50% prepared

An incident occurs, a confrontation between two of your staff. 

As the leader you know that a conversation needs to be had but you don’t feel prepared to do it.

Ideally you’d like some time alone to craft a few articulate insightful answers before entering this potentially heated environment but you know that the longer you leave it the worse it will get. 

You feel the pull to act now.

A similar incident happens in job interviews. The interviewers throw you a nasty out of the blue question and you’re sent reeling. The panic starts to set in as you know the longer you leave the silence the less likely your chances are of getting the job. You need to act now and it needs to be good.  

This skill of thinking on your feet is an admirable one and it improves with practice and failure. The more you put yourself into pressurised situations, where speed of thought is crucial, the more your comfort levels increase and the better you get at it. 

So I would recommend acting now whilst you feel only 50% prepared. Take a deep breath and trust yourself to figure it out in the moment. And if you fail then so be it, you can learn from the experience and be better the next time.