Bringing people closer

There was a great story that came out of the Queensland floods.� A shop owner, with only moments left before the oncoming tidal surge that would flood his shop, was desperate.� He had a tonne of stock on the shelves that would all be damaged and not enough time or manpower to get it all to high ground.

In desperation, the only thing he could do was put a sign in the window that simply read, �HELP�.� Within minutes there were between 50 and 80 people forming a human chain that helped remove every piece of stock and load it into a truck (also supplied by one of the good Samaritans).� The stock, and most likely the man�s livelihood, was saved.

What can this tell us about teams?� The surge of goodwill, selflessness and discretionary effort was what just about every leader I know dreams about, but few manage to achieve.� Galvanising everybody in a time of crisis is not only powerful, but is blatantly misused in today�s workplace.

The upside of crisis

It�s well documented that teams that work together to overcome a crisis create stronger bonds.� There are even some leadership authors that encourage you to �manufacture� a crisis in order to make this happen

(for a good summary of implementing a crisis, read this).� The biggest downside to this would be that if you got found out, then any trust the team had in you would be eroded, so this is not something that I would recommend.

However, if you do have a crisis on your hands, I also suggest you take advantage of it.� How will you use it to build interdependence and break down barriers?� How will you reinforce your key messages to build the team culture that you want to see.� And after the crisis, how will you reflect on the work that the team did in order to keep the positive momentum?

The problem when everything�s �urgent�

Unfortunately, there are many employees who are subjected to a constant stream of tasks labeled as crises and a constant barrage from leaders telling them everything is dire.� A mentor of mine once told me this: �If everything is urgent, then nothing is.�� His point was twofold:

1) Once everything becomes urgent, then everything is exactly the same.� By definition, everything is then average and so there is no real urgency, and

2) When we make everything urgent all the time, then people get desensitized to �urgency� and they get complacent and skeptical.

If you�ve been involved in an organisation that does this regularly, then you know exactly what I mean.� When Kotter wrote �A Sense of Urgency� I don�t think this is what he meant.

If you are a leader and find yourself constantly trying to press the gas pedal by doing this, just know that your efforts are becoming less and less effective with every rev of the engine.

In Summary�.

A crisis can be a blessing and a disguise.� Used the right way, they can galvanise a team to action and create bonds that last a long time.� They need to be handled the right way and team members need to feel as though you are genuine.

Next time you face a seemingly insurmountable hurdle, use the opportunity wisely.

Should You Control Your Emotions Or Not?

How do you keep a lid on your emotions?� You actually shouldn�t. �Now, I am not saying that you should go ballistic at every chance you get.� That wouldn�t be helpful at all.� Last time I yelled at just about anyone I cared about things went badly.� But suppressing emotions is�probably the worst thing that you can do if you want to maintain healthy relationships and perform at your best in the office.

Hard Work

Eveyone will agree that when we try to keep our emotions deep inside and don�t let people see them, it takes a lot of mental effort. Sometimes an extreme amount.� And that mental effort could be used elsewhere like controlling our behaviour, cognitive performance like problem solving and decision making, and also remembering things � holding things in short term memory.� You see all of these things (including suppressing emotions) takes place in the same area of the brain and if you are burning fuel doing one thing, then chances are you won�t have any fuel left to do some of the others.

We also know that the stress on people around us is dramatic.� There is evidence to suggest that people who have to watch someone suppressing their emotions show elevated levels of stress hormones and�stress reactions.

So what can you do?

What can you do without getting into serious trouble? �If bottling them up doesn’t work and expressing them relentlessly doesn’t work either, what then?

Well it seems that one of the best ways to deal with negative emotions (or even extreme positive emotion that might be clouding your ability to perform) is to name it.� This method is called labeling and it seems to switch on our�brain�s handbrake � the part that stops circuits from repeating themselves.� If you can say what the emotion is � succinctly � then it seems the emotion starts to suppress itself.� A recent study also found the same result when people wrote about their emotions and anxiety before having to perform.� Those emotions were lessened.

Don’t go too far….

The only caveat that seems to be in place is that you have to make sure that you do this succinctly.� Wallow too much in your own negative feelings and you are bound to make them worse.� And anyway, no one wants to listen to you whine�..not even yourself.

Break down your goals into weekly processes: if you said you would get fit, then your�process might be four�workouts per week.�Make a list�with four checkboxes and label them workout 1, workout 2 etc.� Put it somewhere visible and whenever you do a workout check off one box.

Put up a new page at the start of each week and this will help with short term motivation and self-accountability You can do this for anything so long as you identify your key performance behaviours.

You will find that as the week progresses your visible chart will either remind you of�how well you are doing or give you a kick up the rear.� If it�s Wednesday night and you still haven�t done a single workout, then your chart says that you�d better start re-arranging the rest of your week.� Likewise, if you�ve already done three workouts by Wednesday then you can get a hit of dopamine from that little accomplishment.

In this way, your goals become more immediate and short term.� You give yourself immediate feedback and if you have a partner who sees the chart, your commitment is more real and you’ll feel more accountable.

You can do this for anything � work, family, relationships and personal endeavours.� The key is to find your key performance behaviours that will make the most impact in achieving that goal.

For the rest of the performance habits, click here