As Americans, we are suffering emotionally. We are feeling this pandemic and the complex emotions that accompany the loss of normal. We cannot go to our favorite eatery. We cannot travel. We cannot escape reality at a movie theater. We cannot get a simple haircut. We know we are suffering, but we may not know exactly why. To make matters worse, we are suffering financially without a solution to the problem. We feel helpless.
This ongoing crisis is defining you in the minds of your people. Your leadership (in their eyes) is being formed like cement and will be hardened in their minds once this is over. Crisis defines leadership or the lack there of. In the immortal words of the poet Maya Angelou, people may not remember what you said, people may not remember what you did, but they will always remember how you made them feel.
We are all experiencing stages of grief. We are grieving our sense of normalcy and our perception of control. Many people are grieving our businesses as we knew them. We will recover and things will be normal again. Listen to a teacher from China discuss regaining normalcy.
You are defined by your response to adversity. Your team is watching and taking mental queues from your action. You are under the microscope right now. Every leadership book you have read, every class you have taken, every failure you have learned from prepared you for this moment. Your people need you to lead now more than ever. It is the job. It is not a science. You must make quick decisions with imperfect information. You are the one person everyone else is looking at to make sense of this crisis.
Check google and it is all about lowering stress at work. Workplace stress seems to be an epidemic. As leaders, we are challenged to lower the pressure. Take it easy on our people. Do not demand more, better, faster, safer, or cheaper. People will quit if you put them under stress. You cannot have high expectations with today’s fragile workforce. Sound familiar?
Do micromanagers know they are a micromanager? Are they self-aware enough to know how their people feel? Do they know it drives most people crazy to have a micromanager boss? Can a micromanager be officially diagnosed? The answers are not usually, no, maybe, and yes.
Do you work for a mediocre company? Do you lead a mediocre company? I have compiled 10 fatal trends to identify mediocre companies. They are indicators that you have a problem with the future. You are dying a slow death from the infection of mediocrity. If you feel like this is describing your company, it is purely coincidental. Or is it? Following are the trends in no particular order:
Sometimes quitting is not an option. If you have a bad boss, you are not alone. Discover 10 tools to survive and possibly make things better.
Let's ditch S.M.A.R.T. goals. They infect us with mediocrity. Watch out for the real zombies in life. Learn how to set new goals that drive success in business and life. WARNING: Don't watch this unless you want to be challenged!
Where we are in life is directly caused by the decisions and actions of our past. Each decision, large and small, creates our current reality. We can easily blame others by not owning our decisions. However, blaming others does not help us. Blame becomes the excuse and we are stuck. Freedom from blame is the most powerful reality in life. We are liberated by the choices we make for the future.
Is being average, ordinary, or common unethical? How are you showing up in life? How are you showing up for your family? How are you showing up for your health? How are you showing up spiritually? How are you showing up professionally? Where is mediocrity showing up in your life?
I am convinced that most people know the basics of good supervision when they see it or are asked to describe it. Something is causing normal people to become horrible supervisors.