Inaction Is Not Free: The Cost of Delay & Indecision

Several years ago, my wife and I bought a Nordic Track, one of those machines that replicated the movements of cross-country skiing. It wasn’t cheap, but it claimed to be an excellent form of exercise. What I didn’t realize was that I needed to actually GET ON IT multiple times each week for it to do its job! Unfortunately, it became a very expensive piece of furniture to hang clothes on, which is about as far as we got with it. And on a larger scale, it won’t surprise you that only 24% of adults and 1 in 5 adolescents meet the U.S. physical activity guidelines. The CDC says this costs us about $117 billion a year in healthcare costs.

Inaction is the norm in life, not the exception. This is true in our personal lives, such as career decisions, financial planning, physical health, and spiritual life. And inaction is also common in our businesses and other organizations that we lead – when we are too slow in making a hiring decision, there are too many delays in launching a new service or product, we are too passive in terminating a team member who is acting inappropriately, or we are too proud to ask for professional help.

Inaction isn’t free. All of these instances of inaction cost us something, and the price can be significant. If your organization is plagued by inaction and indecisiveness, here are the top four things it is costing you.

1. Loss of momentum.

It is unusual to see a leader talk about a new idea, share the vision with others, and then TAKE ACTION to make it happen, all in a reasonable amount of time. The norm is to meet, discuss, analyze, meet again, form a team to study it, and end up with nothing but delay and inaction.

I recently saw this process play out in two different organizations. In the first organization, the leaders created a set of inspiring priorities, shared them with the whole organization and the public, and then immediately took positive action to turn them into a reality. In comparison, the other organization set priorities, shared them with the whole organization and the public, and then… deafening silence. Which of these two organizations will thrive and which will lose momentum? Inaction is a fail-proof way to lose organizational momentum. Once momentum is lost, it is very hard to regain.

2. Loss of opportunity.

During the past five years, if someone was waiting for the “right time” to invest in the stock market, they likely missed one of the best growth opportunities in recent history. If someone was waiting for housing prices to “settle down,” they will now pay 20% more. If a university waited to see what “plays out” in online education, they missed the potential of a whole new group of students and revenue. If a business waited to launch a new product, they let a rival claim the market they were too cautious to enter.

Take, for example, Blockbuster Video (for those under age 25, you may not remember them because they are out of business). Around the year 2000, they had the opportunity to buy Netflix for $50 million, but they didn’t act on it. Netflix is now worth $385 BILLION – yes, billion – and Blockbuster vanished. The same thing happened with Circuit City when they could have purchased little Best Buy for only $30 million. Delay can be very costly.

3. Loss of talent and customers.

Your best customers, clients, employees, and even volunteers follow vision, courage, and decisive leadership. But when leaders delay – when they consistently reflect a spirit of fear and indecision, your best people start heading for the door. And where do they go? To the business or organization that is not afraid to make decisions and effectively implement them.

Gallup estimates that the cost of losing a good employee could range anywhere from tens of thousands of dollars to 1.5-2 times the employee’s salary. In addition, every leader will tell you that it costs far more to replace a customer who leaves you than to retain them. That’s one of the reasons why indecisiveness is so costly. People are attracted to vision and not mediocrity, to momentum and not passivity.

4. Loss of revenue.

I was recently in a meeting with an extraordinary leader and was encouraged and fascinated by both his humility and his willingness to make a decision and go all in to make it happen. Such decisions have no guarantees of success, but a constant state of inaction does have a guarantee – failure. If not sooner, most definitely later. This particular leader has grown his business into a large, successful, and well-respected brand, and his leadership has attracted great talent throughout the organization. Decisive leaders who lead with vision and action attract money – sometimes a lot of it.

Two and a half years ago, I attended my daughter’s grad school graduation, where the university President spoke to this group of 55 Physician Assistant graduates. When he became President over twenty years ago, he took a declining college and turned it into a world-class university with over 6,500 students and raised over $750 million during his tenure (all while many universities around the country are struggling). When I walked around the campus, every detail of it reflected vision, excellence, and action. Visionary, decisive leaders who follow through on their plans generate revenue. Leaders who are passively biting their nails and delaying decisions... don’t.

Ready to stop delaying and start leading with confidence? Contact us to learn how our consulting team helps leaders make decisive moves that drive results.

Jay Desko is the President & CEO of The Center Consulting Group and brings experience in the areas of organizational assessment, leadership coaching, decision-making, and strategic questioning. Jay’s degrees include an M.Ed. in Instructional Systems Design from Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Leadership from The Union Institute.