Caution vs Action

It's one of those things that you run into while developing training:

• one stakeholder wants to be bold and try something fundamentally different to see if it makes an impact on the learner.

• another stakeholder wants to make smaller, almost experimental changes to the training, to test a hypothesis, to see if the changes will make any impact.

I'm using a training example, but you could find that this approach might apply to other areas. You've no doubt seen this dynamic play out in lots of meetings in discussions: someone always wants more data to make an educated choice, while someone else is going by their 'gut' and wants actions now.

How do you choose? Who is right?

Is both or neither just a wishy-washy answer that doesn't settle anything? It's not intended to.

The solution to this is why we have leaders and we turn to them.

One aspect of leadership that is crucial is the need to resolve these disputes and chart a way forward. Does this sound self-evident? It is, but you will be surprised to see how many leaders get stuck between caution and action and are unable to make a decision because both arguments are equally strong. The challenge for a good leader is to fully understand what the problem is and help navigate their team decisively towards the goal.

It sounds easy, but it isn't. Those advocates for caution and action can sometimes be very forceful with experience and even information to back up their assertions. A leader's job is not clear-cut at all. The irony is that the team looks exactly for those sorts of decisions; either we choose the slower path of experimentation or we surge ahead and go with what we feel is the right thing to do.

The leader's strength is their vision. Knowing your vision inside out and constantly communicating to others to ensure you all understand will help find the right balance between caution and action. If you are one of those leaders, it will give you the focus you need to see exactly what your vision needs to have to be successful and filter out those elements that are not useful.

Give it a try...you may be surprised by how much a clear vision can help.

#learning #LeadershipDevelopment #LearningAndDevelopment #Training #perspective #success #successful #opportunity #vision