A Leadership Lesson from a Trampoline Sleepover
My daughters had one item at the top of their summer bucket list: a trampoline sleepover.
They tried twice... and both attempts were derailed by circumstances completely outside their control.
It reminded me of a conversation I recently had with a leader navigating a difficult project. Sometimes the most important question isn't, "How do I control the situation?" It's, "How do I control my response?"
In this week's Two-Minute Tip, I share a simple reminder that's helped me (and many leaders I coach) stay focused on what matters most when things don't go according to plan.
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At the end of the day, the only thing you can control is yourself and your own reactions.
Sometimes there are other conditions and factors at play that are just out of our hands.
My girls had on their summer bucket list to do a sleepover on the trampoline out back. Well, several weeks ago, with attempt number one. And so they invited some friends over, got all settled in, and guess what?
In the middle of the night at 1:00 AM, the sprinklers went off, and they woke up absolutely soaked. Now, my husband did go turn the sprinkler system off before bed, and for some reason, they still chose to start spraying. Well, second attempt happened last night.
They got set up again, sprinklers were turned off again, but in our area, the wildfire smoke is pretty bad right now, and it was so intense that they decided to come back in and sleep inside.
In both situations, there were factors that were out of their control that ruined their goal and kept them from crossing this thing off their bucket list.
But they chose to laugh about it. They chose to go for attempt number two.
They chose to keep it as a good story. Just recently, I was coaching a leader who is currently managing a really difficult project. And there are factors at play, partners involved, who are making it extra difficult. And it was the same point in our conversation. At the end of the day, the only thing you truly can control is yourself and your own reactions.
And so we talked about,
How do you want to show up? How can you measure success for yourself in this? Yes, we'll still strive for the bigger project goals, but what are some other goals, things you can track that you actually have control of?
And how do you want the other people in this situation to experience you? What words do you hope they would use to describe you, your professionalism, your approach in this project? Instead of getting all flustered about the things that are outside of our control, let's focus on what we can control, and own and manage those things extremely well.