Understanding how business people make decisions is a very complicated topic. There is plenty of subject matter here to write books about, so I am going to narrow our discussion into three areas.

• Understanding how fear influences decision making and business strategy.
• How not to allow complacency to creep in.
• The Parkinson Principal and how to fight it.

As we have been traveling across the country delivering motivational and functional sales workshops there is a solemn sense of fear in most of the attendee's faces. There are not too many smiles in the audience these days.

We wish the new seriousness was due to a heightened commitment to running their business right. The reality is that most owners are petrified of the rapidly shrinking construction activity! They are being consumed by  - FEAR!

Even if your business is doing well, you can't ignore the signs that so many others are in distress. Bad news is plastered everywhere! No news outlet has spared us of the gruesome details. Yes, the economy stinks to high heaven.

What is everybody afraid of?
Will they have a job? How they will survive? How they will pay their financial obligations? All legitimate concerns. But FEAR and its close cousin panic will not help you. They hinder sound decision making.