I was to meet a C-suite executive of a major global bank at a hotel in Davos last Tuesday — let’s call her Haley. I had not met Haley before, and we had recently been introduced by a mutual business connection who had encouraged us to make time to meet one another. 

Haley texted me just before the meeting time to say that she would be 10 minutes late, because a panel discussion she was part of had started late.

Things work at a brisk pace at Davos, with some meetings scheduled for just 15-minutes. As I waited for her to arrive, the 10 min delay became 15 minutes…then 20…then 25 minutes. I was ready to wrap up and move on to the site of my next meeting, convinced that Haley would now be very rushed to get to her next commitment, or that she likely wasn’t that invested in meeting me (“so what’s the point?”). We didn’t even know when or if she would show up at this stage. So I texted my colleague Jake, “She hasn’t shown up yet. I am going to leave.”

He texted back, “OK”.

But something told me, “Hitendra, don’t tell him in a definitive tone that you’re leaving. Ask him what he thinks you should do.”

So I did. And Jake suggested, “5 more minutes please”.

I rolled my eyes. “What’s the point?” I thought. Then a pause. “But Jake is only suggesting 5 minutes, that’s all.”

So I stayed.

Haley emerged in the hotel lobby 4 minutes later, deeply apologetic about the delay her panel discussion had caused.

Over the next hour, I got to know one of the most passionate, open, visionary and candid executives I’ve met — a very refreshing spirit. At one point, I shared with her, “We’re here to have an exchange about how your bank and Mentora may partner. I realize that, I value that, and we should. But I also want you to know that you’re a very inspiring person, and I’d be so happy in our time here to experience you and build the foundation for what I hope will be a long-term association.” We ended up setting up next steps to bring our organizations together for a number of initiatives, and promised to be sounding boards to each other whenever we have the need.

Here’s the thing. I had been on the verge of leaving the hotel 25 minutes into my wait. My intuition didn’t guide me well-enough to stay there, but it did guide me to ask Jake. Jake came back to me not with, “Hitendra, just stay put until she arrives,” but simply with “wait another 5 minutes”, which made it easy for me to accept his suggestion. And that led to one of the most rewarding meetings I had last week, and a connection that will, I expect, last a long, long time.

In the rush of life, we stride forward briskly from one thing to the next. Who knows what unexpected gifts life may have in store for us if we instead developed the keen attunement to know when to pause to allow things to mature and unfold a bit more before we feel the need to close that chapter and move on to the next?

Warmly,
Hitendra

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