SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 160,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each Tuesday in our e-newsletter.
Last week, we asked: How would you describe your organization’s culture?
- A great deal of talking, very little doing, 43%
- A good balance of talking and doing, 37%
- Too much doing without talking about it enough, 20%
A significant portion of you find your organizations are talking too much and not doing enough. It’s a classic risk-averse behavior. This happens when folks are afraid to make a decision because they fear the repercussions (both for the organization and for themselves personally). Try breaking the big decisions into smaller, less risky ones and try to push forward smaller actions faster rather than larger actions more slowly. It’ll help you gain momentum and build a bias toward doing. For those doing too much without enough talking, be a little more rigorous on understanding the risks you’re taking and be clear that they’re acceptable. Communicate those risks and your willingness to take them, and your teams will be more comfortable.
Mike Figliuolo is managing director of ThoughtLeaders and author of “One Piece of Paper.”