So What? Now What?

I attended a conference recently, and one of the attendees, after a long day of analyzing her own leadership, shared this line, “So what? Now what?” 

Apparently, other people had heard this gem as many nodded along, but I hadn’t.   

What a perfect encapsulation of what it means to be a leader. 

“So what? Now what?” 

So often, I’m with a leader who is lamenting the mistakes they made, the conversations they bungled, and the communications they missed. 

I get it. I do the same thing. And yes, we should all try to do better on these things. But the power of, “So what? Now what?” blew me away. 

The person saying this doesn’t have time for overthinking. They don’t have time for harping on things they can’t change. They’re maniacally focused on finding solutions. 

I’ve written before about the idea of leaders “admiring the problem.” Meaning, they spend so long thinking about the problem that they are almost paralyzed by it. So often, leaders have issues and it takes us hours to unpack what their actual concerns are. They’re so mired in the thing, they can’t see the thing. 

“So what? Now what?” is different. It’s taking something that doesn’t align, acknowledging it, and either fixing it or moving past it. ASAP. 

Next time something doesn’t go your way, don’t stress, don’t overthink. Just remind yourself, “So what? Now what?” Then take action.