The Power of a Purposeful Pause
When, as a business, Sport and Beyond spent more time working with teams rather than individuals, one of our favourite ways to start sessions was with some jigsaw puzzles.
We would turn up with a plastic bag full of jigsaw pieces, and ask the team to construct the jigsaws. And we would tell them that the record time for completion of the exercise was 7 minutes 23 seconds (which it was, for a number of years). We wouldn’t give them any more information, despite often repeated questions coming our way.
The purpose of the task was for us to learn more about the team, and for the team to learn more about themselves in a very obvious and immediate way.
It was always fascinating seeing how different teams approached the task. How they interacted with each other, how they communicated, and how they worked out their strategy.
Too many teams jumped straight into the ‘doing’. Feeling the pressure, wanting to prove themselves, talking over each other, rushing about, and at times doing a very good job of looking like a bunch of headless chickens. And getting increasingly frustrated with us for not helping them in any way.
The better teams all had one thing in common. They didn’t jump straight into the doing. They sat back, assessed the task, and thought strategically. They often assigned members of their team to specific roles, and some of the best made sure they had one individual whose job it was to identify when a particular approach wasn’t working, and gently encourage those invested in it to accept this and move on to a different approach.
There was of course one simple step that each team could take that would guarantee a good outcome. And that was? Have you worked it out yet?...Picking out the corner pieces as a first step, thereby working out straight away how many puzzles they were actually dealing with.
Every now and again in my work with senior leaders, elite athletes and elite coaches, a theme pops up which I start to see everywhere.
The latest is the benefit of a pause. And the jigsaw puzzle exercise is a brilliant example of this. Pausing before diving in. Giving yourself time to think strategically. Demonstrating the power of this wonderful quote from Abraham Lincoln:
‘Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.’
Where else has the benefit of a purposeful, and proactive pause, been raising its head in my recent work?
1. Person A has been asked to do something. They want to say no but they are a people pleaser and find saying no very hard. Added to this there is a power imbalance. Building in a pause is hugely beneficial in this kind of situation. Rather than giving an answer straight away (when you are likely to just say yes), why not respond along the lines of: ‘That’s really kind of you to ask me, I’d love to get involved/help out. However, I know that I am juggling a lot of things at the moment, so could you give me 24 hours to work out whether I think I can commit the time and resource to this project to do justice to it?’
2. Team B are making a decision on a new appointment. They can’t reach a consensus and yet are putting themselves under huge pressure to commit either way in the meeting. Giving themselves 24 hours to go away and reflect, and perhaps have a couple of extra conversations with relevant people, can really help ensure that the decision is one which is made objectively and with all the relevant angles considered.
3. Person C is having their first proper break from work for years. Meaning they have some time to fill before taking up their next (exciting and challenging) role. So many people, particularly those in senior leadership, go from big role to big role. If you can manage to build in some time between roles, it can be incredibly invaluable. Not just in making sure that you are refreshed when you start the new role, but also in terms of using the down period to reflect as well as develop. One of my clients is coming to the end of a three month break in which she has had a number of carefully chosen high value conversations, all aimed at helping her reflect on her role, her strengths, her areas for improvement, and how best to approach her new role.
4. Person D is really feeling under the cosh. His days are filled with back to back meetings, and he isn’t managing to build in any pauses during the day. He is near to burnout. Sadly I come across this too often. And from a positive angle, it gives me the opportunity to remind clients of the importance of micro-breaks – building in small breaks during the day that, over time, help build up much better mental and physical resilience. For those interested in sport, I first came across this concept off the back of some research done in the world of sport by performance psychologist Dr Jim Loehr. Set out in more detail here https://www.sportandbeyond.co.uk/blog/2022/6/21/managing-your-energy the basic idea is that by building in micro-breaks (small ‘pauses’) during the day, we give ourselves much more opportunity to recover and reset. Even if this is just a 5 minute break between calls, or 20 minutes out in the fresh air at some point during the day.
Pauses matter. In all sorts of different forms. Are you putting as much focus and attention on when you pause as you should be?
For more on this or any aspect of leadership and performance, with a healthy dose of mindset, sport, and I hope usefulness thrown in, do feel free to browse through all the articles in the Huddle, or get in touch with me directly on catherine@sportandbeyond.co.uk. To order a copy of my book - Staying the Distance: The Lessons From Sport That Business Leaders Have Been Missing – click here .