How decisive are you ?!?!?

வாழ்க்கையின் முக்கிய தருணங்களில் - முடிவெடுக்க நேரும்போது பலரும் தடுமாறுவர் !!  -  முடிவெடுத்தலை தள்ளி போடுவர் அல்லது விதி வழி என்று சும்மா இருப்பார்கள்.  முடிவெடுப்பது, வாழ்க்கையின் வெற்றிக்கு வழிவகை செய்யக் கூடிய ஒரு செயல். ‘தீர்மானம்தான் உங்கள் விதி’ - முடிவெடுப்பதில் உங்களுக்குக் குழப்பம் இருக்கக் கூடாது.  வெற்றி பெற்றவர்களுக்கு அடிப்படையான தகுதி, முடிவெடுக்கும் திறமை.  தீர்மானங்களில் இருந்துதான் செயல்பாடுகள் பிறக்கும். செயல்பாடுகள் இருந்தால்தான் முடிவு இருக்கும்.  தீர்மானமே எடுக்காமல் தோல்வி அடைவதை விட, ஒரு முடிவு எடுத்து, அதன் வழி நடத்தல் சாலச்  சிறந்தது !! 

Ruturaj Gaikwad is the new cult star of CSK – but think back couple of years, everyone was blaming MSD on persisting with him.  Dhoni stood his ground, whether it is not bowling Moeen Ali or promoting Shivam Dube, Dhoni is decisive !!  

Chepauk fans have been waiting for that magical moment  - starved they have been for live action has been away for some time.  MS Dhoni returned to MAC  and won a match against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). Super Kings were 203 for 5 after the 19th over. Mark Wood had Ravindra Jadeja skying a pull and even before Bishnoi settled under it, the roof  had  blown off Chepauk.   Over the past four years, Chennai had had to live with only memories of Dhoni – and it was live flesh.  Wood, England's speed demon, hit 149kph and bowed wide and away – Dhoni could still reach out and scythe it over point for a 6.   He is getting older at  42   his hand-eye coordination and his power is incredible. Next came a bouncer which was swiveled and hooked over squareleg for a bigger six !!!    it is not batting alone, but the cool calm but decisive actions that make him a cult leader !!  

For sure those of us in Offices have seen silence and indecision spoiling the Company – may be you / me too were part or the main culprit of that .. .. there would be   many occasions even at the highest levels when silent lies and a lack of closure lead to false decisions. They are “false” because they eventually get undone by unspoken factors and inaction.  The people responsible for making decisions and acting, fail to take one and act !!   silence kills, at times, intimidated by the group dynamics of hierarchy and constrained by formality and lack of trust, they speak their lines woodenly and without conviction.  Breaking a culture of indecision requires a leader who can engender intellectual honesty and trust in the connections between people.    

The job of the leader of the Organisation,  everyone knows, is to make decisions. And most of them do—countless times in the course of their tenures.  Usually, ambivalence or outright resistance arises because of a lack of dialogue with the people charged with implementing the decision in question. Not many would  involve a sincere search for answers. Many leaders would not  tolerate unpleasant truths.  Only when people shed a culture of indecision, they can be successful.  

Indecision can seem like a wholly undesirable trait. But an article in BBC says that it might actually lead to smarter judgements. !! In the TV series The Good Place, the character Chidi Anagonye is defined by his inability to make even the simplest of decisions – from choosing what to eat, to proclaiming love for his soulmate. The very idea of making a choice often results in a serious stomach-ache. He is stuck in continued ‘analysis paralysis’.  We meet Chidi in the afterlife, and learn that his indecisiveness was the cause of his death. While standing in the street, endlessly equivocating on which bar to visit with his best friend, an air-conditioning unit from the apartment above falls on his head, killing him instantly.    

“You know the sound that a fork makes in the garbage disposal? That's the sound my brain makes all the time,” he says in one episode. And besides making himself unhappy, Chidi’s lack of confidence in his own judgements drives the people around him crazy. If that sounds like an exaggerated version of you, then you are not alone: indecisiveness is a common trait. While some people come to very quick judgements, others struggle to weigh up the options – and may even try to avoid making a choice at all. 

As Chidi shows, indecisiveness can be linked to problems like anxiety, yet recent research suggests that it can also have an upside – it protects us from common cognitive errors like confirmation bias, so that when the person does finally come to a judgement, it is generally wiser than those who jumped to a conclusion too quickly. The trick is to learn when to wait, and when to break through the inertia while it’s holding you back.   Psychologists have various tools to measure indecisiveness. One of the most common questionnaires – the Frost Indecisiveness Scale – asks participants to rate a series of statements on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). They include:

•          I try to put off making decisions

•          I have a hard time planning my free time

•          I often worry about making the wrong choice

•          It seems that deciding on the most trivial thing takes me a long time  

Using this scale, psychologists have shown that indecisiveness is often a product of perfectionism. Perfectionists are scared of the shame or regret that may come with making the wrong choice – and so they put off making decisions until they feel certain they are doing the right thing.

 

They won yet – the leader Thala MS Dhoni isn't happy about the number of no-balls and wides his fast bowlers have bowled in Chennai Super Kings' two IPL 2023 matches so far. In their second game itself, against Lucknow Super Giants on Monday night, Super Kings' quicks sent down 13 wides and three no-balls. "We are bowling too many extra deliveries," he said after the 12-run win on Monday night at Chepauk, and even mock-threatened his bowlers that "they will have to be ready to play under a new captain".  One may interpret it to be the frustration of the Captain, but knowing MSD well, it perhaps is a clear message – follow the process, do your basics right – if found wanting, you may be found elsewhere !!! 

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
5.4.2023