Taking the Driver's Seat:

This post is for all belonging to the "Keen Observer" or  "Spectator" breed like me who sometimes land up in soup when suddenly asked to take the hot seat of action. "Facilitation" and "Enabling" are key aspects of my role as a Human Resource professional. On a certain occasion, I was facilitating a conference call with an analyst of a partner firm. The call was strategic in nature and so was to be lead by our CEO. Technology being a maverick that it turns out to be in critical times, the channel started developing issues and our CEO couldn't log into the call. The analyst calls have a fixed time slot and predetermined agenda and while we decided to wait for our CEO to log in, he pinged me - "Take the Lead". While the agenda was clearly cut out and I was cognizant of the same, I was definitely put in a fey. I somehow garnered my wits and the call went through well though with a few hiccups. I internalized two very important lessons:

1. Contingency Plan for each task

2. Its not always about taking the back seat


While taking a back seat and relaxing may be the easiest and preferred option for many of us due to our conditioning, life situations demand us to take the driver's seat on several important and critical occasions. The point is how much ready we are to take up the challenge and perform. Some of us may collapse under the sheer pressure of an unplanned event or an adversity because we have never faced such a situation earlier nor are we well equipped to do so.

So while we may be conditioned this way, handling crisis in a better way remains still a concern. The prime and most important aspect of is to venture into the unknown and try the untried - Initiative. One has to allay the fears by fighting the fears and not fearing them. Initiative needs to be encouraged and rewarded. This induces a behaviour of going for the unknown, uncertain and the unexplored. This equips one to better handle crisis situations which demand one to take the driver's seat. While eye-opener's are a good part of experiential and accidental learning, initiated self induced situation handling distinguishes the best of breeds.

Stay back, relax or take the Driver's seat. Choice is Ours!!