How do You Process it All?

These words hidden behind a chain link fence serve as a reminder to let our words flow, share them, give them the ability to be out there and encourage others. If we never say what we think then how are we adding value to the conversation, idea, or situation? If we always keep our thoughts to ourselves how will people know what we think, want, need?

Many people need time to process our thoughts, which means until they have time to process they are not confident in sharing the words in their head. The challenge is that often they are not given the time they need to process, so they leave the thought inside their head because they are not sure that the words are fully synthesized enough to share. These quiet souls appear silent, uninvolved and often are misunderstood as disengaged when all we need is a bit more time to think. They have amazing ideas swirling around their heads waiting for just a bit more time to pass through the gate to be communicated.

The other side of the thinkers are the people who process by talking. It means they talk through the idea often overwhelming those in the audience with the amount of words they share as they progress through the idea and land on the finale. Talking, talking and more talking not giving the internal processes time to think and stay engaged. These talkers appear fractured, untethered, and unable to be quiet when in reality talking is their way or processing information and if given enough time to talk it through they will reach the end and stop talking.

Good leaders know how they process and how their audience processes, or at least they ask ahead of time in order fo both types to get what they need to process and present their ideas. Meetings are more effective and relationships are more fulfilling when both types of people are given the chance to do what they do. When talking is shutdown or thinking is distracted by noise people are not able o contribute, debate, or feel confident in presenting their ideas.

It is as if the words are trapped behind a fence wanting to get out yet prevented simply because of a lack of awareness. So which way do you process and how do you let people know before the moment to share your words are gone? Knowing is half the battle…letting people know is the other half.