized it only left us one week to put the house back in order, pack, and leave on our bucket list trip to New Zealand.
What if the work is delayed? I knew CeCe would not go anywhere if her house was not in order first. Based on the job timeline, can we schedule the movers to move everything out and back in? What if we don’t like the finished product? Can we reset our closets and clothes, hang pictures, and pack for a three-week trip in just a few days? This choice was very stressful for both of us. We ultimately made the decision to move forward, scheduled the movers for the weekend, and committed to the job.
It turned out to be a great decision. We even enjoyed our bucket list trip more, knowing we were returning to our home with our biggest to-do was completed. We could enjoy our new floors and just relax as we recovered from our trip.
All decisions have choices. And once you choose, the work starts to make it the right or wrong decision. This decision to immediately redo our floors would have been a disaster if CeCe had not made it right. She organized, planned, and literally stayed (upstairs) with the project every day.
This is one of the greatest leadership lessons on making decisions. Once we have made our choice, the real work begins. Commit to your decision and work to make it the right decision.
The second lesson in this story is to be cautious of holding out or looking for the perfect choice or decision. Looking for perfection will only rob us of big opportunities. We easily could be still trying to schedule this work on our floors if we had continued to look for the perfect window of time.
Have you been procrastinating on a decision, hoping for a perfect answer? Have you made a failed decision primarily because you never committed to making it right? We’ve all been there. Today, it’s important to make quick decisions and commit to them as we keep our antennas up for the changes around us so we can be flexible and decisive. Decisions won’t be perfect, but commitment and adaptability make all the difference.
The Rest of the Story
CeCe: The floor guy said he will be done tomorrow by noon.
Me: Fantastic, do we have the movers scheduled for Monday?
CeCe: Yes, are you going to come home from hunting camp in time to inspect the floors and meet with the floor guy?
Me: Do you really need me to do that? I was planning on fishing before I came back.
CeCe: You helped make this decision, so you better be here…
Sometimes, commitment means skipping a fishing trip — floor inspections come first!
“If you were to anticipate how strong a company’s culture needs to be to transform and thrive in the future, Joey Havens paints a beautiful horizon in his book Leading with Significance.” Daniel Burrus
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