It’s late October, the heart of the Fall season where we finish off the year and set strategies for the next one. Of all months, it’s the crunch one that counts. By mid-November, you are into the holiday season and before you know it, January is pressing down on you asking, “What have you done for us lately.”
You are only as strong as the voices around you. You think you can resist their message, but you are only human, and will succumb to their tone eventually. Everywhere you turn, there are voices broadcasting gloom, doom and misery. Your attention might be trapped by current events (Disease, Recession, War, etc.) and you can’t focus. You are unable to work-on-your-work.
As a leader, you are flailing at your job. Napoleon Bonaparte was often quoted as saying that, “the leader’s role is to define reality, then give hope.” And those voices go way beyond recognizing reality – the crush hope by conjuring up end-0f-your-world messages. Those voices are often internalized, becoming your voice…which is not moving the conversation at work forward.
You are only as hopeful as the people you listen to. Think about the voices around you: The cable newscaster, the radio announcer, the people at work, the stars/celbs you follow, your social media feed. Are these positive or negative voices in your head? Are you getting smarter and better at your job from ALL of them?
You should be as careful as to what you put into your head as what you put into your mouth. Voices of doom are toxic to your confidence and creative thinking capacity. So vanquish them. Shun them. Dismiss them. Ignore them.
Although all of that sounds simple enough, you’ll have a hard time managing these voices. So let me help you. First, turn off the TV. These days it is literally the boob tube. There is NOTHING there for your as a leader or a contributor. Next, scrutinize the radio shows and podcasts you listen to. Are they constructive, helpful or are they newsy (bad, mostly). Keep listening to just the ones that pass the “reality, then hope” sniff test.
Next, reduce your time grazing online. Whether it’s blogs, news websites of social media networks…there’s bad stuff out there waiting to infect your mind and drag you down. I’m only on facebook these days to post helpful content. Any time spent surfing leads to Ebola or stock market or ISIS hysteria and various link-baiting headlines on fear-aggregation sites. Be intentional about how you use the internet…make it a tool and not a mentally carciogenic habit.
Finally, clean house when it comes to the people you hang out with at work, home and in your community. Give them a warning, and if they persist beating the drum, cut them off. You can’t be any good to anyone when you let them bring you down.
Managers: Don’t reward Chicken Little for his or her declarations that the sky if falling. They aren’t adding value. Tell them, “You can’t be freaked out enough to improve our Customer experience 1%!.” In fact, it’s during times of turmoil that all the great innovative leaps happen (read Hanging Tough for the proof.) This is your time to shine, not shirk in horror.
If you feed your mind good stuff, even during these times, you will be part of the solution instead of a source of the problem. See this video (Chicken Little Must Fry!) for a clip of me talking about a potential solution for managers at embattled companies during tough times.
