On multiple occasions throughout our career we are approached with ideas, proposals, and requests from colleagues, employees, clients and others in and outside of our organization or business. How do we respond? How should we respond?
The emotionally intelligent way to respond is to listen to the individual, seek any necessary clarifications, validate their enthusiasm, and then ask them to give you a “written proposal”. Why react in this manner?
After careful thought, reflection and planning a new idea might be helpful to implement, but alternatively it may not be feasible or in some situations can be manipulative in nature. The bottom line is that you need think time when being pitched a new idea, proposal or request.
Although in the end the promoter of the new idea, proposal or request may not be happy with the final decision – leaders can show they listened, reflected upon the issue, and provided a thoughtful response. Leaders who follow this process rather than reacting immediately will be viewed by those whom they encounter as attentive to other’s ideas and diligent in their decision making processes.
What process do you use when confronted with a new idea, proposal or request?