One of the most important lessons I have learned is the art or diligence, if you will, of responding instead of reacting. This concept was drilled into my head by my old boss and mentor. He gave me a revelation on this concept and it has changed the way I will communicate.
In my field I deal with families and a fast pace culture and I do my best to give them my full attention and be fully committed to the conversation we are in. There are sometimes when I am doing a few things, but I make sure they know what we are talking about is important to me. There are occasions where something might have happened or a family is having an off day and they might accidentally take it out on me, but the last thing you want to do is react and upset this person even more. The best thing to do is calmly gather yourself and take a breath before responding to the person. This is not the easiest thing to do because a lot of times you just want to give it back the same way it was given to you, but in the end it does not help anything. This is just one situation, but I see this kind of thing happen everywhere.
I dislike when leaders get out of control and react to people rather than respond. I have been that person plenty of times who has reacted and chewed someone’s head off and let me tell you, I felt horrible about it. As leaders we need to live at a higher level and this is just part of that. So let’s step up our game and learn about our response-ability. It will change the way we lead, and it will change the way people see us.
Till next time
MV
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