April 02, 2010
Decision making is an inevitable part of life and more often than not, every decision made is either to attain a certain goal or to build a particular relationship. Yet, while a lot of effort is put to achieve goals, very little effort is put to build and sustain a relationship.
Goal is a lighthouse and is an important tool for making progress by ensuring that we have a clear awareness of what must be done to achieve an objective. At the heart of leading and managing is the attainment of a goal. “Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.” – Aristotle. Embarking on a sales plan or taking up a course to develop a skill is a decision based on specific goal – either an organizational or an individual goal.
Likewise many decisions are made based on building relationships, albeit sometimes pretentious. For example, gifting a friend on his birthday or carrying out a task just the way your boss has asked you, even if you don’t agree. Interpersonal relationships are important to be successful as we are not alone on this planet and need to co-exist. An example of this I found in one of the blogs, how Godrej Sara Lee learnt about a vendor’s displeasure due to delayed payment and took corrective actions to improve relationship which also resulted in reduced rates. Stephen Covey in his book “7 habits of highly effective people” said “Life is, by nature, highly interdependent. To try to achieve maximum effectiveness through independence, is like playing tennis with a golf club – the tool is not suited to the reality”. Reflect on any of your past achievements and you would most certainly become conscious that it would have not been possible without help or support from someone.
At times it becomes very difficult to make a choice. A classic example of the dilemma in making the choice is India vs. Pakistan (2004): India has a good first innings lead. Capt. Rahul Dravid declares the innings while Sachin was at 194. This led to a big debate on whether the decision to declare was correct or wrong. Wright, in his book “Indian Summers”, went public saying that Sachin Tendulkar felt let down. Sachin`s fans were not happy, perhaps they weighed “relationship” more but Team India won and for Capt. Rahul Dravid “goal” weighed more.
“A decision is a judgment. It is a choice between alternatives. It is rarely a choice between right or wrong. It is often choice between two course of action, neither of which is provably more nearly right than the other” – Peter F Drucker
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