How many questions do you get asked a day?
How many decisions do you have to make during the day?
Chances are the number of questions asked is more than the number of decisions made.
The easy questions get answered immediately. No big deal there.
Now for those really hard questions. The ones that you told the person you needed more time to think about it.
Did you really go out and get extra data?
Did you ponder the real answer to the question any more?
Or did you actually already have the answer and you were not sure how to tell it or sell it to the person that asked?
What I have witnessed with many leaders of people is that they know the answer already. Heck they knew the answer 15 seconds after the person asked the question.
But instead of answering the person directly, they said they needed time to think about it.
These are the questions that I want you to focus upon. If you already know the answer and you don’t need to collect any more data. Then it is all about the way you need to deliver it.
First if you are scared, say you are scared. Now ask yourself why you are scared. Is it that you are going to hurt the other person’s feelings? Is it some monumental precedent that you are setting?
You need to be a leader and look past that fear. Figure out how to have the hard conversation. Delaying it is only going to make it worse for you and worse for the person hearing it.
It is not fair to individual to be strung along. Get it out. And don’t be scared.
