[Flash] Got Quarantine Fatigue? Make Time to Wisdom Swap, Mastermind, and Mentor
|
All Posts by Ann Tardy
[Flash] Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying, Said Your Career
In the movie The Shawshank Redemption, Tim Robbins’ character speculates, “Guess it comes down to a simple choice: get busy living or get busy dying.”
He was explaining his focused attitude and his deliberate actions every day in pursuit of his goal.
Based on data published recently by 451 Research, we better apply “get busy living” to our careers as well.
451 Research predicts 20 long-lasting changes to the workplace expected from the coronavirus impact, such as video interviewing and virtual-reality powered collaboration tools.
But #4: Upskilling and Cross-skilling are being implemented immediately. “Businesses will look to invest in developing employees’ new abilities [upskilling] to apply those skills across different work initiatives [cross-skilling].”
Hint Water
Once the pandemic hit, the employees in the field who handed out samples at grocery stores and events were extraneous. Hint quickly redeployed and retrained those team members on virtual selling.
Skybox Security
Their team of field marketing managers responsible for organizing client events, trade shows, and marketing opportunities became under-utilized when events around the world were canceled. Skybox is now cross-training this team on digital-based marketing, content development, intent analytics, and PR.
Dr. Praeger’s Purely Sensible Foods
When stay-at-home orders were announced, they experienced a 70% decline in sales of their veggie burgers to restaurants and hotels. They immediately shifted those sales teams to focus on grocery stores.
It’s strategic for businesses to leverage their talent through upskilling and cross-skilling; but it’s smart for employees to contribute value in new ways:
• Say yes! to opportunities
• Request cross-training
• Take classes
• Get certified in a new skill
• Learn the business
• Connect across departments and business lines
• Repurpose the product
• Reimagine service delivery
• Reinvent a process
• Consider what the team/customers need in this new environment
• Repeatedly ask others: “How can I support you right now?”
Get busy living or get busy dying… the difference lies in our intentionality.
[Flash] Mr. Rogers Would Love Pork Belly Ventures
| Annually since 1973, cyclists have been pedaling across Iowa in a week-long bicycle-touring event called RAGBRAI.
And annually for over 20 years, Pork Belly Ventures (PBV) has been supporting thousands of RAGBRAI cyclists by offering charter services: luggage transfer, tent setup, food, entertainment, showers, bathrooms, and beds (for those who don’t want the camping experience). Until now. The 48th RAGBRAI has officially been cancelled for 2020. PBV founders Tammy and Pete will undoubtedly struggle – RAGBRAI is their predominant source of income. And while they are reinventing their business, they’ve found some innovative and generous ways to help… Not only have they offered instant and full refunds to anyone who has already registered… they also donated their trailers to three hospitals. Why? Because they learned that medical workers are putting in long hours, sometimes unable, or unwilling to go home between shifts. They are desperate for rest. Last week Tammy and Pete stationed PBV hotel trailers, shower trailers, and bathrooms outside of Mercy Hospital and Jennie Edmundson Hospital in Council Bluffs, Iowa and Omaha Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska. And their agreement with the hospitals? No cost and no time limit. Mr. Rogers would be heartened! Fred Rogers, host of the children’s television series Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood once shared: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day I am always comforted by realizing that there are so many caring people in this world.” How can you be a helper?
We all have something to offer and some way to help… we just need to shift our focus from our circumstances to our contributions. |
[Flash] Reframe for Resilience… in a Crisis or at a Crossroads
Earlier this year I registered for a conference in June that I was eager to attend. But given the reality of the pandemic, I was anticipating a somber cancellation email citing unprecedented times.
Instead, I received an email from the CEO that rippled with delight, “Great news! I’m thrilled to announce that the 2020 event will now take place in October!”
And in an instant the cloud over this conference dissipated…
Perception dictates how quickly we can recover from difficulties, whether in a crisis, at a crossroads, or in a conversation.
George Boonanno, a psychologist at Columbia University explains that events are not good or bad… unless we perceive them as such. The experience we have of an event is not inherent in the event – our experience dwells in how we psychologically construe the event.
