It’s something I think we all experience with various degrees and it just seems to be a steady fixture in the environment of management.
I call it the Hum of Discontent.
It’s a sound that buzzes in our brains day after day.
It’s seems to surround us — unhappy staff, need for more sales, bummed out customers, “we need to expand”, etc….
On it goes….a constant drip in our nervous systems…the hum of discontent.
OK, then what happens is, we live our management lives in a perpetual state of reaction to the dreaded hum.
We convince ourselves that if we just do steps A, B, and C and do them correctly, we can silence the hum.
And, if the hum doesn’t go away we’re at fault – we’re just not doing things right.
Welcome to what I feel is one of the biggest “treadmills to nowhere” in management.
Trying to get away from the hum.
We can find ourselves running around in vicious cycles of energy expenditure trying to solve it.
It’s a mighty distraction that often has us feeling a lot worse because the hum never goes away.
It just steals our energy and focus trying to fight it.
The hum of discontent is a part of management. It’s always there and always will be.
I think we need to accept that fact and move forward.
Take the pressure off; release the distraction of that constant hum.
If we equate the hum with a feeling that we’re not able to do our job correctly, we’re really in for it.
Relax. Take some deep breaths.
Shift the focus back toward known goals and objectives and take joy in the small steps that are being made.
We can validate ourselves even when no one else is and reflect on the road being traveled.
Let’s accept that a hum is always going to be there and de-personalize it.
What we want to do is flow through our day humming our own tune.
I’m right with you.