There is value in weighing your words. As a leader, you craft your message because you know how important it is that it lands in the right way. People practice this. They rehearse before presentations. I’ve done my fair share of that, but admittedly I sometimes shoot from the hip. I’ve built up enough trust in myself about how I communicate that I don’t often rehearse my message. Or at least I don’t rehearse it extensively. There are certainly the emotionally charged cases that have me spinning my words in the middle of the night, but on the flip side sometimes I don’t think about it all until I’m talking.
This mostly works for me. But I misstepped today. Not catastrophically, but enough to make me pause and reflect. The situation was simple — there was a new idea presented to me that I needed to put some thought into, but I decided to share it with someone on my team anyway. This is what works for me — I like to be brought in on half-baked thoughts and tease out questions and brainstorm. I like to know things as soon as someone else knows things and think out loud together.
Again, this mostly works when I do this with my team. I take a very collaborative approach to management and problem solving, but in this case, it didn’t land. I hadn’t spent enough time (any time, I went from learning to sharing with only a lunch break in between) processing so the message came through muddled. I had to spend more of the conversation walking back and reassuring than I intended.
I think my lesson here is to be more aware of the impact of my half-formed thoughts, especially when I am presenting them to someone I manage. The dynamic there is too important for me to add unnecessary pressure and unclear expectations.
I’m a button pusher at heart – I like to move and communicate fast – but there is value (and necessity) in slowing down.
With Love,
Natalie