When a team member is angry, usually what they want most is to have someone listen to them. They don’t want advice or solutions or a strategy or a plan or a mindset, they just want your undivided attention. My problem is that I always want to jump to solutions. “You seem upset, how can we fix it?” Wrong response. What I have learned is that quickly pivoting to a solution framework is really about me and not them. Specifically, it’s about me getting back to a place of comfort in the conversation from a place of discomfort, and not about their problem. Amateur move. The change I am making is sitting longer in discomfort. Why? Because discomfort is usually where all the growth happens.
First day of the rest of your life or all downhill from here
"Every day is better than the next." I missed it the first time I heard this line in the movie, "There's Something About Mary." This time, I got it. After laughing I realized something. I have spent years of my life on the wrong side of the equation. "Every day is...