The Hardest Thing I Ask CEOs to Do

Before your next difficult client conversation.

Before you respond to a contract dispute.

Before you decide to fire someone, or walk away from a deal you have been agonizing over.

Try this.

Take three breaths. Slow ones. Before you speak, before you type, before you decide.

It sounds too simple to matter. I understand the skepticism. This is one of the simplest things I have taught to CEOs running nine-figure organizations, and it is also one of the hardest for them to actually do in the moment.

Here is why it works. Those three breaths interrupt the automatic response your amygdala wants to fire off. They give the rest of your brain, the part capable of real judgment, a chance to catch up.

Most bad decisions are not made because someone lacked the intelligence to know better. They are made in the half second where fear moved faster than clarity could.

Three breaths will not solve your business. But it will change what you bring to the next decision.

Try it this week, in the moment that feels most urgent. Notice what shifts when you slow down by three breaths before you act.

Take the Leadership Blind Spot Assessment to see where you are moving too fast to lead well.

With love,

Debra