I’ve made plenty of choices over the years. Quite frankly some of them were pretty bad. Actually, some were downright awful. Like this one…
I needed to change a holiday pay practice and was attempting to get the buy-in from the rest of the senior leadership team. We only came to consensus at the very last minute. Instead of taking into consideration that we were on top of the holiday, I forced the change through anyway. Yes, the company saved some money, but the negative fallout hurt both the organization and me. I felt terrible afterward.
Big Picture
I take pride in forcing myself to see the big picture. I consider myself a strategy-guy. Making bad choices with respect to these high level problems is unacceptable. But I’ve made them, and that drives me nuts. I don’t want to let any organization that I work for down. I certainly don’t want to let myself down either. The big picture must rule the day.
Working Through It
I hated my decision. I hated the phone calls, emails, voice mails, and hallway comments about the decision. It was all on me, and I didn’t like any of it. But there was nowhere to hide. I had to simply endure it. I had to endure me.
But I learned. I learned to be more strategic…I learned to be more thorough…I learned to be…better.
How About You
Have you ever made a choice that you regret? What did you do about it? Did you step up, acknowledge the blunder, and fix it? Or, did you stay quiet…shamefully quiet…and hope the moment slipped away before anyone noticed?
I’d love to hear from you.
No Excuses.
pic courtesy of EJ Lockhart
