Your Response Is Always a Choice

Every morning, most leaders walk into work carrying more than their laptop. They also bring (or encounter) a list of problems waiting to be solved.

A key employee resigns, the lathe on line 4 is down (again), and a customer is unhappy about a late order. Oh, and to top things off, our leader also had an argument with their significant other before leaving for work.

At this point, our leader has a key decision to make about how to respond to this less-than-ideal start to their day. They can allow frustration and possibly anger to take over; they can panic and freeze; or they can calmly handle the situation to the best of their ability.

Obviously, remaining calm and handling the situation as best they can is the best choice, but goodness…this is much easier said than done.

Between Stimulus and Response

Victor E. Frankl once said, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

Here’s a classic example of how these words come to life. I’ve shared this before, but it’s too good not to share again!

Imagine you’re driving home after a stressful day at the office. You’re listening to some great music and starting to unwind a little when another car comes flying out of nowhere, making you slam on your brakes and spill coffee down your white shirt.

At this point, you have an immediate decision to make. You could honk your horn, yell something ugly, and send less-than-nice hand signals to the other driver. Or, you could take a deep breath and send positive thoughts and prayers towards the other driver since, for all you know, they could be rushing to the hospital to be with their loved one who’s about to pass away.

If we choose to get angry and aggressive, our blood pressure skyrockets, we’re likely driving more aggressively, and we’ll carry this stress for the rest of the day/evening.

But if we choose to stay calm and even send positive thoughts towards the other driver, we’re filled with goodwill and empathy.

Put another way, the less-than-ideal situation happened, and there’s nothing we can do about it. But we do most certainly have 100% control over how we respond.

Why Great Leaders Stay Grounded

And it’s really no different from the highs and lows of practicing continuous improvement. Yes, there will be many incredible successes along the way to celebrate. But, unfortunately, there will also be situations that don’t work out as we planned or hoped.

Personally, my preferred approach is to “play in the middle” as best I can. In other words, when something fantastic happens… take the time to celebrate, but then quickly get back to the middle. And when something bad happens, take the time to assess what happened and learn from it, then quickly get back to the middle.

Doing this has been of tremendous help to me and I’d encourage you to give it a try.

Choose Your Response, Improve Your Leadership

Finally, the circumstances we face each day are rarely within our control. Machines break. Customers complain. People disappoint us. Life happens.

But our response? That’s always ours to choose.

We won’t choose perfectly every time. I certainly don’t. But the more we practice creating that small space between what happens to us and how we respond, the better leaders (and people) we become.

And perhaps that’s one of the most important continuous improvement efforts we’ll ever undertake.

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