What’s your default response to demands for urgency? This week’s video, from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, provides four strategies to help you slow down to speed up and do better!
WATCH THE VIDEO.
“I need this now!” With instant communication and accelerated expectations, urgent demands are common and for you, sometimes necessary. Or, they could be someone else’s priority or lack of preparation. Regardless, how you respond is extremely important.
You could just go faster. Accelerate your work, your thinking, and your responses to catch up or get ahead of demands. But you can’t sustain that indefinitely. And when time is compressed and pressure increased, speeding up may result in mistakes and missed opportunities.
When you are pressed for time, you definitely don’t have time to get it wrong, requiring you to do it again. Like that text message you send, then immediately see the typos… or that you sent it to the wrong person. At critical, time sensitive moments, I strongly suggest you slow it down – not to stall or delay, but to expand your awareness and options. These strategies can help you.
1. Slow your next words. Resist the need to talk quickly. Take a beat to internalize what’s happening and what to do about it. Let a thoughtful pause convey your credibility.
2. Calibrate importance. How important is this really? Is it your responsibility? Is speed the most important factor?
3. Ask for clarification. This is the UNO reverse card. When someone pushes you for an answer, maybe it’s because they don’t know exactly what they want. This could mean you rush to deliver only to meet disapproval.
4. Adjust expectations. When timelines are unrealistic, you add value by keeping it real.
Speed of response is an important measure of reliability. But you don’t want to be known for the “rush job.” Slow down and expand the moments to be more precise, efficient, and dependable. Until next week, stay Off Balance On Purpose.
The audio for this week’s coaching video is located under the “Get Inspired” tab in the Positive Playlist . You can subscribe to the podcast and listen to other weekly messages for improving all aspects of your life.