Does it scare you that your productivity may be influenced by things that are out of your control? How do you react when something unexpected happens? It may result in your best effort being off target.
Imagine that you have an experienced archer, the perfect equipment, and a clear target. It sounds like a bullseye is guaranteed but sometimes Mother Nature can throw you a curveball.
A random, unexpected gust of wind can be all it takes to take the arrow off its course. The timing was awful and you shake your head at the wind?s unexpected appearance.
While an archer can compensate for a certain amount of wind, what do you do if you?re asked to shoot an arrow at a target, during a hurricane. Here it?s doubtful that any amount of experience or skill will correctly guide the arrow.
In all these scenarios, you need to remember one thing: Don?t blame the wind.
This can be tough to accept because you want to believe that being totally prepared for a situation, ensures your success. The reality is that the unexpected can be a powerful variable to even the best plan.
The danger is that you take the negative outcome of the wind and apply it to your entire process. Everything that was good is now discarded because of a random or unpredictable event.
In the business world, many leaders have an itchy finger on the eject button when it comes to the unexpected. When something turns out poorly, there?s a lot of focus on the outcome but none on the circumstances that led to it. The process, which was influenced by, ?the wind,? is not discussed and may even be totally abandoned.
It?s hard to accept that the outcome might be a fluke and you should simply try again. Or in the case of trying to shoot an arrow into a hurricane, you need to wait for the storm to pass. These decisions require confidence and careful consideration.
Invest the time in deciding whether success was due to a poor process or a random event. Too many times, a good process is sacrificed due to a random factor.
