Episode 7 - When is good enough, good enough?

If your experience of leading or managing in a company doesn't match the hype from others, this is the podcast for you.

In this episode, Dave reflects on the often difficult decisions that must be made to balance the desire for perfection and control with pragmatism and speed.

These kinds of decisions can lead to 'damned if you do, damned if you don't situations, so it's important they are carefully considered and also made at the appropriate level of the company. 

He offers a fresh perspective on the subject and a useful checklist of questions to ask yourself before landing on a decision.

A one-page summary accompanies this podcast, including the questions featured in the podcast. Please email me at dave@sixthsensebusiness.com, and we will get a copy to you. 

Dave's book 'Call Yourself a Leader' is only available at www.sixthsensebusiness.com/book

Transcript

0:11  

Hello, and welcome back to the Call Yourself a Leader Podcast. I'm Dave Gammon, and today we're diving into a topic that every leader wrestles with — whether they know it or not — control versus pragmatism. This is the battle between rules compliance, checks and balances on one side, and commercial flexibility and speed on the other. And make no mistake, it's a battle happening not just in your organisation, but in your head. Let's get into it.

0:47  

In Chapter Eight of Call Yourself a Leader, I recall a conversation I had with the commercial director in the smoking room at New Tesco house. He asked me what my job was, and when I told him I was an internal auditor, he smiled and said, "Ah, auditors, accountants, and lawyers said,' You're the condoms of industry, Dave. '" '" We know we need you, but you take a lot of the fun out of it. Crude, absolutely, but there is a sting of truth here, because too much control and focus on detail and getting everything right means a business can lose momentum too little, though, and you invite chaos, risk and even disaster. In reality, both sides have a point: health and safety, quality purchasing. These areas exist to protect people and protect profits. Still, if you go too rigid with control, you can strangle innovation and responsiveness, which is why these debates are thorny and often escalate up the chain of command. In the book CEO Excellence, one of the roles of the CEO is described as the intersection of all contradictions. That means that when a decision can't be made and the balance can't be struck, it often ends up on the CEO's desk.

2:08  

Now, the real skill of leadership is not choosing one side or the other of this spectrum. It's making the right trade-off for the situation at the lowest level of the organisation possible, but no lower.

2:29  

Conversely, in chapter 33, I talk about the paradox of perfection, and this happened again at Tescos, where I was out on a store visit with a senior director. He spent an hour inspecting every tiny detail in the store. He ran his finger along the shelves, looked at all the stock levels, reviewed the cash reports, and even checked people's uniforms.

2:55  

And during a break, I said to him, Look, you're responsible for nearly 100 stores. Why are you obsessed with so much detail in this one? And he looked at me and said, "Son, retail is detail." If I can't trust a manager with the small things, how can I trust them with the big stuff? And he also went on to explain that, whether a customer realised it or not, they were noticing these things in the store. So there's the paradox: details and standards matter, but obsessing over perfection can slow execution and cause opportunities to be missed. Brene Brown says perfectionism isn't the same as healthy striving. In fact, it often leads to anxiety, paralysis and missed chances.

3:55  

So, as a leader, you're constantly balancing where perfection is essential and where fit-for-purpose is good enough. So you put chapters eight and 33 together, and you get to the heart of one of the key areas of leadership: decision-making. When should we insist on control and focus on detail? And when do we need to move fast with good enough execution? Neither extreme works every time. It's all about informed trade-offs and, crucially, clarity about who takes responsibility.

4:30  

So next time you find yourself in this pragmatism versus control debate, ask yourself

1: Have I got the right people with the right skills, experience and perspectives in the debate with me?

2: Have I checked the actual words and the spirit of the words of the rule or standard that I am supposed to be invoking here? 

3: Am I clear on the trade-offs and who owns this decision?

4: Are we having the debate in the right place? If it's a factory-floor issue, keep it on the factory floor, not in a sanitised meeting room.

5:16  

So here's your challenge: where in your leadership are you hiding behind perfection or control as some armour, and where are you just being too pragmatic, cutting corners that deep down you know are important and are going to compromise standards? This balance isn't easy, but this is where leaders earn their stripes —not by avoiding them, but by getting into the detail, making the decision, and owning it.

5:45  

Thanks for listening. If this episode made you feel just a little bit uncomfortable, good. That's the point, because leadership lives in these uncomfortable trade-offs. Until next time, don't call yourself a leader. Show up as one.