Four Steps to Get Out of a Constant Crisis Mode
In today’s work environment, it’s easy to get caught up in a contagion - either a group contagion, a herd mentality, or self contagion, a habitual way of thinking and feeling . A contagion that everything is a crisis and needs immediate attention. This contagion can derail, decrease focus, and increase anxiety.
Here are a few EQ elements that are particularly important to counter this crisis contagion mindset. I think the order these come into focus is important.
Self-compassion - its easy to get caught up in everything feels like an emergency. Individuals, leaders, organizations that practice self-compassion are better able to maintain calm, navigate setbacks, regain clarity, maintain integrity, build trust and psychological safety. Why is this important? As a leader, the ability to allow yourself the time and space to simply breath and reflect, to calm the brain, to feel something other than anxiety, to ground yourself makes you better and an model for your staff.
Reality Testing - once self-compassion calms you, your ability to reality test greatly improves. Reality testing is the ability and tendency to use what is actually, objectively happening to ground you and inform communication, emotional reactions, and decisions. Stop, get on the balcony and look at the situation with a healthy dose of reality testing to clarify if it is a true crisis or a herd or yourself getting swept away by the contagion.
Understand what true problem solving is - rushing in with a quick ‘fix,’ a band aid, often exacerbates additional problems. Why? Because duct tape doesn’t solve all things. Looking at the problem from multiples angles, multiple whys, prompts better understanding and solutions.
Practice, practice, practice….
