Weighing Choices: Empowering Business Momentum

Every day there are choices that are necessary to keep a business running. Also, every day, a business owner is pulled in a myriad of directions that can cause the focus to be on what is happening at that moment, versus what needs to happen in the next moments.

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Depending on the business owner’s mindset, choices may also be made based on personal preferences versus strategic initiatives, personal biases versus objective perspective, over-analysis versus simplification, checking off boxes versus seeing progress, and a false sense of demand versus creating real momentum. Being able to weigh choices requires viewing them through a lens that will empower momentum-building decisions being made, not just by the business owner, but everyone on the team. 
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1. Wanted vs. Needed: When choosing between what is wanted versus what is needed, it is easy to go to what is wanted first because it is typically more attractive and feels better psychologically. What is needed to be done can be less appealing and feel like work. Decisions based on purely wanting can be a form of avoidance or procrastination without even realizing it.

Choosing comfort over discomfort results in you avoiding a hard conversation that needs to occur. Prioritizing speed over structure has you chasing short-term wins while deferring foundational work necessary for bigger long-term wins. It is easy to justify wanted choices because they may be relieving pressure now, however, what is needed to be done could prevent problems later. A great way to frame the difference is that choices based on want protect emotion whereas choices based on need protect outcomes. While morale may be temporarily high when everyone is just doing what they want, with no clear direction or alignment, engagement is lost because what is needed is being ignored or low on the priority list. 
​Choosing what is needed and necessary takes discipline and clarity. Consider these questions to help you better prioritize needs:

• If I don’t address this situation now, what additional problems could arise?
• What needs to occur before what I want can succeed?
• What is necessary that if overlooked could sabotage success?
• What needs to be done that will reduce future effort, friction, or rework?

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2. Obvious vs. Best: Too often decisions are made with a surface level of understanding or investigation. Because of not going deeper, the choice may seem like an obvious “no-brainer” choice, but is it the best choice? Obvious choices are comforting because they are safe, socially acceptable, and can be easily explained. While what is obvious can be more easily defended, what is best takes conviction which is where true strategic leadership comes into play.
Choosing what is best creates advantage whereas choosing what is obvious may diminish advantage.  Examples of obvious choices in action that become detrimental include copying competitors in what they are doing which hinders differentiation or advantage, hiring similar profiles and missing key strengths needed to grow the team and company competency, defaulting to industry norms versus reinventing and innovating, or deferring to policy or precedent versus what is in the best interest of the customer relationship. 
Strategic judgement is in play when you are choosing what is best is over making a snap decision. Consider these questions to help you prioritize what’s best:

• What assumptions are being made, and how should they be challenged?
  
• How is this decision based on being liked or popular versus what is right and best?
  
• Is the current solution being considered addressing the real problem?
  
• Before we agree on this direction, what could we be missing or not seeing?

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3. Complex vs. Simple: Complexity can look very impressive initially, and then it begins to overwhelm and confuse instead of exciting and empowering team members. Once it reaches overwhelming status, analysis paralysis can be the culprit along with a need for every scenario to be considered. What is complex can seem smarter and more sophisticated until it needs to be adopted and implemented.

​A system is over-engineered causing higher costs with lower margins. Excessive metrics are being documented that do not connect the dots for optimal outcomes. A product offering is hard to explain, and therefore, it is not getting any traction. Getting something approved requires a long decision cycle or matrix hierarchy.
Choosing simplicity is not cutting corners. It brings clarity to execution and the likelihood it will be understood and consistently performed. Consider these questions to help you simplify with confidence:

• What should we remove before we add without impacting quality deliverable?
• How can we change behaviors without more paperwork and protocols?
• What decisions need to be made before we build out the prototype/program?
• What processes, systems or protocols are no longer relevant?

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4. Productive vs. Progress: People can feel productive without being productive. So can business owners and leaders. Lots of boxes are being checked off, but are they the right boxes in the first place? If progress is not being realized, then productivity is not occurring even if everyone feels productive. Productivity can also create a false sense of being busy, whereas progress realizes a difference through what is being done.
Someone moving and shuffling paperwork can believe they are being productive, while no progress is being made towards a specific initiative. Productivity rewards effort while progress rewards outcomes. Productivity without progress is a form of self-deception. It creates motion without any direction or real measurable impact.  Progress requires both left and right brain thinking in a collaborative spirit of engagement. 
Progress makes effort more effective and rewardable. Consider these questions to help you start realizing progress in the work being done:

• What is being enhanced, improved, completed, or optimized through the tasks being done?
• What are the ultimate outcomes each task or responsibility is expected to support?
• What progress do we expect to realize in this initiative and from each person assigned to support it? 
• What is being viewed as productivity, yet is not productive?

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5. Activity vs. Momentum: When your entire team is working long hours, constantly in a reactionary mode, and scrambling to get ahead of their workload, activity is winning over momentum building. In our Economic Vitality Model, a company that possesses a high velocity quotient when scaling for growth has mastered momentum. Activity can look like hustling with full calendars of meetings, constant communication, and multiple initiatives.

I have seen in more companies than I can count over 40 years where sales were stagnant and growth simply was not happening, yet everyone was working long hours and getting nowhere. While activity is very visible, it can be more chaotic than intentional. Momentum is focused and directional. Activity consumes energy while momentum incites growth and advancement. Momentum requires commitment while activity spreads everyone too thin. Momentum forces alignment, trade-offs, and follow-through with accountability. Activity can cause duplication of efforts and working in silos. Momentum inspires collaboration and seamless communications. 
Focusing on momentum transforms activity into team engagement with inspired actions. Consider these questions to empower momentum building decisions:

• What is continually improving because we are doing it? 
• Where is time well spent because it is building momentum?
• What is occurring that is more reactive than proactive due to a focus on constant output?
• Where is there duplication of activity that needs to be more clearly assigned?

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Business momentum is created when there is clear direction.  Friction and challenges are removed, and everyone knows what matters most and what does not matter. You know momentum is being realized when decisions take less time, fewer people are needed to achieve the same result, execution requires less supervision and results continue to be realized even when leadership steps back to let the team perform.

Growth accelerates and scaling gains velocity when leaders stop asking, “What should we do?” and start asking “What choice empowers momentum?” It’s not luck. It’s not timing. It’s not talent alone.

Momentum is rarely lost because leaders lack intelligence, effort, or ambition. It’s lost in the quiet, daily decisions that feel reasonable in the moment. 

​Yours in economic vitality,
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