With so much fear and uncertainty in the world today, it’s natural for leaders to want to hit the “pause” button and wait to make any big decisions. But the cost of delay is even greater than it was before. In her September 8 “Let’s Get Growing” tip weekly video, Bobbie La Porte shares an Ironman anecdote and some practical tips for adapting, regrouping, and taking action from a place of what can be.
The Cost of Delays in Decision-Making Is Greater Than Ever Before
Hi everyone, Bobbie LaPorte here again with this week’s “Let’s Get Growing” tip…where I help you take charge of your plans and accelerate your initiatives as you head into the Q4 of this year.
This week I’d like to talk about how decision-making now is very different. Timelines have forever changed; leaders like you must now face the reality of needing to make split-second decisions when there is no clear path forward.
And with the pace at which things are moving and changing in our world, we need to recognize that the cost of delay is much greater now than it was before. Things can and will change in an instant.
And yet you still must develop the ability to make to make decisions in the heat of the moment, knowing that you may be headed down a path you have never been before.
Does this feel familiar to you? Well, it does to me.
I know this lesson well about making in-the-moment decisions. Let me share with you a relevant personal experience from my first Ironman triathlon race.
The swim event is called a “mass start”: meaning that I am in the water with 2500 fellow athletes at the same time, waiting for the starting gun to go off promptly at 7:00 AM. Then it’s total chaos: “combat swimming” we like to call it.
So there I was that morning of my first race: I had trained, I was prepared, I was nervous and anxious but I was ready. Or so I thought. Once the starting gun went off, I did my best to steer clear of the hundreds of arms and legs slashing through the water all around me. But somehow, I got kicked in the face and my goggles flew off…lost somewhere in the water – so now what?
My first instinct was: “give up” – I mean, how can I possibly swim more than two miles without goggles?
It would have been easy to give up, right? Just say “it’s not my day, not meant to be”. But “I” knew I could figure out a way through this…I just needed to keep making progress.
How I responded – the choices I made that day in the heat of the moment, instinctively being able to adapt and regroup – created the conditions for my success down the road.
Do you ever feel like you got (virtually) kicked in the face?
I’ll bet there’s been a time when you got hit with a change or unexpected situation that made you feel like that. Who hasn’t?
When dealing with change and uncertainty, many leaders hesitate, – they get stuck; they hit the virtual “pause” button, waiting for “certainty” to return. But this is exactly the opposite of what you need to do. Because certainty will never return.
Think about a decision you made recently: how quickly were you able to regroup and respond? And was what you came up with from what you relied on in the past – or was it from outside your comfort zone?
Taking action – tackling the challenges that uncertainty presents from a place of “what can be” is your first step to navigating through uncertainty.
That’s my “Get Growing” tip of the week. I’ll see you next Monday… remember to see this time as an enabler, not a liability or a time to “pause”, waiting for certainty to return.
Take care of yourself!
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