As a reminder — your agenda isn't necessarily everyone else's...

The world of late has reminded me of a "coachable moment" I offered up a lifetime ago... or at least it feels like a lifetime ago.

He stuck his head into my office with concern written all over his face; with all decorum set aside, he needed me to look at an email he just sent and wanted my feedback asap — he had a deliverable that was due.

Putting aside my own deliverable, I took advantage of this coachable moment and simply said, "You know, your poor planning and your urgent agenda is not my agenda". I then went on to offer a perspective on planning, time management and my thoughts on how to engage support. I told him I would read his email as soon as I could but he'd have to be patient. I then politely kicked him out of my office because I had a deadline (plus something else on my to-do list).

This "coachable moment" covers many areas as I alluded to, but recent events have me focusing on patience and the truism — "your agenda isn't necessarily everyone else's". The patience to wait is something evaporating by the minute with this app rich world but the truism is alive and well (maybe more than ever). Even when agendas do align, there are always the influencers that are Murphy's best friends (timing, a bigger boss, mother-nature, and the randomness of the universe) — the chances of you waiting are much greater than you not waiting.

There is a need to become comfortable with being patient, and more importantly, ensure you are being productively patient.

In other words, use this waiting time to be productive with other things (particularly something new). Of course you will use some of this time to influence what you are waiting for but in most cases that doesn't take more than a half hour — so do others things. Yes you are waiting for the "phone to ring", but you are also investigating a new business venture, taking a course, writing a blog, or networking to build your opportunity funnel. Being productively patient will have you increasing the number of agendas that you have on the go and developing out the number of things you need to be patient with. Because the more things you have on the go, the greater the chance the phone will ring.

Murphy will probably have them all ring at the same time.

iamgpe