“Not right now.”
“We’re in a holding pattern.”
“I’m not ready to decide yet.”
“We need more information.”
“The timing isn’t right.”
I’ve talked with many business leaders who knew there was an important decision that needed to be made, but the only decision they made was to do nothing.
More often than not, that indecision costs them time, energy, money, and undue stress.
My good friend Val Wright calls this the Cost of Doing Nothing (CODN).
In her new book, Thoughtfully Ruthless: The Key to Exponential Growth she not only explains how “doing nothing” stifles growth and innovation but she then goes on to provide the calculation to see exactly how much the inaction costs you!
Here’s an example.
Val told me the story about an executive client who spent six months deliberating the decision to move one of their executive team to a new role. During his time doing nothing, two of his key executives quit. The cost of replacing those two executives alone was well over $800,000.
When Val did the math with her client, he was shocked. However, the numbers didn’t lie.
Val says this,
“We are all taught from a young age to be cautious and studious: Watch your step, don’t run with scissors, practice those violin lessons, and study every possible topic, just in case it comes up in your exam. But this obsessive over-reliance on being too thoughtful can ingrain behaviors and habits that are too cautious. This deep-seated behavior continues to show up in the workplace, resulting in leaders who become frozen with inaction because they want to make sure they make the right decision rather than a decision.”
Here’s your challenge for this week.
Consider a recent decision that you delayed making and ask yourself this:
What was the real business impact of the delayed decision?
Think about how this applies to other areas of your business.
For example, do you know your salespeople aren’t following up on quotes, but you aren’t putting simple procedures in place to make that happen?
Do you know that customer facing people need more customer service training, but the day-to-day busyness makes it something you’ll get to later?
Do you know your marketing efforts need improvement, but that it’s easier to keep doing nothing?
A client of mine had to make a decision that would immediately drive about $150,000 annually to their bottom line. I engaged the team in a simple decision-making process, and we were able to make the best-balanced decision. When we got to that point, there was no delay in moving forward-time is money!
What is the cost of doing nothing really costing YOU?
Are you convinced to take action yet?
You could just do nothing, or you can pick up a copy of Val’s fabulous new book Thoughtfully Ruthless HERE.
P.S. My new book is available for pre-order for only $9.80! An absolute bargain!
