How to be Quick Under Pressure
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Agility without direction destroys.
You swerve left. They dash left, then right, then left again, until one day it’s too late. The closer your car gets to squirrels in the road the more they panic.
Unrelenting pressure creates panic.
Anyone can rush around like squirrels on steroids.
It takes time to be quick.
Rushing leaders:
- Procrastinate. Recurring panic indicates procrastination.
- Pressure people and feel pressured themselves.
- Make their crisis your crisis.
- Think you’re a jerk if you don’t drop everything to pitch in.
- Excuse their rudeness. No one has time for courtesy and respect when panic sets in. You’re a jerk for not dropping everything, but they aren’t for being rude.
- Failed to prepare.
- Feel important. Nothing like time pressure to pump up deflated egos. “I have so much to do. I must be important.”
Quick leaders:
- Prepare. Quickness is a function of preparation. The unprepared always rush.
- Plan. Quick leaders don’t wonder what’s next. Panicking leaders can’t think straight.
- Practice. Years of practice enable confidence. Knowing how to handle this situation frees minds to prepare for the next.
- Focus on next steps. Immediacies consume frantic leaders.
Planning:
I’m a fan doing stuff but some leaders plan themselves to death. If that’s you, just go do something. It’s amazing how doing stuff simplifies imagined problems.
Plans are useful because they explain next steps. Knowing what’s next instills confidence. Rushing displays insecurity. Quickness requires confidence.
John Wooden said, “Be quick but don’t hurry.”
How can leaders develop quickness?
Check out the great list of leadership Q’s on the Leadership Freak Facebook Page. While you’re there, add leadership R’s for tomorrow’s post.
Dear Dan,
I agree that agility without direction destroys. It makes people baseless and anyone can influence them. Such behavior is generally found among ” Fit in all” kind of people. They try to fit every where. They also avoid taking responsibility under pressure. And they shift failure to others and make various excuses. I appreciate your suggestion that there are people who plan till death. They are people who only plan and do not act. So, the need is to act.
And I believe that leaders can develop quickness by reducing the gap between planning and action. The time between planning and action determines direction. More time lag shows unfocussed and undirected towards goal. And less time lag is the indication of focused direction. By doing this, leaders can be quick without being agile without direction.
Well, great stuff Dan!
I like 4 focus on next BUT IF I LOOK AT NOTHING NEW how can I do better when next comes……….all I can possibly do is regurgitate old LAME stuff!!!!!!
With 44 dna strands in each of us not switched on yet what exciting new stuff to be revealed as time and our development moves along! Imagine the possibilities!
My Q words are “quaere”, means to introduce a question or issue and “quaeritur” the question is asked.
So I present a question to all in LeadershipFreak Land!
What do you say to yourself so you do not watch Bob Chapman’s Defining Moments video?
I ask because of THIS. If ANY of you told me 70% of US workers feel no one at work cares about them, I would feel physically ill. I did when I read the report of the recent gallop poll.
I care deeply about people, you?
Then if you told me there was a company getting almost the DIRECT opposite result and I could learn about it…………….
I would ALL OVER THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How could I POSSIBLY not be??????? HOW?????????
Therefore, I am curious why it seems none of you are? Not being judgemental or critical, just curious.
Who among you have watched that video and whatcha think about it?
That is the quaeritur and it has been asked.
Only you know your answer.
What if………………….
I Concur!
Shifterp OUT do search and serve Truth and Truly Human Leadership to ALL! And you?
In Hebrew the word happiness translates to accomplishment. Sort of like doing stuff should make you happy. But the right stuff with a proper balance in other areas of life. nice, “quick” post! Cheers!
Unfortunately I think you described about 90+% of the managers in the world with the ‘Rushing Leaders’ bullets. Or rather, Rushing Managers/Directors. Leaders make the time to listen and be respectful of others by organizing projects, meetings, and events to demonstrate their consideration and mindfulness.
Thanks for the write-up, I definitely be putting this on my recurring cycle of things to share out.
Great points! You nailed the panicked leader! I’ve been both! I hate being put into a position of being panicked! 🙂
Hey TC isn’t it you found yourself in a position and the response you chose was panic?
Two folks at a pig picking, one vegan , one meat eater. Same pig picking, two radically different responses, one horrified, one hungry.
All about choice.
See this way you are the master of your emotions and the other?????
Not really sure what to call it, victim, volunteer?
Just a thought.
SP Out
Hi SP, I think it depends on circumstances. In my former position most of the time I had plenty of time and help to prepare something awesome. However, just a for instance: My boss called me into his office as I was leaving for lunch at 11:30 one day, and said, “Marsha, have I got a deal for you. XYZ school district wants you to finish their ESL training, (I was the history consultant). I told them yes, so they need you by 1:30.” The district was an hour’s drive away. I had not looked at the curriculum for over a year or two. I didn’t have the curriculum, and I didn’t know where they left off on their training. That, my dear friend SP, caused me a moment or two of panic, but I did go. When I got there, I found out that they were on a completely different lesson in the training from the one I had been told by the secretary. So I winged it, and they flew with me, and asked me to come back again. Don’t think I was a bit panicked! 🙂
Yeah, “Be The Squirrel” does not lend itself to much of a great leadership slogan. And, you really wonder what the squirrel thinks of all that stuff. On a bike ride years ago, my ex had a squirrel do his herky-jerky and then get stuck in her spokes and went round and round a couple of times, from what she said. He then ran off and I wondered if he would WANT to try that again one day…
But you wonder what those squirrels are thinking… Easy to anthropomorphize, I guess.
