Tag Archives: Leadership

High Achievers, Anxiety And Your Strength Is Your Weakness

Two times this past week the topic of anxiety and high achievers came up. In both cases, it caused me to pause and reflect on my life and leadership journey.

The first time to reflect was when reading an article that found it’s way to my inbox . It was a Harvard Business Review – How High Achievers Overcome Their Anxiety by Morra Aarons-Mele from March-April 2023. (https://hbr.org/2023/03/how-high-achievers-overcome-their-anxiety) Without a doubt, as you continue along your leadership journey there will be times that will come along where you will be exposed to stress and anxiety. Systems of anxiety can be feeling nervous, restless or tense, an increased heart rate, rapid breathing, sweating, trembling, feeling tired or trouble concentrating.

The second time this week was an interview – Zane Lowe interviewing Post Malone following the release of his latest album AUSTIN. So often we look to sports or business leaders regarding anxiety and high performance. During the interview, Post Malone discusses his anxiety and his need to turn to alcohol or drugs to prepare him for concerts or interviews. Post Malone mentions a couple of times that he is trying to enjoy the journey and not focus on the destination.

Zane Lowe and Post Malone

The Harvard Business Review is very informative and a powerful introduction to anxiety, its effects and ways to live with anxiety along with the benefits when managed properly. You will be introduced to topics such as Monkey Mind – trying to focus but your mind wanders far away, Worst Case Scenario – the Stoics loved this one and instead of avoiding thought on what can happen they would face it head on. Most importantly you will be introduced to practices to help – identifying the source of anxiety, self-compassion, humour, exercise, self-talk and guided meditation.

Focusing on my goals has always been a strength of mine and along with it has come a certain level of anxiety. One of my supervisors once told me “I am happy when you are worried about something because I know you will solve the issue”. Easy for him to say, he didn’t know the effect on me. When I reached my early 30’s, blessed with two children and a career where I was the person to send somewhere in the world when a problem needed solving I started experiencing the warning signs. Always eager to take on and overcome the next challenge, I started finding myself having trouble sleeping, tense and feeling sick. I went to my family doctor and received some of the best advice I have every received. He told me, I could give you some medication but I suggest you go to a local Mindfulness clinic – an eight week program located in my hometown. It was difficult for me to go as I have never been someone to admit weakness. Mindfulness has been my go to for anxiety and my practice continues to this day. Mindfulness is a type of meditation in which you focus on being aware of what you’re sensing and feeling in the moment, without interpretation or judgement. When Post Malone says he is focusing on the journey and not the destination – this is the basic lesson of mindfulness.

What works for me will not work for everyone. The important lesson is to recognize the symptoms and if it gets to be too difficult, seek out methods to learn to live with anxiety and turn it into your superpower.

Law of Conservation of Energy Part 1

The First Law of Thermodynamics states that energy can neither be created or destroyed – only converted from one form of energy to another. Sometimes this law is also referred to as the Law of Conservation of Energy. While we can visualize the transfer of energy if we add a flame to an ice cube, the application of this law can be much broader.

We emit energy every day through our body language, the words we speak, how we treat one another, and it is possible to convert negative energy to positive energy. What are the results of positive energy in the workplace?

  • Helps to get you through tough times. The Power of Attraction tells us that whatever you focus your energy on will come back to you. Call it karma, call it good vibrations but they all come back to the theory that positive thoughts bring positive results into a person’s life.
  • Influencing others. Energy, excitement and enthusiasm helps others to feel more energized. This is how we maximize the potential of others.
  • Pulling a team together. Getting a team innovating and practicing the behaviors of Yes, If vs No, Because (see earlier blog).
  • Positive energy will carry you through a tough situation. Negative energy results in challenges being magnified and feeling worse and worse.
  • Positive energy results in generally happier people and happier people are more productive. Negative energy builds resentment and tension, stifling creativity.

How can we convert negative energy to positive energy?

  • Focus on what is in your control. We can not control what life is going to throw at us, be we can control how we react. Mindfulness practice helps to extend the time between stimulus and response.
  • Start a gratitude practice. Be grateful for the positives that you do have in your life.
  • Reframe and change your perception of things.

The Power of Gratitude and Marty McFly

For many people it is the time of year to be grateful for all we have, sharing moments with family and friends that you may not have seen for some time. For others, loneliness sets in, bringing with it feeling of sadness, anxiety or depression.

