There are many things you can argue with, but at the same time, many things you can never argue with. Someone’s effort and desire to solve a problem – let them loose. Someone’s commitment to an issue. Someone’s dedication. Someone’s consistency. Someone’s drive or initiative. These are things you can’t argue with; they might be going in the wrong direction or require guidance, but you can’t argue with them because with them, this person is…
We need steady listeners. We need slow to responds. We need methodical actions. We need pragmatic solutions. Loud voices only get you through the meeting, but they don’t figure out the problem, they don’t create the solution, they don’t test its viability. Choose who you want to be.
Not at your desk. But for your work. For what you do. What do you deliver? What you strive to do the best day in and day out. No one can ever fault you for giving your best, for trying to accomplish your goals, and for standing up for what’s right. And if they do, then it’s their problem and not yours.
I’ve had a few meetings I start this way. If there is dissension in the room and we’re discussing a key problem, I’ll throw out this statement – “Are we all on the same page?” If we are not on the same page, there is no reason to move forward. Everyone needs to be on the same page, to understand the problem, the reason that you are all here, before you start getting to solutions.…
This is one of the hardest questions to ask at the end of a meeting: “Did we accomplish our goal?” This is why it is so rarely asked: no one wants to hear the answer. If, meeting after meeting, you were to hear the answer to this question being “No”, how demoralizing would that be? Massively. But the hard questions don’t come with easy answers, because the answers that come require work, hard work, tough…