It's 7 a.m. and you haven't finished your coffee.
An email came in overnight from a customer overseas. Or a team member texted that they're thinking about quitting. Or two people on your team are already going back and forth in a thread you're copied on.
You need to respond. Soon.
Maybe last month you went to a great workshop that gave you ideas about handling these situations. You left motivated, with notes and good intentions. And right now, none of that comes to mind.
So, what do you do?
Most of us do what we've always done. Leadership development succeeds or fails in that moment away from the classroom.
Where Do Leaders Go When They're Stuck?
When I spoke at the Central Indiana ATD chapter's conference in Indianapolis, to people who build leadership development for a living, I asked them a question I'll ask you too: when your leaders hit a problem at 7 a.m., where do they go?
The trainer isn't there. The coach isn't there either. I coach leaders, and even good coaches aren't available at 7 a.m. When I'm coaching someone, we talk about what happened since we last met and what's coming up that we can plan for. A lot of 7 a.m. problems are the ones nobody saw coming.
For three or four years, the banner behind our booth at the ATD International Conference & Expo said, “Training is an event, learning is a process.” It got people talking more than anything else we put up, because everyone knows it's true.
By 7 a.m., the event is long over. The process is up to you.
Why Leaders Fall Back on Old Habits
What you learned in the workshop gets tested in the moment of decision. And in that moment, everything else being equal, you'll go back to the way you've done it before, the way you've thought about it before and the way you've seen yourself before.
That has little to do with how much you care. Most of the time it has little to do with skill either. You probably know more about leading well than you use on any given day. Most leaders do.
Three things are at work:
Mindset comes before skillset. Am I willing to try something new, even when it's hard (and it will be hard, if only because it's different)? Do I believe it will make a difference? Do I believe I can do it?
Skillset is what you learned in the session.
Habitset comes after skillset. Will I keep using it until the new way becomes my natural response?
Most training works on the middle one. A 7 a.m. problem tests all three.
Six Ways to Get Ready for Your 7 a.m. Moments
Most training builds skillset. A 7 a.m. problem tests your mindset and habitset too.
Name your defaults.
Think of the situations where you fall back on old patterns: a frustrated customer, a missed deadline, a team member pushing back in a meeting. In a Remarkable TV episode I asked whether you're living by design or by default. Your 7 a.m. responses come from one or the other. Ask yourself: Which of my responses did I design and which ones just showed up?
Decide before you need to.
Pick one situation from that list and decide now how you want to respond next time. Write it down. When the moment comes, you'll have a choice besides your default. Ask yourself: What will I do the next time this happens?
Ask before you answer.
A good coach asks questions before giving advice. You can do that for yourself. Before you hit reply, ask: What's going on here? What do I want to happen? What would the leader I want to be do next? Thirty seconds of questions give what you've learned a chance to show up before your old habit does.
Know where you'll go.
Your best help at 7 a.m. is something you set up the week before. It might be a peer you can call, the action guide from your last workshop pinned where you'll see it, or a short list of questions you trust. Ask yourself: Where do I go when I'm stuck?
Reflect and debrief yourself.
Use the questions I use with coaching clients. What happened? What did I learn from it? What might I do differently? What's coming up that I can plan for? Five minutes at the end of the week turns a hard morning into practice.
Be patient.
On a group coaching call after a workshop, a participant asked me how to consistently apply what he'd learned. I gave him several ideas, and the one that connected most was this: be patient. New habits take repetitions, and some of those repetitions won't go well. That's part of learning.
If you build learning for others, my question from Friday is yours to answer. After the event is over, where do your leaders go at 7 a.m.?
Your next 7 a.m. moment is coming, maybe tomorrow.
What will you do differently when it gets here?
Claridus is the first AI leadership platform that learns who the leader is to help them decide what to do, including at 7 a.m. Learn more by going to Claridus.ai and let us know if you're a champion, a buyer, or want to learn more later.
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