Every Decision is a Trade-Off

I was just re-reading a summary of Startup Victoria's #GrowthClub education event with Chris Moody & wanted to share one of my favourite takeaways.

A decision, Chris says, is a trade-off where a founder chooses what they’re willing to sacrifice, rather than choosing a particular outcome that’s either good or bad, wrong or right.

Tough decisions are one of the things that defines an entrepreneur and a business. Many founders, for this reason, take on much of the burden of decisions within their business.

This becomes increasingly untenable as a company grows, as the business becomes more complex, and a founder becomes increasingly removed from some aspects of the business.

Instead, leaders need to train their team how to make great decisions, which happens most effectively in companies with strong values where its people are hired on the basis of those shared values.

A strong set of values doesn’t change with time. Meaningful values are divisive, in that not everyone will align with them. Values define how everyone in your team treats one another and how they treat your customers.

In fact, Chris says that this may be the most important thing in building a successful company.

When you have a strong set of company values, they inform how you lead, market and scale.

Passing off decisions can be challenging, but having a strong set of values in place enables a founder to feel confident in the decisions of their team.