Avoiding indecision and keeping momentum in business

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As a consultant, I have worked with many companies in a variety of industries—banking, agriculture, manufacturing, performance arts, publishing. Typically, I’m hired to help increase revenue, but often I’m brought into conversations about human resources, operations, finance, and other matters as well. I grew up in a family business and now own two businesses with my husband. That, coupled with 15-plus years of training at large publicly traded companies, gives me a skill set that often is good enough in these other ancillary areas to help my clients solve problems.

The challenges companies face in these departments are unique to those areas of the business, but one trend is consistent: Leaders who make decisions quickly—with data, discussion, and process—typically get ahead faster. Leaders who hesitate to pull the trigger on solutions tread water or fall behind.

More than once, I have been hired to write a business plan for a client only to go back six months later to find that not much has been done. This type of hesitation is an issue we’ve faced in the two companies I own with my husband.

I’m a salesperson, so by training my sense of urgency is high. I tend to swing for the fences and put the pieces together on my way around the bases. I admit I need more analysis at times, but my sense of urgency also has developed from watching many good businesses stall because the executives take too long to press “Go.”

On the other hand, I’ve watched successful executives react on a dime, enjoying wins over the competition, learning from and moving on quickly from mistakes, and not allowing past failures to impede taking calculated risks.

Processes to Drive Discipline

As small businesses or departments grow, they must add processes to keep things moving.

First off, businesses must bring employees together in a regular cadence with a set agenda. This provides discipline for moving projects forward and making decisions. Each employee should come to the meeting ready to present concise updates on metrics and key projects defined by the management team.

For example, as our small fabrication shop grew, we added a 30-minute meeting on Fridays to review weekly and month-to-date financials versus goals. We also added a Monday morning production meeting to review open jobs, priorities, and expedited items for the week. This likely will move to a daily meeting as our business’s production head count grows.

The employees that participate in each meeting are different (with a little overlap from managers), but the agenda is set, and everyone comes prepared to present data on the metrics assigned to them. We often discuss bottlenecks at the start of the week that have a solution implemented by the end of the week. On Monday, someone is given responsibility for researching solutions; that person presents on Friday, and then we decide what to do.

Partners Who Can Help

Use partners inside or outside the business for help with analysis. If you are struggling to identify the best path forward, you might need more expertise. For example, we have a piece of capital equipment that has had one problem after another. It has become a money pit.

In addition, the market this machine serves is underperforming right now and pricing has dropped. Combine the extra money for repairs with lower prices, and profit has tanked. What do we do? Drop it? Keep going and see what happens?

We needed more guidance, so I reached out to our CFO (an outside consultant as we are too small to have one on staff yet), and he presented a recommendation that we are currently implementing. His input gave us confidence to decide and prevented us from trudging on too long at a loss.

Empowering Your Employees

Delegate, delegate, delegate. Take pieces of the problem and assign them to staff members. A big problem is easier to tackle when broken down.

For example, our scheduling process is not efficient, and we need to get more work through the shop in less time. I am researching ERP systems, our office manager just toured two businesses with my husband to benchmark best practices, and our shop manager is analyzing current jobs to prioritize shop floor processes for efficiency.

One person could tackle this project, but not quickly. That wastes time and money. In this arrangement, each employee has been given authority to recommend a solution for their piece of the problem. We will review, discuss, and implement. No one bats 1.000. Some ideas might work now, but I promise you: You will lose money (and staff) by holding onto to all the decision-making at the top.

Just Do It

At the end of the day, do something. My biggest frustration with clients is watching them do nothing after I’ve presented a solution. To be fair, sitting on the other side of the table as an owner, I’m guilty of the same sin.

We have problems to solve and the sooner the better. Overcoming obstacles is about working quickly to identify solutions, but the more important step is pressing “Go.”