No, I’m not talking about the kind you’d give your 3-yr old for clocking her brother with a light saber. Those carrot/stick structures might work with kids, but I’ve found them to be largely useless in business.

In sports, however, a Time Out is a break in the play to communicate with the Team, determine strategy or inspire morale. That tiny slice of time is wildly useful, possibly even crucial to success. And yet for the already time-crazed business leader, the thought of “pausing” — taking your foot off the gas even long enough to get your bearings and focus your efforts — seems impossible.

A client recently told me he was talking with an overwhelmed and underwater friend whose personal relationships were going down the tubes. My client urged him to give me a call, and his response was… “Are you kidding? If I could find an hour, I would spend it with my kids!!”

My heart aches when I hear that, because I know that if he gave me an hour, we’d find him five. But I get it. It’s utterly counter-intuitive to pause when you’re running for your life. And yet, calling a Time Out is the ONLY thing that works. So it breaks my heart to imagine the ones that get away. Not because I want their business, but because I know what’s at stake, and what could be for them. It’s admittedly corny since I’ve never even met him, but I honestly get teary just thinking about him and his family.

But the competing priorities of uber-busy leaders don’t go away once they decide to work with me. It’s my job to keep them focused on what matters most, so when they call to reschedule an appointment, I needed a QUICK way to have them gauge whether cancelling was a smart strategy, or a signal they were falling into the swirl of overwhelm. So I developed this SUPER quick quiz to gauge what they most need right now.

Just finish the sentence:

I am sprinting forward at full speed and don’t have time to look up…

(a)…BUT I know where I’m headed and exactly what to focus on to get me where I’m going.

(jodi says… SA-WEEEET!!!! Keep at it, and let me know if you need to get clear and refocused before our next appointment)

(b)…BECAUSE I have so many alligators snapping at my heels, I’m afraid I’ll get bitten if I do…, and frankly, I can’t even tell which gator to kick first, and… oh, yeah… my legs are burning, but I can’t stop long enough to rest, or look around.

(jodi says… You might need a Time Out. Usually, when you feel like you can’t stop to look at the map, is when you most need to pause & get your bearings…)