In a crisis, use short sentences. People under stress hear steps, not speeches.

LEADERSHIP

WHAT THIS MEANS

Under stress people can hold about one instruction at a time, and anything longer arrives as noise. Explanations, context and reassurance are all useful later and all a liability in the moment, because they bury the step somebody needs to take right now. Short sentences are not coldness, they are how information gets through.

Decide now what your first three sentences would be if something went wrong at practice or on shift. Keep each one to a single action and a name. Explain afterward, when there is room for it.

A QUESTION TO SIT WITH

When something went wrong, did you give steps or a speech?

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