By R. Christopher Haines, President and CEO
I try to consider myself pretty cool under pressure. Someone who can adapt, react, and move forward. But lately, that seems to all be up in the air. We’re doing a little remodeling around the office, and it seems my decision-making skills have come to a standstill. I’m not really sure why that’s happening.
I really hate making decisions about things like carpeting, cabinets, and windows. It all seems so permanent. I know all it takes is money to change things if you make a decision you don’t like, but I’d rather not spend the money twice. So, I’ve been staring at the same 10 carpet samples for about a month. I know I’ll be affecting the timeline of the project soon, so I’d better just come to terms with something.
With my work responsibilities, I’m not so wishy-washy. At Marias, we’re an ever-learning organization. We make decisions knowing we can always evaluate them and improve. When you have that mentality, I don’t think you’re really ever scared to make a decision because nothing is ever really permanent in your approach or your procedures. You can always grow, learn, and fine-tune what you’re doing. So we make our decisions and go with them.
I think many people can make good decisions in short periods of time or under duress. Maybe adrenaline pushes us to pick something and move forward. But I think many of us suffer from paralysis by analysis when we have all the time we could ever want to make a decision. We often overthink things and worry about all the what-ifs and unknowns.
For example, many insurance companies struggle with technology decisions. Which systems to buy, which service vendors to help with the implementations, and even deciding who to choose to help them pick a vendor in the first place. One thing’s for sure: You’ve got to move forward. You don’t need to be on the bleeding edge of anything, but you can’t let yourself get way behind. Don’t let the fear of making the wrong decision keep you from making any decision at all. Look for vendors with honesty, who seem genuine in their approaches, and that you feel you can trust. The ones that show it’s about more than new sales. It’s about helping their customers succeed.
Now back to deciding which color of black carpet is the right color of black for me.