Fortunately, we hold the power to interpret, add meaning to, and frame an event as: good, bad, insignificant, traumatic, positive, negative.
And the frame we choose determines the strength of our resiliency:
• If we frame an adversity as a threat, we will be unadaptable, weakened, paralyzed by fear, and at risk of a downward negative spiral.
• If we frame an adversity as a challenge or an opportunity, we will be galvanized to keep moving, learning, growing, strategizing, and innovating.
Caution, however, we tend to frame unconsciously and based on past experiences.
To temper the past, intentionally frame the present, and ensure resilience for the future, explore these Reframing Questions with your team/friends/family:
• What potential things could we gain from this?
• What are we discovering about ourselves?
• What can we do instead?
• What lessons have we learned?
• What is positive and valuable about this experience?
• How is this situation an opportunity for us?
There are no black clouds unless you believe it. ~ David V. Bush, author of Grit, Gumption, and Spunk
[Flash] Crisis Exposes Character (and Tests It and Strengthens it…)
Albert Einstein said, “Adversity introduces a man to himself.”
According to David Brooks, author of The Road to Character, we build our character through our actions.
And in crisis, that character is exposed and tested…
Fortunately, as Brooks’ book title indicates, it’s a road to character – a journey, not a goal or a destination. Brooks explains that people of character use every experience (even adversity) as tools for transformation. So while crisis exposes and tests our character, we can also use it to strengthen our character. And every day we get another opportunity to do just that – to serve without expectations, to be honest, courageous, humble, and grateful. When everything around us feels unpredictable and uncertain, our character is the one thing we can completely control. |
[Flash] It Doesn’t Get Easier. We Get Stronger.
|
[Flash] Calm is Contagious (and so is Chaos, Panic, and Stupid)
Navy SEAL Commander Rorke T. Denver: “The best advice I ever got in Navy SEAL training is simple: calm is contagious.”
While introducing his story, Rorke revealed, “We can supplant any word for ‘calm’ and it still applies to every leadership situation: chaos is contagious, panic is contagious, stupid is contagious.”
His final training exercise as a Navy SEAL involved planning, organizing, and executing a mission as a team. Toward the end, they were running out of time and floundering. And the student who taken on the role of ranking officer in this exercise was screaming his head off “like the Tasmanian devil.”
In the middle of the chaos, the trainer halted the exercise to share some sage leadership advice with the trainees:
“As leaders, as captains, as officers, if you keep your head, they’ll keep their head. If you keep it together, they’ll keep it together. And if you lose it, they’ll lose it.”
Essentially, others mirror our behavior simply by virtue of our title or position (ex: supervisor, manager, team lead, mentor, parent).
In psychology it’s called “social cognitive theory.” In other words, people observe the actions and behaviors of those they respect in order to shape and mold their own actions and behaviors.
SEALs know the importance of calm to bring out the best in themselves and others. And because of the power of mirroring, they intentionally create calm.
How?
- Focus on the mission at hand
- Identify stress/panic triggers
- Recognize when emotions escalate
- Stay cognizant of the ripple effect of emotions on others
- Pause and breathe (research shows that it takes 4 seconds to get into a calm zone)
- Laugh… it reinforces the belief that it’ll all be OK
Whether we’re at a crossroads or in a crisis, our reactions are powerful and contagious. React purposefully.
[Flash] Hope Springs Eternal! (a Plea for Optimistic Leadership During this Crisis)
| “Hope springs eternal” describes an endless renewal of hopefulness – our human tendency to find fresh reasons for optimism.
As leaders and mentors, we bear the power, the platform, and arguably the promise to ignite optimism – to be the beacon of hope, particularly when people are desperate for it. Like now. How? 1. Provide Perspective. 2. Connect Constantly and Creatively. 3. Create Future-Focused Conversations. 4. Practice Resilience. 5. Circulate Inspiration. 6. Leverage the Shared Experience. 7. Be of Service. We cannot be stuck and in action at the same time. When hope springs eternal, people spring into action! |