When something happens, it’s human nature to either jump all over it as quickly as possible or to ignore it and pretend it never happened.
And in our businesses, either one of these “normal” responses is going to get us into trouble.
Never ignore a problem, as the odds are that it’s going to get bigger and bigger until it demands that we address it immediately.
Equally problematic is immediately jumping in with both feet, getting in up to our elbows before we really have a grasp on the situation.
The third option, the one we should have been leading with from the beginning, is to pause before we respond, taking a moment to gather more information. Figuring out what happened. Asking questions. Making sure that we’re fully apprised of the situation. Making sure we’ve got enough information to make the right decision.
The pause. It’s such a simple thing and yet it can make our lives so much easier.
Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.
Viktor E. Frankl
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