Sometimes the Missing Piece Is Contex
There’s a particular kind of exhaustion that comes not from the work itself, but from the stories we quietly build around people. Recently, I found myself frustrated with a colleague after what I believed was poor communication around an important task. In my mind, the situation became larger and heavier with every passing day. Small assumptions started stacking themselves like files on an already crowded desk. I replayed conversations. I interpreted silence. I filled in missing information with emotion. The uncomfortable part about leadership, teamwork, and even relationships is that human beings rarely experience events exactly as they happen. We experience them through stress, fear, pressure, pride, exhaustion, and sometimes old memories we have not fully dealt with. A delayed response can start to feel like disrespect. A missing update can feel intentional. Before long, we are no longer reacting to facts. We are reacting to the story we created around them. What surpr...