On a recent trip to the West Coast, I dodged a bullet.
I was scheduled to deliver a Management Roundtable in Memphis which meant a 3-hour drive from Vanleer and then a return trip all the way to the Nashville airport where I was to board an 8PM flight to Los Angeles via a connection in Las Vegas. There was about an hour window for that connection. I would have arrived at 12:05 AM. Important since I had a 9AM start for a workshop in Los Angeles that following day.
I felt very uncomfortable about this.
See, I’ve been traveling an average of 30 weeks a year since about 2007. I’ve slept on way too many airport floors, run at full sprint to a gate and have been delayed more times than I could ever count. The older I get, the less able I am to do that anymore. So, when I saw this itinerary, it had trouble written all over it.
So I had my assistant switch the Roundtable to a live webinar and move me to a direct flight that left earlier in the evening.
And as I predicted, the original flight from Nashville was delayed by 90 minutes which meant I would have arrived in Las Vegas too late to make my connection. I would have found a place to sleep on the floor, which would have been tough considering how many loud slot machines are in that airport. If I was lucky, I might have gotten on a 6 am flight to LAX and then, with traffic, would have arrive about 2 hours late for my workshop. Not good and certainly not fair to the client. But being proactive saved the day.
The more experienced you become as The Boss, the more you’ll see patterns emerge. Particularly when it comes to problems. Your job is to see potential issues and deal with them proactively.
Years ago, I had a co-worker who made it a habit, a ritual, of calling in sick on the Tuesday after a 3-day weekend. After seeing this pattern enough times (and I wasn’t The Boss. The Boss never called her on this behavior either which of course is a problem in itself), I learned not to depend on her for anything important on that Tuesday.
How are you doing in your proactive problem-solving? Remember, one of your key roles is to solve problems and improve processes. Proactive anticipation will be your best friend. Why not make it part of your standard practice?