I just got turned on to a book by Daniel Kahneman called, “Thinking Fast and Slow. It aligns with a new game we are kicking around and his anchor point is, “What you see is all there is.” There is a short summary on Ivey Business Journal that my library hooked me up to when I reserved the book. (serious stuff – guy is a Nobel Prize winner so his thinking is not squirrel-like).
Lastly, there is that old NLP quote that may fit in here:
“We judge ourselves by our intentions. We judge others by their behavior.”
Dan, you hit the nail right on the head with this one. All too often as a consultant, I am given deadlines that are arbitrary (and consequently impossible) for this very reason. Do you have some thoughts on how to “manage up” to rushing leaders?
In emergency preparedness, it is generally agreed that the level in which you plan and practice down to is the level you will perform at in a real emergency. Weakest link will prevail. Assuming if a disaster ever occurs is the first error in thinking, because it is when, not if. Then after an emergency, make the time to learn from it, so that you don’t lather, rinse, repeat the next time…
So, how do you get to Carnegie Hall?
Quietly, quintessentially, quixotically, and ‘semper-gumby’like…
docdisc, that sounds alot like something my dad constantly preached while coaching basebal, “You play the way practice, so practice the way you want to play”. You most certainly are correct where emergencies in our business are concerned. “It’s not if, it’s when”. Being a past member of the departments Central Region Hostage Negotiation Team, I found debreifings disappointing. Every drill I was ever involved with had it’s obstacles and challenges which needed to be addressed by everyone involved in order to improve efficiancy. Unfornatley, during these debriefs, our shortcomings were rarely, ‘if ever’ discussed. (Why, I do not know) Hence, the same obstacles and problems continually repeated themslves. BTW, I find your comments to typically be relevant. ‘ATTA-BOY’. Have a great day!
Speed & Quickness are oftened linked side by side. ‘But’ are very different. Raw speed is not only great, but absolutley nessasary if your a 100 meter sprinter. Being quick is fast as well but in a different way. Quickness is developed over time. It’s about where to go when this happens, or, what to do when that happens. It’s about planning stategies to overcome obstacles. Next comes practice. It is said that it takes the average indivual 1000
repitions before something becomes automatic. Speed is generally a raw talent. Quickness ‘must’ be practiced over and over agian until you find yourself responding and reacting with little to no thought. With enough practice you can improve your quickness to the point it’s almost automatic. Getting to this place should be a goal of every leader that wants to perform at his or her best. Being able to respond appropriatley ‘with confidence’, allows you to remain at your best, courteous, polite, looking ahead, planning your next move. Being able to confront and overcome any advercity due to the confidence you gained through past experience. And also, just because you know you can”.It’s called CONFIDENCE, not macho bravado, just plain, simple tried & true confidence.
Man I get excited when you write!!!!
My unbridled enthusiasm bursts out!
Some people call me a space cowboy, some call me the gansta of love….funny cause my name is Scott!
Ok point! You said the goal of every Leader should be Yada Yada Yada!!!
Asking you to ponder what if that was great but directed at the wrong target?
I propose the target of your great stuff Sarge would better serve every body if it was the goal of every Leader that the lucky ones on His/Her Team get to the places you described, not himself or herself.
I do not have to a great marksman if you are and you are on my team! I do not have to be a Great Blogger if Dan is on my team.
If they are great at what they do and they believe what I believe and I believe what they believe….trust emerges! Then loyalty, then I believe synergy!
That synergy! Wowza! Just two people’s why’s connected brings a combined imagination and energy of 11. Just imagine a Team of Studs all why’s connected experts at what they do? Wowza!
You are a military guy right? Each Seal Team has guys cross trained but each Dude does one thing better than every other, their strengths, talent and skills compliment each other. Makes the Team stronger.
So Imagine I got a Team…..Michael Jordan in his prime handles the b ball. Federer the tennis. Joe Montana the offense in football, Lawrence Taylor the D. Ty Cobb hitting the baseball.
Yeah Leadership is picking and developing your team, not u….ur team….all about them……just my opinion.
SP Out.
BTW August the 7th is good for Brent as well Dan. At your convenience let me know where you would like to meet. We both plan to pick your brain till theres nothing left!!! LOL I am looking forward to getting together agian.
Larry the Cable Guy may not be anybody’s example of a leader, but he has a catch line that handily captures the essence of your comments on planning:
“Git ‘er dun”
But, “Nothing made sense and neither did everything else” also work! (Joseph Heller). Look, a squirrel!
This reminded me of a different speed vs effectiveness scenario that I heard about a while back. First responders giving first aid are in a balancing act to take their time, evaluate the situation, keep themselves safe, don’t make mistakes, and give the best care possible. Apparently they have a slogan that goes something like “Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast”.
Dan, wonderfully written and entertaining at the same time. When I am working at my nursing job, I have practiced, practiced, practiced. Because of this practice I know what to do when responding to a code blue.
This is a lesson for leaders anywhere. Responding is always better than reacting. Just look at Paula Dean.
I especially like what you said here, “I’m a fan doing stuff but some leaders plan themselves to death. If that’s you, just go do something. It’s amazing how doing stuff simplifies imagined problems.” EXACTLY. Dump the analysis paralysis and instead, make a phone call, take a walk, or what I really recommend, is do something differently, like do a head stand (LOL). It gives you a whole new perspective.
Sue Bock
http://couragetoadventure.com/blog