Just the Facts Please
I know I'm dating myself here, but I remember watching reruns of Dragnet, the 1960s police TV show, featuring Sgt. Joe Friday.
If you mention the show to most anyone who watched the series, they'll likely reply with what is believed to be one of Sgt. Friday's most famous lines - "Just the facts, ma'am."
The interesting thing is that Sgt. Friday never actually said those words. Who knew?
Dragnet did have some police chase scenes, but, in general, the show and the officers were decidedly low key. When showing up to a crime scene, the officer's first job was always to get the facts of a situation. To ascertain WHAT happened before making inferences or applying judgments.
In today's world, Sgt. Joe Friday, would be considered boring and a bit two dimensional. Fact-finding requires a temporary suspension of thoughts and feelings. The very stuff that makes for interesting scenes and also renders us prone to generating misinterpretations.
Here's a real life example:
A team member committed to submitting a report by the end of the day. By late morning the next day, nothing.
Initial thought - I'm really not sure this person is trustworthy.
Initial feelings - Frustration and Disappointment
With these initial thoughts and feelings, what's the next step? As you might imagine this could go a number of ways.
You could confront the team member with all the thunder bolts of negative energy created with your initial interpretation of the event.
Or, you could pause, follow the lead of Sgt. Friday, and ask yourself "What are the facts?"
Here's all that is known so far.
A team member committed to submitting a report by the end of the day. The report wasn't received.
That's it. Full stop.
The next step is to gather more facts.
- Was the report actually promised by the end of the day?
- Was the report, in fact, submitted? (Maybe it's under some other reports on your desk. Maybe it went to your Spam folder.)
- If the report wasn't received as promised, what happened?
In my experience, it's exceedingly rare for a team member to simply blow off an assignment or haphazardly miss a deadline. In almost all cases, there are missing facts or misaligned expectations.
It's also my experience that I've rushed to judgment about a team member only later to learn it was me who misunderstood or jumped to conclusions without all of the facts.
The reality is that we, as humans, are hard wired to interpret situations quickly, especially when we're stressed and overwhelmed. It's part of our survival instinct. (I think that's why Sgt. Friday's deadpan demeanor seemed almost unnatural.)
We can, however, develop a practice of noticing when we're moving too quickly to conclusions about the manner and behavior of those we lead.
I do understand that this may strike you as simplistic. Of course, simple is not always easy. And sometimes you and/or your team members are dealing with deeper and more complex issues. If so, I invite you to reach out to me for resources and support.
Having said that, next time you find yourself rushing to judgment, pause, take a deep breathe to recalibrate your nervous system and then ask:
"What are the facts?"
BTW - If you want to know the story of how "Just the facts, ma'am" got attributed to Sgt. Friday, click here.
_______________________
Passionate Leadership
is who you're being as you're leading.
About the Author
Gayle Ely is a Leadership Coach, Trainer and Facilitator and founder of Total Life Leadership. At Total Life Leadership, we partner with purpose-driven non-profit leaders and service entrepreneurs to help them answer the question “How Do I Become a Better Leader?”
Using The Six Pillars of Passionate Leadership, we equip leaders to be the best they can be. The result is a passionate leader whose team and organization are operating for maximum impact.
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