When Both Sides Are Right: The Weight of Unfinished Things

Leadership isn't always about making difficult decisions. Sometimes it's about deciding which important thing deserves your attention first.

Have you ever been asked, “What do you want to do about this?” and honestly did not know? Not because you did not care, but because you cared about both sides of the decision, or perhaps all sides of it?

Unfinished Priorities

That uncomfortable feeling has a name: ambiguity. Ambiguity has a funny way of convincing us that doing nothing is a decision. More importantly, we rationalize that “it’s fine to wait.” Sometimes it is. Sometimes it is not.

That decision-making “process” occurs because our brains crave certainty. We can agree there is no real process here because inaction is not a leadership decision, although it is still a decision. So delays happen. Then we rationalize. We feel uncomfortable and tell ourselves, “I’ll deal with it next week.” And then we do not.

Examples:

• “I need to understand what my insurance actually covers.”
• “I need to spend more time with my employees.”
• “I know the website needs work.”
• “I know our onboarding documents need updating.”
• “I know we need monthly compliance training.”

With so many competing priorities, it is easy to convince yourself that one more month will not matter. Important but nonurgent work quietly waits for “when things slow down.” They never do.

You call it an unfinished priority or a future project. The FTC calls it an expectation. Regulators are not interested in your internal timeline.

While you are deciding what to prioritize, consider that the FTC released its FY 2026–2030 Strategic Plan on April 3, 2026, while many in the industry were analyzing its new advertising guidance.

According to the FTC press release announcing the plan, “The new plan lays out the agency’s mission, vision, and goals and establishes metrics to track the agency’s work.” The plan is 23 pages. Here are the highlights.

Great Organizations Identify Problems Before Someone Else Does

Strategic Goal 1 is to “Protect Americans from unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the marketplace.”

In his message introducing the plan, FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson states, “we have returned the phrase ‘without unduly burdening legitimate business activity’ to the mission statement, reflecting our commitment to end overregulation of American businesses that compete fairly and deal honestly with consumers.”

I found Chairman Ferguson’s wording interesting. He emphasizes protecting consumers “without unduly burdening legitimate business activity.” Notice the balance. The expectation is not the absence of compliance. It is reasonable compliance.

If you have any doubt about the FTC’s resolve, refer back to Strategic Goal 1 and that quotation. That should change your mind.

Moving through the document, let’s consider the objectives under Strategic Goal 1.

Objective 1.1: Identify, investigate, take actions against, and deter unfair or deceptive acts or practices that harm Americans, without unduly burdening legitimate business activity

Taken in a leadership context, isn’t this exactly what good leadership looks like?

On page 7, the FTC continues: “The Consumer Response Center collects report information from consumers that is stored in the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network and shared with law enforcement partners. These tools help jumpstart many of the FTC’s law enforcement investigations and benefit enforcers nationwide.”

The FTC collects data and shares it with law enforcement partners. Its Consumer Sentinel Network gives nearly 3,000 law enforcement users worldwide access to millions of consumer reports, and the agency collaborates with federal, state and international counterparts.

Education Isn’t Optional

Objective 1.2: Provide Americans and businesses with research, information and tools that offer guidance and mitigate harm.

The FTC is attempting to help businesses understand expectations before mistakes occur. Is that not why monthly training should become a priority at your stores? At its core, training reduces mistakes.

New Item Of Focus

One sentence buried in the plan caught my attention. The FTC specifically references gathering information from Better Business Bureaus.

On page 8, the plan states: “In addition, the FTC continues to gather consumer reports from other sources, including state, federal, and international law enforcement agencies, and Better Business Bureaus.”

Think about that. Dealers often dismiss BBB complaints because they do not carry the same emotional weight as an attorney general complaint. But the FTC is telling us it looks there. Maybe you should too.

Performance Metrics

As dealers, we go to 20 Groups to discuss metrics. They are important, right?

The FTC has metrics too. On page 9, the plan shows what the agency tracks. Here are three examples:

• Amount of money returned to the public or forwarded to the U.S. Treasury as a result of consumer protection law enforcement actions.
• Number of orders enjoining unfair, deceptive, or otherwise unlawful practices as a result of consumer protection law enforcement actions.
• Percentage of the FTC’s consumer protection law enforcement actions that targeted the subject of consumer reports in the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network.

The FTC will be vocal about its metrics. I want to be vocal with you so the agency is not vocal about you as the subject.

Good Leaders Decide Before They Feel Ready

Forward-thinking leaders build systems and do not wait to “feel ready.” This might include developing policies, holding monthly meetings and training sessions, creating checklists and completing audits.

You will probably always feel there are 20 important things you should be working on. Consider addressing one issue each month before someone else, such as a lawyer or regulator, makes you address it.

Start with training. Training before you have “an event” is decisive leadership.

The best dealerships are not the ones that never have problems. They are the ones that address tomorrow’s problems before they become today’s emergencies.

That's leadership.
That's risk management.
That's compliance.

The squishy feeling in your stomach is not always uncertainty. Sometimes it is your experience quietly telling you what deserves your attention next. Listen to it.

Then Protect the House.