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LEADERSHIP

Tackling Issues Through Confronting Reality

May 9, 2022 | 3 Minute Read

The Confront Reality trust behavior is a valuable tool. Applying it will take a little time and forethought, but you’ll get so much out of it in the future. 

Confront Reality essentially means having tough conversations. Sometimes using the behavior will lead to difficult or not-so-pleasurable discussions. While avoiding it will give you peace of mind in the present, it is not the best step to take. In the long run, ignoring it could mean the issue gets worse with time. 

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What if you had the opportunity to deal with and take care of one little issue, keeping it from evolving into something major? Dealing with an issue stops it from turning into a snowball that rolls down a hill, destroying things that took a lot of time and effort to build. 

In order to build trust, you have to talk about uncomfortable situations, plans, actions, behaviors, or anything that is impacting your work or environment. You may be the only one that sees what is happening and could have the opportunity to change direction and adjust the sails in an amazing way. This can only happen if you have the courage to say something out loud

There is a metaphor in the movie Trolls that I believe is a funny example of Confront Reality and its importance. When I watched Trolls with my daughter Claudia, I thought about Confront Reality and how the movie is a great representation of this trust behavior. It shows how life sometimes puts you in a position where you have to be the person who starts doing things in a new or different way. 

Trolls

The character Branch was known as “the black sheep of the family” in this movie. This phrase is usually used in a negative way and was at the beginning of Trolls. The person labeled a black sheep does things differently than the people they are surrounded by and won’t agree easily with decisions or ideas.  

Sometimes the black sheep mentality is needed. It gives you the possibility to think outside the box. If we always agree on everything in our company, family, relationship, etc. we will never have the opportunity to improve and go ahead to the next level. You can easily get stuck in a comfort zone.  

A Balancing Act

Branch was super cautious, and that gave him the foresight to prepare for the conflict in the movie. He was the only one in the movie that had a vision and mindset to confront reality in a worst-case scenario. However, he was also over-cautious. 

You should avoid being over-cautious and not live in continuous fear as Branch did at the beginning of the movie. It is a balance between staying in that pessimistic condition all the time and confronting reality when it’s needed. That is going to help you take care of the issue when the situation or difficulty calls for it! 

Reach out to learn more about Confront Reality and other trust behaviors from Stephen Covey’s The Speed of Trust. 

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