“You have given us too much to do. We’re not going to do a thing until you get your act in better order.” | Commander Gerald Carr on Apollo 13 after Mission Control sent far too many directions, corrections, and orders. The team went on to take a 12 hour break to simply recharge and reconnect.
The story made me chuckle. It also reminded me of 2 powerful ideas –
(1) Sometimes, the most effective thing we can do is to switch off, recharge, and reconnect.
(2) We have an obligation to our leaders to be upfront with them when they’re being consistently counter productive. The right time and place may not be during the heat of the moment – but our leaders can only improve if we’re willing to share feedback*.
*Note: If they’re the kind who don’t take to feedback, they’re bosses, not leaders.
