The most important work I do all year happens out in the quiet, away from…
The Opportunity That Doesn’t Fit Your Plan – 3 Principles When Opportunities Arrive
Strategy is a good filter. It’s also a good excuse.
The message landed in my inbox two weeks before WEC.
“Leanne, I’ve double-booked myself. Can you moderate a session for me?”
My first instinct was the sensible one. Moderation is not a speaking engagement. It does not build my keynote reel. It does not deepen my coaching framework or add a credential to my speaker bio. In the very practical language I use with clients all the time, this opportunity did not map to my next chapter business.
I said yes anyway.
And the nerves showed up right on schedule. Not because I was afraid of the room. I speak at conferences. I know how to hold an audience. But moderating is a different skill set. I am not a trained facilitator. I was going to be on stage without the safety net of my own prepared material, responsible for four other people’s ideas landing the way they were meant to.
Want to know why I said yes?
Moderation sharpens something you cannot develop any other way. Reading a room in real time. Holding the thread when a speaker goes long. Knowing exactly when to redirect and when to let a moment breathe. I walked off that stage more comfortable on it than I was when I walked on. And after yesterday’s session, I felt all the lessons.
If you’re going to say yes to the right things, you have to stop letting strategy be the only question. Here are three questions to ask yourself when an opportunity doesn’t obviously fit.
Question 1
Question whether it fits, or whether it grows
The default filter for most senior professionals is alignment. Does this advance my strategy? Does it belong on my personal brand?
These are reasonable questions. They are also incomplete ones.
Fit is about where you are. Growth is about where you’re going. Before you decline, ask the harder version: not “does this fit?” but “does this grow something I need?”
Question 2
Question the discomfort
Nerves are not a reason to say no. They are information.
The question is what kind. Are you uncomfortable because the opportunity is genuinely wrong for you? Or because it is new, and new things feel uncertain, and your brain is doing its job of keeping you safe?
Imposter syndrome does not announce itself. It disguises itself as discernment. When you feel the resistance, pause before you act on it. Ask whether the discomfort is a signal or a story.
Question 3
Question the cost of no
We are very good at calculating the risk of yes. We are not nearly as honest about the cost of no.
Declining has a price. It is just quieter and slower. It does not show up the day you say no. It shows up six months later when you realize you have been protecting a plan that never required protecting.
Before you decline, ask what you are actually guarding.
Saying yes is not always the right call. But “it doesn’t fit my strategy” is a filter that works best when you also know what you’re leaving behind. The sharpest version of you is not built only in the lanes you planned.
What opportunity are you about to decline that might actually be worth a second look?
Cheers,
Leanne
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