As per Harvard Health Publishing, there is documented evidence that focusing on gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships. There are many ways to practice gratitude:

  • Saying thank you either in-person or in writing. Even in this day and age, who doesn’t love to see a Christmas Card in the mail.
    • Sending positive thoughts to others and keeping them in your mind or prayers if they are going through challenging times.
      • Keeping a formal gratitude journal where your regularly take time to write down what you are grateful for.
        • Practicing mindfulness meditation, focusing on the present moment and focusing on what you are grateful for.
      • If you do believe in God, or a higher power, take time out to pray and give thanks for all the positives in your life.

It may be challenging at times to find those small things to be grateful for when we are going through difficult times. Recently I was reminded how powerful gratitude can be. We all know Michael J Fox and the challenges he is going through. Michael J Fox’s acting career changed when he weas diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease at the age of 29. I can still remember Alex Keaton in Family Ties, Scott Howard in Teen Wolf and Marty McFly in the Back To The Future movies. Who doesn’t want their own Flux Capacitor?

It was a recent interview that really caught my attention. Michael J Fox reunited with his Back to the Future co-star Christopher Lloyd and detailed how he has had a “really rough year” but still remains “grateful”. ”Well, in the last year I’ve broken my cheek, my eye socket, my hand, my elbow … my shoulder. I had a rough year of getting beat up. But that was really cool because it made me realize … with gratitude, it’s sustainable. If you can find something to be grateful for, if you can find something and say, ‘Well, that’s good,’ … It’ll always get better… I’m very optimistic.”

If you are going though tough times or if you aren’t, continue to take time out to be grateful for those small blessings in your life.

13.8 km and Leadership

There is no secret that I look to professional sports for leadership lessons. Sadly, I follow some sports teams that have had some turbulent years. Right now one of them is Manchester United who have been through a number of recent manager changes without the glory days of success under Sir Alex Ferguson. Most recently, Erik ten Hag has agreed to take on the challenge of restoring Manchester United back to the top of the Premier League.

The season did not start off well with a humilating defeat to Brentford, a team that Manchester United should be able to compete with. Most embarrassing was the lack of effort – the statistic from the game that bothered Erik ten Hag the most was that the opposing team out ran his team by 13.8 km. We have discussed before, it is the actions you take every day that lead to success.

Erik ten Hag’s response to the loss? Cancelling the day off and bringing the team members into training for each of them to run 13.8 km in scorching 33 C temperatures.

What impressed me the most was not that Erik ten Hag cancelled the day off and got the team in to run. No, what impressed me the most was that he shouldered the blame as well and matched each team member step for step and completed the 13.8 km run. It ended up being a tough run for the players, but even more difficult for the 50 year old coach. So many lessons in this single act.

Mirror and Window – Leaders look in the mirror first and question what they can do better.

Model – If you can’t walk the talk then no one will walk with you.

Be swift – When a correction is necessary, respond quickly.

Focus on the actions – As John Wooden says, don’t focus on the scoreboard rather focus on the actions to get you there. In this case it was running 13.8 km.

It may be too early to see if Erik ten Hag will get Manchester United back but here is to the small actions of leadership he is making.

Intrinsic/External Motivation and Soccer Canada

In Canada we are getting ready for something that hasn’t happened for 36 years – the Men’s National Soccer Team is going to the World Cup. What happened? John Herdman is what happened. If you don’t know about John Herdman take some time to listen to or watch his talks. John is a self proclaimed “Hobbit from New Zealand”.

John Herdman was actually born in England, loved soccer (football) and made his way to New Zealand. In 2011, John made his way to Canada to take over leadership of the Womens National Team. Coming off their worst international performance ever, John quickly led the Womens Team to a gold medal finish at the 2011 Pan American Games in Mexico followed by bronze medals at both the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games.

In January 2018, John inherited the Canadian Mens National Team ranked 94th in the world. Where are they today, currently ranked 33rd and on their way to the World Cup.

How does John do this? John finds the North Star for the team and individuals on the team. This becomes the external motivation for the team and players – unanimous focus on a common goal. While John provides external motivation, he also puts the team together with individuals that are internally motivated and will “Live Above the Line” and provide 80% + every single day. 100% is not possible, but 80% is the minimuim requirement (at approximately 13:45 of the clip below). Living below 80% is mediocrity and if you live below that line, you don’t represent Canada because you don’t deserve it.

