Just jumping into our series? Work backwards from here, here, here and here to catch up on these hot tips!
Together Leaders are not magically free of emergencies. In fact, in just one day of interviews for the book, one of them faced a bomb threat for her entire school district, another had a serious plumbing emergency in her building, and yet another was dealing with a team member about to quit.
What Together Leaders do well is stop before spinning to deal with the crisis. In each case above, I observed them do the following:
- Take control of the situation for a minute, but quickly get it into the hands of someone else to operate as your “quarterback” whenever possible.
- Stop to let anyone impacted know what’s going on.
- Re-situate. Seek to resume normal prioritized business as soon as possible.
Self-awareness is also key. When one leader stopped before spinning, she realized that part of her motivation for wanting to attend to the crisis was so she could avoid doing some tougher prioritized work. I don’t ask that you rid yourself of all emergencies, but rather that you take even five seconds to evaluate if what’s happening is truly an emergency and react accordingly!
Together Contest: Like what you’ve read in this series? There’s more in The Together Leader. In the comments below, tell us which of the five Top Together Leader Takeaway Tips resonated most for you and why. Two winners will be randomly selected on Tuesday, May 17th, to win a copy of the book signed by yours truly! When you comment, please be sure to include your first name & last initial, and the email address where we can reach you if you win using our random number generator.
Contest fine print:
- Entries must be received by Tuesday, May 17th, at midnight EST to be considered.
- US shipping addresses only.
- If a winner does not respond within 48 hours of receipt of a notification, a new winner will be chosen.
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The contest has ended. Thanks to everyone for sharing!
