Creating Confident Leaders - New Year, New Start

Hello everyone

It’s been a while since I have posted and lots has happened in the meantime, however, it feels very good to be back writing and creating content for all of you.  I hope you can stay with me, I will be posting my blog now every fortnight and sending you other content on Leadership and Coaching that I hope you will find valuable.

My commitment in 2023 was to reconnect with all of you through my blogs and social media and also to take care of my energy and resilience in order to fulfil my goals for this year.

I know this is the time of year when we all promise ourselves a new start in many areas and one of the words I prefer to use rather than resolution is commitment.  I have also learned that trying to do too much at once leads to overwhelm and failure so one of my other commitments is pacing myself and this is what I want to talk to you about today.

So does your new start feel more like the image on the left at the top of the page or the image on the right?  Rollercoaster or calm water?  Conversations with a number of my coachees and groups this week seem to have thrown out a common theme of leaders saying – “where did January go?”   Many people have come back from the Christmas break, feeling good and with new kickstart of energy only to throw themeselves back into the maelstrom and very quickly succumb to the sheer mass of stuff to do without any clear idea of how they will manage it differently and suddenly – it’s the end of the month and you haven’t really changed anything or created a new start, you are still just on the rollercoaster……hanging upside down with no feeling of control……

 AND, if you feel like this ……………. So do your team!

So how do you pace yourself when everyone seems to expect more and more from you and you hardly feel like you have time to catch your breath?  It means making resilient choices and I have given a few tips that I hope will help:-

• Figure out exactly what is causing the overwhelm. It may feel like it’s “everything” however there are usually one or two real triggers that create that feeling. An example might be, there is one particularly project/meeting/task that feels difficult and feels like it requires time, however, when your diary is back to back with meetings you cannot figure out how to give this important thing the time it requires.  That creates a feeling of failure which you then interpret as overwhelm.  Unless you know the problem you cannot figure out the right solution.

• Once you know the trigger you can then figure out the solution. This may include cancelling other things and saying no and this might feel difficult, however, unless you deal with the trigger the feeling of overwhelm will get worse and often ends in paralysis.  You HAVE to deal with the fundamental cause. 

• Be prepared to have difficult conversations if necessary and push back on other’s expectations of you. As a leader you must role model proper prioritising as people will take their cue from you and your performance will dip unless you do as will the performance of those you lead.

• Slow down and take time to breathe and take time out. Again, its counter intuitive however, there is so much evidence now to show that mindfulness, breathing exercises, meditation, time outdoors and other well being strategies really impact the quality of your thinking as well as your physical health and in order to perform well you must think properly. 

• Give yourself permission for all of the above. Taking time to manage overwhelm rather than be controlled by it is not weakness.  It is true strength and great leaders recognise this and act on it.

 MAKE RESILIENT CHOICES AND THAT NEW START WILL BECOME A REALITY IN 2023

 Take very good care of yourselves and I hope this is helpful

 Warmest regards

 Lois