Life can be really hard. We get it. So why bother..?
The pressure is always on, the workload can feel relentless and then on top of that you need to try and be BRAVE? Who has the time?
We share so much helpful content with you about how to be BRAVE that we realised we’ve made a glaring omission!
What if you just want to get on with it in your own way and not use our guiding principles? 😳
Behold, just for you, here’s 8 Ways to Fail at being BRAVE.
Rush into your decisions
Work at speed, keep up that pace at all times, and never slow down before thinking. Definitely do not take time to write anything down! There’s no time! Your brain will fill in the gaps and find the clarity you need from somewhere. When it comes to conversations, don’t take the time to think your answer through, just shoot from the hip!
Speak quickly, without thought, and don’t worry about backing it up.
As you jump from a meeting, to a debate, to a call and then onto the next zoom, just say whatever comes to mind. Don’t worry about it, who even pays attention anyway? An even easier way is to develop your inner parrot! Take what someone else says, add a little twist of your own and repeat it. Easy win all day long! If anyone challenges you, just throw the question back at them and swiftly change the topic. No-one will even remember this next week!
Trust your gut, and decide quickly, especially about other people!
Where there are important decisions to be made, it’s important to keep it high level, don’t get into the detail. The quicker you decide the faster this meeting needs! If someone challenges you or your thoughts then they’re clearly jealous and you can secretly plot their downfall at a later stage. If it’s gets a bit personal, so be it, they started it after all.
Don’t give your thinking any extra thought , you know you’re pretty much always right
Life is too busy for second guessing right? Once you have answered a question or made your decision then save time and move the hell on! There’s no need to over analyse and reflect over what you said or why, it’s a waste of time. Why? Your brain cleverly gets used to the way you work and think and eventually introduces biases and shortcuts to get you quickly to the same type of decisions over and over again. Genius!
Learn to get your own way when you need to.
This one’s all about learning to disagree and win at all costs. If someone disagrees with you then you need to nip it in the bud. Make a stand and understand that this person clearly dislikes you, so there’s no relationship to lose. It’s important that in a disagreement you do not fail, you must make sure to win, no matter how it reflects on you because what’s important is not failing.
Make the easy (or even first) decision, saving you time and effort.
Decision making can swallow up so much time in meetings. A simple way to expedite the process is to use those helpful brain shortcuts we talked about earlier and just make the first, or the easiest, decision that comes to mind. Another brilliant way to sidestep decision making completely is to simply agree with whoever is the loudest, or highest paid person in the room. This way nothing sticks to you when it goes wrong. Perfect!
When debating, focus on the person not the topic!
When it comes to debating there’s a sure fire way to get what you need, or at the very least be disruptive and hurry the meeting along. Flip the focus from whatever the topic is, and instead make it about the person who is talking. This is so much easier! You don’t need to agree, or disagree with the topic, especially if you don’t really understand it. Just pick holes in the person, the way they’re debating, the words they use and try to get them to defend their ideas. Before you know it you’ll have made it into a personal dig at the person whilst simultaneously dodging having to make any kind of decision.
Finally, and this one is truly brilliant when it comes to really failing at being BRAVE.
No decision = no progress = no work.
At the end of any meeting or debate there’s that moment where a decision just needs to be made. People start to become uncertain or even fear the decision they’re about to make. They need help. The best thing to do is wrap up the meeting asap and take the pressure off. Give people a break from making decisions. The added benefit to this is that now nothing will get agreed on, therefore there’s no follow up work to be done and it will probably just get shelved or tabled for a later discussion. Bonus!
If you’ve read this blog and identified any of the descriptions or behaviours in your own worlds then you might need to get in touch with us. We can help you and your teams to not fail at being BRAVE and instead learn that all progress starts with a BRAVE decision.
If, however, you’re truly determined to fail, we’ve even created a Downloadable Fail Checklist to help you Fail Better ✅
You can download it here:
