You’re in a meeting. It over runs but you can’t leave and you know you’ll be late for the next one and you won’t have time to read the papers for it … You’re sitting at your desk, absorbed in your work, then you see your watch and realise you’re late for a meeting and you haven’t prepared for it … You’re on the tube/metro and it just stops, no apparent reason, and the time ticks away and you realise you’ll be late for the meeting but there’s no signal for your phone … Familiar?

In these circumstances my tendency is to dash from one meeting to the next, or grab my papers and rush into the meeting, or juggle with my phone to try and call to tell them I’ll be late as I hurtle from the station … and rush, rush, rush … gabbling apologies as I enter and head for the nearest chair and sit and look around and try and get my head together and focus on … what was it again?

Let’s call this the “Dash” strategy … How very professional it is – not!

Can you imagine Nadal rushing onto court like that? Or McIlroy dashing onto the first tee of The Open? Or Hamilton running from a TV interview and leap into his car just before the flag goes up? Or the All Blacks just turn up from wherever and run out onto the pitch? Or any professional sports person or team entering their professional field/pitch/court/course of play in the state of stress and distraction and unpreparedness that we sometimes go into meetings?

What is your ‘professional field of play’?

Yes, it is the office, the meeting room, the telephone call, the videoconference, the presentation.

Just as the professional sports person values mental preparation as much as physical, so should we. Attitude is all. We know the phrases – “It’s all in the top 3 inches”, “Getting into the zone/flow”, “Visualising success” – and we know they’re right, but how do we apply them?

STOP.

That’s it. Just stop. And stopping gives you CHOICE.

You can choose to dash into that room, distracted, head full of negative imaginings – “This is going to be a really difficult meeting!”, “They’re going to think I’m such a pratt!” etc. – or you can choose to get yourself together and focus:

• Stop.
• Take a low breath,
• Feel the sensation of your feet on the floor.
• Connect with your purpose on attending the meeting
• Confirm what success looks like for yourself
• Visualise yourself entering the room calmly and confidently, apologizing for being late with a smile as you make eye contact with those present
• And walk through the door …

Let’s call this the “Professional” strategy.

Just take a moment to think of the impression you will make using the Dash or the Professional strategies. Think of the times you have seen people use either of them and remember what you thought about them.

Which one will you choose today?

And remember – if you are 5 minutes late for a meeting, another minute is going to make very little difference. If you are 5 minutes early, then so much the better! In either case, just “stopping” will make all the difference to you, your performance and, in the long run, to your future – at home as well as the office.