Find Another Room

When in doubt, find another room.  In life and leadership, if there is any question as to if we are in the right room, we should remove ourselves from it.  The sooner, the better.    

Find Another Room

As I look back at my journey of life and leadership, I have seen my fair share of rooms.  I have walked into some of those rooms inadequate and insecure while walking into others confident and secure. 

I often find that it’s the people that make the room.  Not the furniture, not the décor, not the view, not the electronics…it’s the people.  People give the room perspective and purpose.

I have been fortunate enough to find myself in rooms in which I belong, but there are times that I have found myself in rooms that I don’t belong.

Here is a question that I thumbed into the blog notes on my phone, “When is it time to find another room?”  Here are four responses that I came up with:

When Negativity Fills the Air 

Ever been in a toxic room?  One filled with gossip, jealousy, envy, and backstabbing.  Critical conversations fill the space, conversations about people that aren’t even in the room.  Chronic complainers, conniving critics, negative Nancy’s, and as Jon Gordon calls them…“Energy Vampires.”  The people that suck the life right out of the room.  Yeah…those people.

If we stay too long, we can easily succumb to the energy in the room, quickly becoming a victim of the environment.  It is as contagious as a highly infectious disease.  Exposed too long, we become subject to suffocation from the Toxic Fumes of negativity.    

When negativity fills the air…find another room. 

When We Become the Smartest Person

I once heard John Maxwell say, “If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.”   Those of us who aspire to do good in this world, should always surround ourselves with people who up our game.  People who challenge us to do more and be more.  We are better people by simply being in their presence.    

If we are the smartest one in the room, it leaves little space for our own personal and professional growth.  There is great advantage to finding people that are further ahead in this journey of life and leadership.  Their wisdom alone is worth walking into the rooms they occupy. 

They are “smarter” because they are more experienced.  That wisdom generates creativity, perspective, and solutions.  Not because they studied it in a book, but learned it through their own trial and error along the way.    

When we become the smartest person in the room…find another room.

When We Aren’t Wanted

Time is our most valuable, yet limited resource we possess.  Spending ANY of that precious time remaining in rooms where we aren’t wanted, is just wasteful. 

It’s not even the words that are spoken that make us feel unwanted, it’s the things left unspoken that do.  These rooms are absent two key indicators of being wanted: encouragement and gratitude.  It’s the general thanklessness and lack of appreciation of our contributions to the room that leave us looking for the door. 

When we aren’t wanted…find another room.        

When Things Don’t Feel Right

Our instincts should never be neglected.  When we are in a room where things are taking place that don’t feel right, most likely they aren’t.  The questionable practices, the vindictive tactics, and impure motives are heavily present in the room. 

The clear warning signs trigger our gut feelings.  We may not always be able to put our finger on it, but the feeling is unmistakable.  Being in a room that doesn’t feel right, sets off a siren from within that screams, “evacuate immediately.”     

When things don’t feel right…find another room. 

Conclusion

Life and leadership presents each of us with plenty of rooms to enter.  Behind every door, there are lessons to be learned…good or bad.

Sitting in the hallway and never entering any rooms restricts the potential for our growth.  Closed doors, close minds.  Failing to walk through them leaves us lacking those critical growth experiences.

What is well within our control are the rooms that we choose to stay in.  The ones that breed positivity, the ones filled with people that are further ahead than us, the places where we are wanted, and the ones that just feel right.  Those are the rooms where we belong.  Anything short of that…find another room.

There will be a time and a place where each of us HAS TO find another room.  Our seasons of life and leadership will come to a close.  In the end, we will be measured not only by the rooms we decided to stay in, but also for how we impacted those who we occupied the rooms with.  Our legacies will be measured by how we impacted their lives, messages through people that we will send into generations that we will never see. 

Before we leave the room of life and leadership, make sure we have left it better than we entered it.