You see a punch coming. No time to block it. No time to move out of the way. Now what?

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Lean into the punch. You still get punched, but that punch has not had time to reach the speed and power it would have reached an instant later.

That’s a valuable life lesson, even when no real punches are involved. The more quickly I can respond to a problem, the less time it has to grow. Step into problems before they grow out of control.

True confession: A recent situation tested my commitment to step into problems before they grow. Let me share what I learned.

An email from a member of MANA’s staff had alerted me that a new MANA member was not happy. He had experienced a technical issue while doing a rep search in MANA’s RepFinder^® database. The email suggested that he was very unhappy.

When I find out a member is unhappy, I drop what I’m doing and make the call, and that’s what I did. But it was late on a Friday afternoon and he was not available. I have to confess that when he wasn’t available I was relieved, because I was expecting a difficult conversation.

I didn’t want him to think that I hadn’t responded, so I left a voicemail promising to call him Monday morning. Knowing that I had to speak to a very unhappy member first thing Monday morning hung over my head all weekend.

On Monday morning, I wavered. Was the call I tried to make Friday enough of a gesture? Or did I really need to make the call?

I made the call and I’m glad I did. He was very cordial and had two very constructive suggestions that will make the RepFinder^® a better tool.

The lesson I learned: Don’t waver. I was glad I stepped into the problem, and when you step into your next problem you will be too.