founder of naked leader
What Happens Next?
Time to Read: Just a minute
What Happens Next?
Is entirely up to you
Always
We always have total control and ownership of what we say and do – how we act. We don’t always have control of what other people say and do – how they act.
We do, however, always have control of how we react. Not just to what other people say and do, also to events, emails, the weather etc.
And when we take control – 100% ownership of how we react, we can react in a way that takes us closer to our outcome, and not further away.
A project goes wrong and while everyone else in the meeting is looking for someone to blame you can say ‘how does this going wrong help us get this project live on time?’.
You always have control over how you react, as you will prove by how you react to this…
Please react in the comments below
With my love and best wishes
David
X
Ps. Next week, I will share an example of how your reactions in leadership affect your future.
I love these weekly e-mails… I just felt that I needed to react to this one.
…and how we react includes, crucially, NOT REACTING. For quite some time in my leadership past, this was on my Development Plan: take a step back. DON’T REACT immediatelly or don’t react AT ALL. In my eagerness to reply to an email or an event without delay, in order to be seen as ‘timely’ etc. I often made the mistake of rushing in with a response or solution, which invariably was either half-baked (not thoroughly thought out), too emotionally charged or simply unnecessary. I have since learned the art of NOT REACTING. That in itself, is a reaction, and in some situations actually the best reaction. How many times have we seen a full-blown ‘online war’ started from merely responding, in the heat of the moment, to a post on social media? I soon realised that instead of appearing timely and ‘addressing the issue’, by reacting like this to an email or event, i was actually eroding my credibility as a leader with my senior managers, who saw it – rightly so – as me being ‘too green’ and not yet grown into my ‘leadership skin’… So from me, it’s these days more about how NOT to react…
Great comment Diana. Made me think about some situations were a non reaction would of been far better.
Love this! ‘Stop and think’ is what I’m trying to achieve (isn’t always easy though!)!!
Also love Diana’s comment about “non-reaction” – another thing I find hard….
Sometimes just a non reaction to something tells the story.
It’s often best not to react, such as in road rage situations, just to keep the peace.
Sometimes emotions go faster than reflection.
What previously has beeb said is right sometimes is better no react and wait.
Yes, we’ve all had emotional responses to things and then later, thought about where we could have done better in our response.
Reflection equals doing the right thing, reaction equals making mistakes. Although one is considered, the other is considered to be an emotional response and one that can’t be helped in some circumstances.
I agree with a lot of the comments here.
Reporters at sports events tend to speak to the managers straight after games to get a reaction that probably, the inerviewee might not give on reflection a couple of days later.