Leadership in a High Stress Environment

Did you know that leading people can be stressful? If you didn’t, here’s your “something new” to learn for the day. Leadership will test every bit of patience you have. Unfortunately, this will get the best of you at times. You will wish you had handled situations differently and have to own your mistakes. 

While leaders may like to think of themselves as adaptable, understanding, and generally composed, things happen outside the scope of daily practice in the workplace. Something to consider here is that when we become stressed out or overwhelmed, it feels like everything is coming at us. In reality, we may just be stuck finding a way to prioritize, effectively delegate, and manage our time to navigate the situation. 

This is important to keep in mind, especially considering how short a stressful time lasts when dealt with properly. As a leader, if you are difficult to deal with under pressure, your team will feel less comfortable and refrain from using their efforts to solve the issue. So, a leader could risk their reputation and team cohesion because of a short stress period. 

An effective leader wouldn’t want to risk that, so here’s how they can manage this better:

Begin With Yourself

Leaders who are not content with themselves will find it difficult being able to manage the needs of others. Having healthy rituals and outlets outside of your responsibilities that act as a form of catharsis should be the starting point for any leader. This will keep you and your emotions in check as you’ve allocated time to simply think, time that will not pour over into your work hours.

Manage

An essential part of being a leader is being able to manage numerous components of the daily operation. This includes managing time, emotions, and the team through difficult tasks. It starts with detachment from the scenario, a leader who can adapt and remain calm when faced with change will be able to manage the situation effectively. 

Additionally, a leader who gets the team involved, not by dishing out negativity, but by keeping everyone level-headed and focused, will be successful.

Never Assume The Facts

Constantly asking questions and clarifying the situation is critical. This eliminates a level of uncertainty while keeping the leader and team up to date. Imagine being faced with a problem, you spend days coming up with a solution just to find out critical details have changed.

Who’s fault is this? Leadership. It is not the fault of whatever decision-makers who would, of course, be the easy targets to blame. It is always on the leader to keep their approach and team up to date with the details.

Communicate

Whether this is a briefing or any other form that suits your organization, a leader should address what’s to come. This keeps everyone on the same page and gives the leader a chance to calmly address the situation. As a result, the team will feel more involved, the leader will see the situation more clearly, and everyone should have an idea of what is expected of them. 

It is especially important here to be clear and straight to the point while delivering messages. Leaders can then open up the discussion to hear the thoughts of their team and engage them in a discussion. 

Conclusion

Being a leader comes with immense pressure, navigating responsibilities is by no means a one-step process. It requires leaders to be attentive and have their heads on a swivel while understanding their role in everything that goes on. 

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How To Take Negative Feedback

If ever you’ve felt the crushing blow of disappointing or angering someone, you know that the interaction doesn’t end when the moment ends. The feeling can loom over you for a long time, lower your motivation, and impact your mood. Additionally, when this happens in a team setting, it can shake up communication and cause tension.

Negative feedback doesn’t only pertain to an internal team, a client for example might have a bone to pick with you. In this situation especially, how you react must be well thought out, emotions must be detached, and the situation will require careful analysis.

Now no matter the situation, there are always two ends, the receiver of negative feedback and the one giving it. For the one giving the feedback, answer the following: Is your emotional state in check? Is this feedback necessary? Who does this concern?

For the one receiving the feedback: What have I done to provoke this? What stakes does this person hold in the situation? Is my emotion in check? How can I prevent the situation from escalating?

This is a very complex dynamic, especially depending on the severity of the situation, a lot can be at stake. This is why taking inventory is crucial, analyzing the situation from both ends allows you to gain perspective and distance. It is critical to deal with these situations as you need to resolve the conflict. Not dealing with it is a whole other issue, without getting into how to avoid it. 

With that being said, here are some things to consider:

Cool Off Period

Time should be taken to step back from the negative, consider it from the opposing perspectives and look at what you are going to do to prevent future negatives. It could be an hour, the rest of the day, just enough time to step back to compose yourself and your thoughts. This kind of ownership says a lot about your character and will demonstrate that you want to be better.

