In our leadership careers, we have read so many required books and heard numerous suggestions for:
- Creating a succession plan
- Communicating with difficult people
- Sales techniques for closing the deal with a prospect
- Management tips
- Budgeting for the short and long term
Now most of the articles, podcasts, blogs are hard into “building relationships” pointing out that we are damaged, subordinates are anxious, bosses are confused on next steps and we can’t navigate communicating well because of remoteness and 180 change from 2 years ago.
Negative. Negative. Negative. STOP it.
When someone you care about is wounded, what do you do? Console? Speak softly and gently? Listen to find out the issues? Buy a case of beer and share it on the back porch? That sounds so very nice.
What about you? What are you doing for you?
Life right now is like coming home from work and the place where you use to live is gone. Nothing is familiar. For those of us lucky enough to have watched the Twilight Zone, it can feel like a different world for us on a daily basis.
What happened to the illusion of control; knowing where we were going; budgeting for growth; hiring people that want to be there; planning the User Meeting; writing performance reviews; stopping by the lunchroom for coffee in the afternoon?
Where did all of that go?
And why do we care so very much for “where did it all go”?
We humans love structure and normalcy…whether you like to admit it or not…the structure we control. Control and knowing the next steps helps us feel confident and secure in taking the next steps; speaking about the next steps; implementing the next steps.
I just read an article in Forbes about a meeting of CEOs that said that planning is a joke. Budgeting is now hilarious. Hiring feels like torture and managing people for success is a not used phrase.
If the CEOs are giving up, what are we to do??
STOP. The whirling we feel and are doing is making us all sick. There is no normal. We have to now consider what we want now knowing what we know. Building our lives and businesses and dreams on the new way of controlling our lives. Probably one hour at a time.
Everything feels harder. That means it is. If you feel it, it is real. The question becomes, is that how you want to feel?
You know how to laugh, hug, dance, move, think and care. Are you doing any of those things for you or are you waiting until someone, anyone, brings them back to you?
STOP.
What do you want today? You can create it one baby step at a time. BUT you need to stop long enough to acknowledge how you feel and what you want. Maybe even shed a tear or two about what you think you have lost…and consider what you might have gained.
A personal example: April of 2021, I got my first backyard chickens. I bought an enormously expensive small mobile chicken coop, which I had researched as the best for what I wanted to do. Almost a year later, I would never buy that coop ever again because I am wiser. I’ve given away two guaranteed to be hens that turned out to be roosters and had a lovely hen named Dolly die. This week I will be getting two guaranteed hens (now I know better) to join my almost year old hens, Lolly and Emma. I have to say I love my chicks. Everyday day, starting early winter 2021, they started laying eggs. I was pretty smitten with them before that, but the first egg is like nothing else. It is perfect. It was a lovely shade of deep tan. It comes each day right in the nest they snuggle into, no blood, no screaming, no body mess – just a perfectly laid egg. There is an “I just laid an egg” song they do and it is beautiful. The eggs are delicious. I share them with my family and neighbor. Understand, that the hens – Lolly and Emma – know exactly what to do. And they do it well. The storms come. The dogs bark. The food changes from pellets to crumbles. Water freezes. The wind blows so hard and the thunder crashes. And everyday they lay that wonderous egg because they know that is what they do.
They have taught me that knowing who I am and what I do well allows me and my beloved audiences and clients to thrive.
Who are you? STOP. Find out. I believe you will find a remarkable, extraordinary, and vulnerable spirit in you that will answer your questions and guide you immediately.
And I always ask, may I help?
To our success,
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| P.S Let me introduce to you a powerful voice for 2022 and in my career, Vickie Griffith. A voice that will encourage, calm, poke and help create success for you during our chaotic times. Her book is terrific. An easy read. You might want to consider getting the book for you and your staff; colleagues and friends. It is called: “You Can Be Right About Everything And Still Have Nothing” |