I thought I would try to write a bit about the things I know professionally. I have been writing about personal issues, i.e. family, politics, some things I care about as a person. I do, however, have a professional life. I have grown over the years and learned what I am good at what I am less good at. I like leading teams of people, and believe I am good at it. I particularly like leading global teams, but let’s leave that for another session.
One thing it is vital to recognize as a leader – especially as a sales leader – is that you have to be comfortable with ambiguity. This is extraordinarily hard to learn, and experience is often the best teacher.
However, decisions that are put off, delayed, or made without confidence because we only have a portion of the information needed for certainty are deadly. I have watched executives delay, take too much time, hesitate and ultimately make a decision after others have lost faith in his/her ability to be decisive. This hurts everyone else’s confidence. Decisions are made with as much information as possible, but eventually there is a tradeoff between decisiveness and full information and decisions need to be made.
Take a personnel decision, for example. We can do research on a candidate’s background, we can evaluate past performance, but eventually we have to decide to hire or not hire…or we lost the candidate. Of course the converse is also true – tolerating a poor performer for too long sucks the life out of the rest of the organization.
Yes, one must eventually trust one’s gut, as they say. Making decisions in an environment of ambiguity is a sign of leadership. It’s a bit of “no, i’m not 100% sure we can take that mountain, but I am confident we can do it if we do it together. Who’s with me?”
People want leaders. Leaders need people to follow. Don’t hesitate to lead. Someone has to do it – it might as well be you 🙂
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