Send to Kindle

If you are worth anything at all, there will be more demands on your time than you can handle. The demands will range from genuine business critical requests to bullies who are only looking to have their needs met to whiners who need a serious lesson in self-reliance and accountability.

You know you have to prioritize, but somehow that checklist becomes obsolete the minute you draft it. The funny thing is, at times you feel you can handle anything and at other times, you question whether anything is worth it.

Monitor the mood swings and tie it to your energy levels. If your physical energy levels are on a roller coaster ride, your mental energy levels will follow. Sometimes your physical energy levels are fine, but you still implode mentally (watch any professional sports).

Find ways to regulate your physical energy (diet, exercise, healthy lifestyle, business class upgrade) and your mental energy (meditation, compassion, accountability) to smooth out the vicissitudes of life. Life will happen to you, but you will always have more control (relatively speaking) over your physical and mental health.

Send to Kindle

Anyone familiar with Heisenberg’s Principle knows that life is a crap shoot. Why should leadership be any different?

The modern workplace is uncertain, fast paced workplaces are doubly so. “If it’s not one thing, it’s another.”

As a leader, you have to be prepared to be caught off guard. You can mitigate the pain with preparation and hope your credibility will save you. It still hurts when you make a mistake, or something goes wrong, or not according to plan, doubly so when someone points it out.

Vulnerability and “commitment” have a cause and effect relationship. If you lack one, you likely will lack the other. Strengthening one will make you stronger in the other.

Become tough, develop a thick skin, so you can feel safe when vulnerable. Be compassionate with co-workers, but let them know that hiding their vulnerability is not the best way to overcome it. Not committing themselves is not an option.

If you are prepared to be vulnerable, and commit yourself, you will set the bar higher for the rest of the organization.