We’ve all faced a tough decision—the one where you know the right thing to do won’t come easy.

Termination
Demotion.
Delivered less than stellar feedback.
No instead of yes.

Tough decisions and conversations come in many different shapes and sizes.

Regardless of how you ended up at the decision, confidence isn’t always enough to make you feel good when you’re giving necessary news.

How do you deal? Get real.

Get real with the not so great feeling and be okay with it. Not everything that is the best choice is going to be delivered by rainbow coloured unicorns. Especially when it involves people and emotion. Choose to be okay with that.

Next are the three things to help stay grounded when the emotional reaction—yours or someone else’s—may creep up:

Is your decision for the greater good of your culture?

It must be. When making tough decisions they are to be made with great consideration.

One of the considerations has to be the lasting impact of that decision on the health of the organization. Will the impact support your desired culture, or will it erode it? When you know that you are deciding with careful consideration to maintain, if not empower, a healthy culture, your decision will be more accepted and more importantly, easier for you to manage.

Stay onside with values

When a tough decision could result in backlash it’s important that it’s connected to a strong foundation. The foundation for a company is its values. Once they’re in place, they become the foundation for all decisions. TThat foundation sets the stage for an automatic endorsement or alignment to the greater good and tough decision made.

Create understanding

When a decision is not well received, take the time to help people understand it.  Create the alignment for them between the values of the organization and how the decision serves the greater good.

If people are negatively impacted by the decision, it’ll undoubtedly be more difficult for them to understand in the moment. Creating alignment will help them reach a place of acceptance faster, again serving the greater good.

In conclusion, even when we know a certain decision is the right one to make, it may not feel right. In fact, it may feel awful. Connecting to the three points above prior to a tough decision or conversation will help keep you focused on the outcome. That outcome is likely to serve a greater good not just in the moment, but for many people over the long term. Stay connected to that.

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