Lock in success by demanding realism

You’re in your small, fluorescent conference room for your weekly check-in, and everyone’s staring at their laptops. Your financial controller gives the sales forecast: “Good shape, boss, we’ll be up 7 percent.” But a knot in your stomach tells you something feels off—your gut spike alert. You take a breath and say, “Before we move on, tell me the biggest risk you’re seeing that could drop us below that 7-percent mark.”

The room goes silent, and you feel the air still, like a cave where echoes run deep. You breathe in slowly, listening to the hum of the overhead lights, then out. No one speaks—until the operations director clears her throat and says, “Our supplier in Mexico called today. They’ve got a labor dispute brewing and can’t promise delivery of a key component.”

Suddenly the numbers make sense. You had assumed costs would hold flat, but now they’ll spike if you can’t find an alternate source. The hunch that something was wrong was real. You ask, “What would it take to pull parts from our facility in Romania? Let’s crunch the logistics now.” Within the hour you’ve drafted a contingency plan for a rerouting that will keep lines moving.

The discipline of surfacing reality first—asking for the worst-case news before basking in the rosy forecasts—is the essence of realism in execution. Neuroscience shows this approach engages your brain’s predictive circuits, releasing norepinephrine to sharpen focus, and primes your team’s threat detection so you catch small problems before they grow. When you make honesty your first order of business, everything else falls into place.

Imagine you’re saying to your team, “Let’s do this differently: after the good news, tell me what could derail us.” Pause, let the space fill with quiet, and then respond with curiosity, not judgment. You want the really bad news to drop into the open, so you can pivot. Then close the loop by adding, “That’s exactly what I needed to hear—let’s build today’s contingency plan.” This fact-first ritual rewires your culture to catch surprises early—try it at your next meeting.