Now in your personal or professional life, are you passionate about what you do and are you intrinsically motivated to Live Above The Line?

Who Is Your Pitcher of Water?

You’ve heard it before – circle yourself with personal and professional connections that will help you improve. It doesn’t matter who you are, those challenging times will come at some time in your life. Your personal glass of water can sometimes be half empty or half full. We can’t always be at 100%. What I find more important is that you have a support network around you that can lift you up during those times. That is what I call my pitcher of water. I have been blessed throughout my life to have pitchers of water around, always looking to fill up my glass when needed.

As leaders, we need to do the same thing. When you have that opportunity to refill someones glass, don’t let that opportunity pass you by. Someday your glass will need a refill.

Upstream Solutions

Too often when problems arise we treat the symptoms and not the root cause. Dan Heath wrote a tremendous book called “Upstream” and introduces practical ways to identify opportunities, overcome resistance and make a change.

When entering a new organization look for the champion, the individual that needs to repeatedly step in and “save the day”. Many organizations cherish and reward the champion. In Upstream thinking organizations, there are no champions. The true champions have focused on eliminating the problem from occurring in the first place. You can also look for the frustration – tension between teams or individuals.

We are introduced to some reasons that leaders do not take the time to move upstream. 1) Problem Blindness. You know when everyone tells you that in this industry or in this company that’s how we have always done things. That’s the tunnel vision that comes from companies that have existed for years and have become complacent with current performance (anyone heard of Blackberry?).
2) Lack of Ownership. That is someone else’s responsibility. I like to tell teams that the leak may be in the other end of the boat but if the boat goes down, well we are all going down.
3) I’m too busy and I can’t deal with that right now. Let’s work on that another day.

To succeed in moving upstream and making change, leaders must focus on the following: 1) Leaders must detect problems early. 2) Leaders must target leverage points in complex systems. 3) Leaders must find reliable ways to measure success. 4) Leaders must pioneer new ways of working together. 5) Leaders must embed their successes into systems to give them permanence.

This is a great read for any leader struggling to get results and dealing with the same issues over and over again.

Newton’s First Law (Law of Inertia)

Newton’s first law (the law of inertia) states states that if a body is at rest or moving at a constant speed in a straight line, it will remain at rest or keep moving in a straight line at constant speed unless it is acted upon by a force.

Being an Engineer, I love when we can apply laws of physics to our daily lives and leadership journeys.

Perfect time to understand this law with the NHL hockey playoffs on right now. You get the player cruising into the other teams area, focused on the goalie and where to shoot the puck, when WHAM!!!!! Out of nowhere comes a 200 lb hockey player focused entirely on you and how best to stop your motion. This is a force that is difficult to get away from and following the impact, you learn a lesson you will not too soon forget.

Now, in our personal or leadership journeys it is very easy to maintain status quo – either at rest or following a straight line. It is very rare that a 200 lb man will crash into you and remind you not to eat that sugary treat, drink one more cocktail, continue to think of ways to become more efficient even when your company is profitable or look for ways to engage your team members and help them grow even after a recent promotion. It comes down to each and every one of us to continue to improve every day. We have been given an opportunity to exist in our current state on this planet for a limited time.

There are so many opportunities in life to seek out information, techniques and better ways of doing things. We are bombarded with blogs, books, articles and tips of the day. It is up to you as a leader to continue to look for ways to improve, either by searching out information or coaches that can help in your journey. The force required for change can come from within or can come from outside. Think of the case when your Doctor tells you that if you don’t veer from your current path you may reduce your time on this planet. Or when your supervisor tells you that status quo is not an option and without change you may be looking for a new job.

Be the force necessary to make change in your life.

Linear Progress

Your leadership journey will not always have linear progress. You know when everyone tells you that when you put in the work you will see progress. Hate to tell you, sometimes you don’t see the progress you are expecting.

Whether it is exercise, dieting or your leadership journey you need to be prepared for non-linear progress and even sometimes taking a step backward. If you find yourself going too far backward it may be time to seek out guidance or advice. The same strategies or approaches will not work for all situations. Send me a note if you feel that your linear progression has stalled and we can discuss some new approaches.

Risk Management

In the excitement of a looming opportunity, decision makers are infamous for concentrating on what a strategy could do for them if it succeeded and not enough, or at all, on what it could do to them if it failed. “What future events could make this plan go wrong?” and “What would happen to us if it did go wrong?”