This is not to be mistaken with procrastinating the issue, you are simply taking time to collect yourselves. A cool-off period will also allow a leader who may not be in a good headspace to consider their actions. Ultimately, you are working towards a civil conversation with this person.  

Clarification

The negative feedback can also be vague, when the recipient doesn’t know how to act on it, the feedback is useless. Ask questions about the feedback you’ve received, it’s one thing to look at it from your end, the critic, however, should have clearly defined areas that need improvement. You can begin to open the line of communication back up by doing so. 

Don’t Attach To The Negative

When receiving negative feedback, it hurts our ego initially, yet we need to realize that the feedback is not personal. Someone else's opinion of you or something you’ve done does not reflect who you are as a person. Don’t let feedback hinder your confidence or derail your progression. 

Conclusion

Being able to see the positivity in a negative situation is a very difficult thing to do and it’s only natural to feel down. It’s important here to reflect, take ownership of the role you’ve played in the situation and avoid the victim's mentality.

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Working In The Empty Office: Guide To Self-Reliance

From the time we are young, we learn that our actions have consequences, both good and bad. In school, if an assignment is not done, the teacher threatens to call your parents, whereas if you do well on a test, you are praised. This instills an understanding of what is expected of us. This principle is not only relevant when we are young— it remains influential over us as we enter adulthood. Once you’re older, there is now the added consideration of responsibilities like a family, job, mortgage, etc. 

These stages, however, are not a dead end, there is no cap on how much you can have or achieve, and there is no 9-5 trap so long as you don’t look at it that way. Although the pressure of providing, performing, and still expecting to have windows of freedom might cloud your perspective on what you are capable of. There may be something else you know you want and deserve.

When working for someone else, you can get so caught up in the responsibilities they give you that you forget about the things you need to enjoy your life. Yet it is keeping up with these responsibilities to yourself that build you to be better.

You never want to be complacent. Just because your career may be in a spot that is putting food on the table does not mean you should limit your skills to that. If in the back of your mind, you know you’re deserving of more, it is because your other boss is talking. That boss is you, and not tending to your needs will have consequences beyond anything anyone else could deliver. 

To rely on yourself, you’re going to have to be able to work while nobody’s staying on top of you or cares what happens but you. Recognizing that managing this can be difficult, here are some ways to get started:

Identify Your Ideal

Where do you see yourself in a year? 5 years? 10 years? Most people underestimate how much they can get done in just one year. If you avoid distractions as much as possible, keep your eye on the next target, and commit, you can set yourself up for success. This starts with visualization, imagining every day exactly what you’re out to get and moving the pawn a little bit every day. 

Talk About It

Although you may not want to sound braggy talking about everything you’re going to do, tell people you trust about what you want. In doing so, you will begin to see different perspectives. The same method applies to writing down concepts to understand them better. Affirming goals in your mind creates a sense of realness. You’re telling yourself “this is the standard, we’re not settling for less”.

Take Small Steps

Forget the end goal, focus on what you have before you, and deal with situations head-on. Even that thing that’s going to take less time and you’ll just get it done later… Nope, if it’s that easy, get it done right away. Don’t leave things on the back burner, you may forget about them and they’ll likely cause a fire. 

Keep Track

Some days will be more productive than others, it’s on the days where it feels slower or less exciting that you need to check back on your progress. Additionally, it will be beneficial to refer to your ideal to remember where you’re going. Everything is centred around this ultimate reality you’ve envisioned, the reason you’ve visualized it is because it’s real. You want to note any progress along the path to it no matter how big or small. This will also help in learning how to deal with the inevitable struggles. 

Conclusion

Great lives are not only for a select group of people, everyone has a chance to make something of themselves and experience the sweet taste of fulfillment. It will take sacrifice, it will not always be fun, and you will not always have people in your corner. The only thing that matters is that you commit to yourself, and outperform everyone in front of no one.

We work with successful companies to increase their net profits using exceptional custom software solutions, contact us here to see how we can help your business grow!