Tough decisions and conversations

Whether it’s deciding to let someone go or pulling the plug on a project, one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned from my 6+ years working at a startup is that tough decisions need to be made quickly and decisively.

The natural inclination for people is to delay or procrastinate that decision. It’s natural as it’s often easier to push things back and hope things fix itself out in the long run. It never does unfortunately.

For those reasons, it’s best to just make the decision and get it done. The conversations are never fun. There’s a human aspect to all this and often times these tough decisions impact individuals directly. But for the best of the company and that individual, it should be done quickly rather than a death by 100 paper cuts.