Responding Instead of Reacting

What if you started responding to your team instead of reacting?

What if you started responding to your business instead of reacting?

And what if you started responding to opportunities of communication that could build greater connection and successful outcomes, instead of reacting to them?

This topic surfaced for me the other night while surfing Instagram. Someone stated that they had started to mindfully respond instead of mindlessly reacting. I wish I would have kept her name to give her credit but I read it and kept scrolling but then sometime a few days later her words came back to me while I was working on planning for the week.

She said: “Mindfully responding instead of mindlessly reacting.”

Why did it take me a few days to grasp that?

I’m not sure but when I did finally see the powerful message I made a note to write about why it is so important to understand the impact this lesson can mean for you and for me.

Responding to Your Team

If you manage a team of people, ask yourself this question: Do I respond to my team in a way that creates thoughtful communication and connection or do I react to them when things happen or when things are brought to my attention?

Here’s what I know…responding to people…communicating with people takes work and patience. Reacting to them doesn’t take either of those things. When we react to a situation, person, or issue we do so without thinking it through.

Reacting means that we say or do things that can cause damage, waste time, or isolate us from people and from our team. It hurts the company culture. One reaction can cause a domino effect and in a heartbeat, can change how the rest of your team responds to you in the future.

If we take the time to mindfully respond to people, situations, and issues it gives us time to review how and what we need to say. It gives us the opportunity to think about who we are talking to and how they need to be responded to, and it gives us the chance to review a situation or issue fully before making a knee jerk decision.

Responding to Your Business

The same is true for your business. If you’re reacting to the changes in your business you will always find yourself behind the eight ball. What if you started responding to changes in way that was more planned and thought through?

Building strategies that help your business grow successfully instead of reacting to what everyone else is doing.

How to Respond Instead of Reacting

Learning how to respond instead of reacting isn’t easy and it takes work. When you find yourself starting to react to a person, a situation, or an issue…stop and take a few minutes to think about how you were going to react. Were you going to get mad and say or do something that could cause problems in the future?

For those of you in our Brilliant Leader Class who practice the Color Code Communication System…think about how to respond to the red, blue, white, or yellow personality. Knowing what type of personality, you are responding to will help you be more successful in the end.

If you’re reacting to a situation or issue think about the future not just the present of what is happening. How can your response enhance the outcome?