gone on to devclop his cxpen jse in leaders hip and in·
te rculru ra l communication o utside of it. He ta ught at a
universiry in his free time a nd wro re books. Filled wirh
inspiration, he tried CO introducc new idea s to the bank.
But his bosses, w hom he calls "narrow· rninded", were
nor imeres ted in any of his ideas about d o ing things d if·
fercm ly.
O ne d ay, h is boss callcd hirn in and told him that he
had to sto p his outs ide act ivities o r l ose his chances o f
a career wirh rhe bank. " I told him I was doing this in
my free time, but he said my frce time belonged tO the
bank. He said that time was for me to recba[~e my bat·
teries so rhat I could wo rk weIl."
Now, he faced a dilemma. Was th is the life he want·
ed: to be in a job where he had lin le.5.a.l eicher at work,
o r outside o f it? " ( didn't want th is life. I d ec id ed to
leave," he says. But that was the easy decision. " In a dif·
ficult situation like this, rhere is nev er ju st o ne deci·
sio n," he says. The next quesrion was: " Whar j o b ?" He
decid ed o n a radical change: ro move from rhe corpo·
rate wo rld to academia , wherc he believed he woul d
havc more frecdo m.
Casse k new t he dean of the IMD business schoo l in
Lausanne, Switzerla nd , who offered hirn a one·year
contracr, bur no more. " I was coofidenI I would rcnew
that contract, but I decid ed not to tell my wife about the
risk I was ta k ing - s he was already upset about hav·
ing to lea ve America," he says. Bur the most traumatica<:tused: be -of sth. [;l'kju:zd l emer Sache bezithtigt4/2010
What makes adecision
difficult?
A key 10 making th e right choiee is being able 10 see the
situation clearly. But this is harder than one might think,
as US mana geme nt expert RICK BRENNER of the firm
Chaco Canyon Cons ulting in Cambridge , Massa chuseHs ,
explains.
When deciding is easy, we decide so Quickly thai we
hardly nolice we have made a choice. When we slruggle
wilh a dilemma, then il's usually because of a difficulty
that can seem unconnecled to the decision. Finding oul
what the real source of the difficulty is can help 10 solve
it. Here are some situations that make deciding tough:- Personal conflicts of inlerest
We may fear being accused of favouritjsm, unfairness or
even corruplion. If we lake these worries out of the
proc e ss, the decision itself is usually clear. The real
problem then becomes dealing with those pe rsonal con·
seQuences. - Organizational conflicts of interest
There might be a history of confliet between parts of the
company, or you may prefer one department over an·
other. In cases like this, il is better to represent Ihe
whole organization rather than certain interesls. - Indjrect confliets of lnterest
The decision might jnvolve a conflict of interest for
someone close to you. For examp le , you may want to
promote the person you think is best for the job, but
your immediate boss does not like him or her. Or, you
might have difficulty making a choice thai will benefit a
colleague who, in the past , harmed you in some way. - All your choices are bad
Even when all the options ale bad, deciding is not the
hard part. Vour job in such cases is to accept that there
is no good result and to live with whatever you have
opted fCf. - Passing the hat
At times, we react negatively to eerlain people - nol
because of who they are, but because they remind us of
so meone. For example, your boss might remind you of a
former boss you didn'l like, so you unfairly "pass t he
hil" of Ihe old boss on 10 hirn. Vou can solve this prob·
lern by reminding yourself of the differences between
the two people.
pa rt o f rhc who le d ecision was the effect o n [hc fam ily.
T hc children (then agcd 12 , 15 a nd 17 ) were very up·
set abo ut t hc change. "When we gor ro Switze rland, my
d a ug hrer said: ' ( hate Ihis placc, ( hate everything
here,'" But in the end, it was the right decision. C asse
went on to renew his contract and have enormous aca·
demic success. And his childrcn a re now living and
wo rking successfully all over thc world. IlVICKI SUSSENS· MESSERER IS an editor at BUSiness
Spotlight, wlth a special focus on management and
social issues. She also edits Business Spotlight In the
classroom. Conlact: v.sussens@spotlighl·verlag.deBusinessSpotligtlt 59