Being Second-Guessed

A few people noted that in my post about management aphorisms a few months ago, I only exhorted managers of all levels not to second-guess the person on the ground; that is, not to question decisions made by someone else, on the spur of the moment, without benefit of hindsight, all the time in the world to think things over, and the complete lack of pressure that result from not having to take any responsibility for the situation (since the decision has already been made). I did not, however, mention what I would advocate when it is your decision that is being disparaged by Monday-morning quarterbacks who should really know better. Which, after all, would seem to be the more difficult role...

First off, acknowledge to yourself that this is not the first time this problem has come up, that it's completely understandable, and that unless you are a highly enlightened person, you've probably done it too. It can be hard to remember, in the light of subsequent experience and the presence of infinitely more comfortable circumstances just how dark, cold and scary a critical situation can be, and how hard it is to make a good decision while in the middle of one. In fact, unless the individual in question is a complete and utter fool, you might consider reminding whoever is second-guessing you of all of that...

Second, review the decision in your own mind. Actually, you probably have, endlessly, ever since you made it. But unless you are a complete and utter fool, you probably had a reason for making the choices you did. Were they valid choices, given what you knew at the time? More to the point, perhaps, ask yourself if you can now, with all of the time you need to think things over (but WITHOUT benefit of what you have subsequently learned!) make a better decision. Would you make the same decision again, or would you change things? There's another aphorism that applies here: "There is no shame in making mistakes. Only in repeating them."

Third, deconstruct the situation, not the decision or the person who made it. Perhaps in the future the person who is being critical of your choice should be the one to make those decisions; perhaps in the future you should be given more information or better resources when dealing with such a situation; perhaps in the future you or your organization can devise ways to prevent such situations from occurring. But you should not accept criticism from anyone who was not there at the time; you had to make the decision, not them, and those events are in the past, anyway. Working toward a better future is constructive; slamming someone over events in the past is punitive, and indicates that the person doing it is a fool, an idiot, or an incompetent.

If they were there with you during the crisis and agreed with your decision, or worse yet, refused to offer you any advice, only to criticize your choices later, they are all of the above...

Finally, if you are working for someone who persists in this kind of behavior, who is too stupid, incompetent and foolish to realize that such actions constitute disrespect for your abilities, arrogance of the worst sort, and invalid management practice (malpractice, in fact, although it isn't called that in our profession), then you will have to consider if your position if untenable and if you must consider a different career option. No one likes to change jobs on short notice, but a manager stupid and foolish enough to persist in this sort of monumental mistake is probably stupid enough to make other bad judgment calls and/or ignorant enough to foul up other situations in which they should have known better. I don't advocate storming out of the office and quitting on the spot, particularly if the problem you're having is isolated and most of your company's management structure does know better than this. Maybe you can transfer to another part of the company, or get higher management to help you out.

But if your entire management structure is riddled with Monday-morning quarterbacks, then by all means, get your resume ready. Because one day soon those idiots are going to destroy the company, and you don't want to be around when they do...