Managing Your Moment's of Truth
By Leanne Crain

As we learned in a recent ezine, your day is made up of a series of individual moments. On average you, and the people around you, experience about 20,000 moments every single day. Last time we spoke about these moments in a positive to negative fashion. This time, we are sharing another way of thinking of them: Moments of Truth.

What is a moment of truth? It can have many forms. In the simplest sense, it is how you handle each moment, and each interaction with other people and your team. Those moments will determine if you succeed or fail as a leader. If you are truly dedicated to your team, you need to concentrate on managing those moments.

Let me give you an example. You are meeting with someone on something you feel is important. That member, while you are talking, feels their blackberry vibrate on their hip. They pick it up, look at it, and replace it. You continue on when they are done. Next, they start replying to an email while you talk. They follow this by looking at their watch. If all this was going on while you were trying to explain something to that person, how would you feel by the end of that moment? Now ask yourself this: why would you ever want to make anyone feel that way?

Keep in mind, these moments will be remembered, relived in memory, and talked about. Are you managing your moments in a way that you would like to be remembered for? When you are interacting with people, try to imagine that everyone is wearing a button on their shirt that says "Make me feel important". Treat each moment of interaction as if that interaction is the most important thing you could be doing right now.

You can extend this theory to the rest of your team. Everyone can benefit from managing their moments of truth. Start managing your moments of truth today. Every time you speak with a person, remind yourself to behave and communicate in a way you would want to be remembered for.

To learn the rest of our secrets of delegation, please contact Gary Gzik at 613.342.2200 ext. 108 or at ggzik@bizxcel.com.

Preparing for Greatness provides tips in order to improve your health and wellness at work and at home.

Leanne Crain is a Marketing and Administrative Assistant for BizXcel. Her background is marketing and tourism, and she has over 12 years experience in the sales and marketing field.