Few among us aren't overwhelmed to some extent by the sheer volume of our electronic communication traffic--phone calls, emails, texts, chats, and team/zoom platforms are growing in their demands for our time. While in many ways that's a good thing, it can also be a bad thing as it relates to our effectiveness as business leaders.
Futurist Jared Nichols describes this kind of communications bombardment as creating a kind of "high-pressure/low-thinking" environment where speed is prioritized over quality and scale rewarded over depth. In thinking through this paradigm, Nichols mentions that inevitably this model begins to define us not by our opportunities but by our limitations.
In our modeling and coaching habits, not to mention our own routines, it's worth scanning for the high-pressure/low-thinking dynamic and recognize the right times to link actively listening to active thinking by simply slowing things down. We'll need both speed and quality for our businesses to thrive--if platform response speed becomes our most important driver, Nichols asks--"Who's future are we creating?"
Clark Twiddy, President of Twiddy & Company, is the author of our Leadership Corner, published on our blog the third Tuesday of each month. He can be reached at ctwiddy@twiddy.com.
