I have a reminder for you this month.
This reminder extends beyond managing because it is nearly universal and can be applied to many situations.
So here it is.
When we are facing a situation and feel ourselves sinking into overwhelm and paralysis — we need to stop and take some breaths, sometimes many.
Put it all on pause and reflect for a moment.
This is important.
It’s not uncommon for our personality defenses to sometimes cloak us in confusion, drop us into denial, and prevent us from humbly accepting that the challenge exceeds our current skills, experience, and ability that we think should already exist.
When managing people, this “defense” can have us slipping into leniency, over-accommodation, justifications, and always finding something “more important to do” so as not to have to deal with the issue. We’ve all been there – and the situation just grows in complexity.
Okay, so here is my reminder – find the first actionable step.
I know we’ve all heard that a million times, yet from experience that first step is not moving outward, it’s moving inward.
Inward is important.
To me, that first step is overcoming the fear of truly looking at ourselves and making an honest assessment of our ability.
It is humbling and sometimes brings an ouch.
It can really set us back on our heels. After that, I feel the next step is gathering courage.
Courage first to just move forward (we’ll need it) on how small and tiny the proceeding steps might have to be. Courage just to slow down and be present in an unpleasant situation that will take time. And of course, courage to find help.
Thinking we must push through, be strong, have all the answer, be fully experienced, is just another form of defensiveness that keeps us from taking that necessary “first step” looking inward.
This is just a simple reminder; good news, we are all in this together!