Decisiveness, the need for and the reason to

When it comes to the most important behavior in getting results with a project or problem, decisiveness is the most important attribute one can possess. The reason that decisiveness is so important is that no problem is ever solved and no project is never completed unless a decision has been made concerning it. In my time as a missionary for the LDS church, I found that serving in leadership positions were more about making decisions than actually leading someone to do something. This was apparent on one afternoon when I met with a couple of missionaries who had decided that they were not going to go out and work because one felt that the only thing they should be doing is knocking on doors and the other felt that it was more effective to talk to people on the street. When we were brought in to mediate a discussion between the two missionaries we discussed the importance of making a decision rather than fighting between two decisions. Concluding that the best decision was to stay in the apartment was by far the worst answer that they could come up with, but had they been able to decide as to what the desired outcome was, their decision would have been made. As leaders in BYUSA, it isn't necessarily most important in problems and projects to be innovative or being able to take initiative as it is in being decisive and able to make a decision and stand by it. It may not be the best answer, such as calling off questions during presentations in a SAC meeting because there are too many presentations left in the limited amount of time, but a decision is the difference between a problem being solved, one way or the other, and the problem remaining a problem.

My personal strength in getting results on projects and problems is good judgement in making decisions and being decisive in making those decisions. As mentioned above, I feel that this is the most important because it is the area in which things actually get done. I seek to implement this further in my leadership roles by continuing to think ahead and making decisions that will enable things to get done in organization. As the President Pro Tem of the Student Advisory Council I can implement these ideals of decisiveness to make sure that the Student Advisory Council has direction as to where we would like to see them go and that they know what we want them to do. If we have been decisive in understanding our roles as ED's of the program and as we let them know their positions, they will be able to accomplish great work in moving forward the needs on BYU's campus.