Short-term gain, Long-term pain...

This past week I had the opportunity to take a literal drive down memory lane and return to my home province for business reasons.  Even though I was born in Saskatchewan I have spent the vast majority of my working life in other parts of Western Canada.  However, this drive gave me the chance to go back to one of the places I had worked in the mid 1990s.  A lot has changed since I left that role - including the fact that the organization that I once led no longer exists.  At the same time, I saw clear evidence of how decisions based on short-term considerations can sometimes have repercussions years and even decades removed from the original situation.  I won't delve into the details of the particular decision but its interesting to note that a choice made in 1993 - 3 years before I took on my former role - is still having a ripple effect 20 years later.  And not in a good way.

Many of us are quite familiar with the phrase "Short-term pain for long-term pain" and there are variety of circumstances in which we look to apply that wisdom.  At a personal level I've often tried to draw some sort of inspiration from that phrase as I tried to lose weight, get in shape, train for an Ironman competition, or put in some extra hours in a senior executive, consultant or coach role.  In like fashion, at an organizational level, we commonly send out similar messages and set similar expectations for our staff - if we make these sacrifices now, or make this extra or challenging effort over the next few weeks and months, it will all be worth it by the end of the year or position us well relative to our competitors or in achieving our strategic objectives.  If only we can endure we will reap our just rewards!

Just as often though it seems we fall from this wisdom in both our personal and professional lives.   We can often come up with quite rational and cogent reasons why we made a particular and suboptimal decision.  We took what was possible versus desirable and made compromises along the way.  We worked to balance relationships against outcomes.  We decided to minimize conflict.  Our political arenas seem rife with this type of pragmatism or realism.  Such a view is certainly abetted by a time frame for vision that at its best tops out at four years.  How often do we hear "it was the best we could accomplish under the circumstances" or "we took a balanced approach to the issues at hand" as justifications are rolled out for the less than optimal achievement.  I'd be naive not to understand that a pragmatic or realistic approach may be necessary in some circumstances.  I'm not convinced, though, that what we see or hear represents a pragmatic or realistic line of reasoning.  Rather, it's seems like we are trying to justify taking the easy way out of a tough situation. And sometimes the best decision is not the easiest one.

As leaders we have to not only be conscious of the implications of our tradeoffs in the short-term but in the long-term as well.  Leaders have to take the long view.  They are uniquely positioned by their role to do so and the organization and its clients have a rightful expectation that the leader will in fact act in their long-term interests.  There is a great weight of responsibility placed upon leaders to not only help their organizations succeed in the short-term (e.g., balance budgets, meet market expectations) but to position for them for long-term success.  At the very least, and to the best of their ability, I believe it is incumbent on leaders to not hamstring their successors by taking the path of least resistance in the short term.  This is particularly so when the leader may not be around to deal with the long-term consequences of today's actions.  It seems somewhat unethical to reap the short-term gain without having to deal with the long-term pain of one's actions. 

This latter statement - taking the short-term gain without having to deal with the long-term pain - was what hit me this past week.  Decisions made by leaders no longer on the scene, for short-term gain, that compromises the ability of a successor organization to deliver on its mandate.  I dealt with those consequences three years after I took on my leadership role, and the leaders of today are continuing to work with the bad hand they have been dealt 20 years later.

It's incumbent on leaders to be practical AND visionary.  To be compassionate AND yet make the hard choices.  It's incumbent on leaders - at every level of an organization - to not only make short-term sacrifices for the future benefit of the organization but also to sometimes forgo some short-term benefits as well.  Don't take the easy way out in lieu of the right way forward.  It's one thing to deal with the consequences of your own decisions.  Its another to leave a future generation of leaders compromised in their ability to lead in the wake you have created.

Short-term pain for long-term gain sure.  Short-term gain leading to long-term pain not so much.

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Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC
TEC Canada Chair/Executive Coach/Senior Consultant
hadubiak@wmc.ca

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.