In her March 27 “It’s Race Day” video, Bobbie LaPorte shares an example of one client who recently learned that sometimes the best course of action is NOT acting right away. In this case, it proved helpful to take a (brief) pause, gather more information, and get the full picture before taking action.
It’s Race Day – Weekly Leadership Tip
The Importance of Knowing When to Pause: Lessons in Leadership
Hi everyone, Bobbie LaPorte here again with my weekly leadership tip for 2023 called “It’s Race Day,” where I help you close the gap between thinking and doing. There’s a time to train and a time to race.
In these weekly tips for 2023, my focus has been on acting vs. getting caught up in thinking, stalling, and ruminating about what move to make. But… there sometimes is a time to act, and a time to pause, consider the implications of an intended action, and perhaps wait… just a bit.
This was the case recently with a client. She was getting feedback from some of the more senior members of her team about how a peer exec in another area of the company was challenging and criticizing them in a way that seemed inappropriate – at the very least accusatory, even questioning their approach to their work.
Everyone in a leadership role in the company is under pressure to deliver in this growing enterprise. So, some pushback is not unusual, but this seemed not quite right, definitely not collaborative. More like, “you need to do it this way ‘cause I said so.”
My client was disturbed by this; her first reaction was to reach out to her peer exec and try to find out what was behind it. She felt they had an excellent working relationship and were completely aligned. But in a fast-paced, remote environment, these things can be tricky.
Knowing When to Pause
So, she decided to take a pause and approach this a bit differently since all of what she had heard so far was second-hand.
She decided to wait a couple of days, poll her staff once more on what they were hearing and then reach out to the senior leader who was being critical to make sure she had the full picture and could then have a fully informed discussion with her colleague.
Did this take longer than she would have preferred to take action and resolve this – as it was troubling to a number of people? Yes, but the process of getting to a positive action was important, and that was the determining factor in resolving this so that all parties felt heard and had agency in the outcome.
So sometimes, taking no action – at least not immediately – is the better course of action until you feel confident it is the right move.
I hope your week is one of doing, of taking action. Remember: there is a time to train and a time to race. It’s Race Day.