A Key to Leveraging Change is to Frame Transitions As Doorways

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our life as a whole is a transition. Although we are always in transition, it’s easier to recognize the major transitions than the more subtle moment to moment. There are so many: our first day at kindergarten, graduating from high school or college, getting married, getting divorced, getting our first job, losing our first job, becoming a parent and many more. Transitions have a lot to teach us. They’re very revealing.

Transitions are like doorways. When we open the door, we think we know what we’ll find on the other side but we never know for sure. We don’t know with certainty whether we’ll find a friend or foe, an obstacle or an opportunity. When we face such a door, we feel uncertain, vulnerable, exposed. 

Transitions make us uncomfortable, and they are often accompanied by stress or distress but at the same time they open us to new possibilities. During these moments of heightened vulnerability, it’s possible for us to see things freshly. This can be liberating, but it also can be terrifying.

There are many opportunities to work with the experience of change, since every single day is filled with transitions for the most part go unnoticed. All we need to do is PAUSE and notice such transitions while they are happening and pay attention to what comes up.

When we leave our comfort zone and enter unknown territory, what happens then? Do we experience anxiety, restlessness or boredom? If so, how do we deal with it? What is it about this experience uncomfortable? Notice how difficult it is to stay with it. 

When we enter unknown territory, rather than immediately trying to pin things down, we could try pausing and letting things remain undefined for a moment. Even taking that simple step can begin to loosen our habitual fear of the unknown and undefined.

The more we familiarize ourselves with such undefined moments, the more we can learn to relax with the many gaps in our experience. Instead of covering them over (By distracting ourselves) and living in fear, we could make friends with the constant transitions that mark our lives from the beginning to the end, with no interruption whatsoever.

To your greater courage to explore the unknown,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement ? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees or a SMART Development consultant please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, energy storage and facilities management, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Jumpstart Your Motivation When You’re in a Work Slump

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leader's Digest: Tip of Day

When work starts to feel repetitive or limiting, don’t wait for positive feedback or a promotion to regain momentum. Take ownership of your motivation with these five strategies.
 
1. Create your own mini performance review. Revisit past reviews to identify strengths, goals you’ve set but haven’t pursued, and feedback you can act on now. Use those insights to set specific short-term goals for the next three to six months.
 
2. Seek a stretch assignment. Look for projects that challenge you and align with your company's priorities. Express interest to your manager—you might uncover growth opportunities you didn’t know existed.
 
3. Explore opportunities to shadow others. Identify roles or projects that energize you and reach out to a colleague who's involved. Join a meeting, observe a workflow, or ask a peer how they approach their tasks.
 
4. Strengthen your skills by sharing your knowledge. Mentor someone junior, lead a training program, or support an intern. Teaching others can feel energizing, reinforce your expertise, and  break up your routine.
 
5. Recognize incremental wins. Each week, write down at least three small achievements. Over time, you’ll build a clear narrative of your growth—even in slow seasons.

 To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement ? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, energy storage, facility services & maintenance, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

 

Developing Resilient Team Members During Economic Precarity

 

 

 

 

 

 

“It’s the not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”   --Charles Darwin

Adversity comes in many forms. It may be a precarious economy, many constant changes, or dozens of small pressures. True leaders and team members do more than cope with such adversities—they gain strength from them; they bounce back; they are resilient.

 
A difficulty that almost breaks a person's spirit can be turned into one of the best things that ever happened to them. It is all up to you and your team--your/their attitude and your/their willingness to expand the repertoire of available reactions will determine how well you and your team handle these challenges.

 
In comments about psychologically healthy people, Abraham Maslow referred to the continental divide principle. He said, “I use this principle to describe the fact that stress will either break people altogether if they are in the beginning too weak too stand distress, or else, if they are already strong enough to take the stress in the first place, that same stress, if they come through it, will strengthen them, temper them, and make them stronger.” 

How do some people thrive, gain strength while others in the same circumstances get weaker? What makes the difference?

Resilient people follow a similar pattern of actions after being knocked off track by disruptive change. They:

• Regain emotional balance.
• Cope during the transition.
• Adapt to the new reality.
• Recover to a stable condition.
• Thrive by learning to be better and stronger than before

In the Road Less Traveled, M. Scott Peck says, “Wise people learn not to dread but actually welcome problems.” The school of life arranges for great learning opportunities for people who react to difficulties by learning new skills."

Tough challenges may call on your ability to use both logical reasoning and your intuition. Although these qualities may seem contradictory, being able to use both can be a tremendous help in doing the right thing at the right time.

Many authors write about people as being optimists or pessimists, as type A or type B personalities. Yet many resilient people are both optimistic and pessimistic, impatient as well as calm. How can a person be both one way and the opposite? What is the relationship between being resilient and having paradoxical personality traits?

Resiliency studies arrive at one inescapable conclusion: The one trait that contributes most to being resilient is flexibility or adaptability. 

Why does being flexible increase your chances of responding to tough circumstances? Having a variety of available responses is crucial when handling variable, unpredictable, chaotic, or changing conditions. Successful people in any profession know that it is better to have many possible responses than to be limited to a few. Adaptation is crucial to survival in nature as well as among people.

If you look at someone who does not handle life well, it is often because he always thinks, feels, or acts in only one way and would never consider the opposite. Many people are so taken with the idea of being self-starting, for example they lose sight of the need for the counterbalancing skill of being self-stopping.

Many college students act as if they have only two choices about studying. At one extreme is the bookworm and at the other extreme is the party animal. Students who get the most of college (or work for that matter) are able to both study and play. They study effectively, stop, and then have time for other important activities.

Resiliency can’t be taught but it can be learned. You can create a plan for developing qualities and skills that will improve your and your team's ability to handle economic and social precarity. In the plan, you may want to consider some of the following.

• Ask good questions. Respond to change, new developments, threats, confusion, trouble or criticism by asking, What is happening? Develop a curiosity reflex. In this way you can practice reading new situations more rapidly.
• Increase your mental and emotional flexibility. Tell yourself, “It’s all right to feel and think in both one way and the opposite. Develop many response choices for yourself.
• Assume that change and having to work with uncertainty and ambiguity are a way of life from now on. Learn to handle change with self-confidence. Experiment with different approaches and note consequences.
• Learn how to learn from all experiences. Learning is the antidote to feeling victimized. When you learn to see difficult people and events as your teachers in the school of life, you can examine your vulnerabilities and blind spots and learn how to handle yourself better. The more you take from these encounters, the more capable and effective you become.
• Develop empathy. Put yourself in the other person’s place. Ask, what does she feel and think? What are their views, assumptions, explanations, and values? How does he or she benefit from acting the way they do?
• Resist putting labels on others. In every encounter you should observe and describe what others say and do to give you insight into what they currently think and feel. Resist the urge to label the person because once you’ve put a label on someone, you unconsciously look for ways to reinforce you perception and could be blinded to or dismissive of subtle changes the person makes.
• Take time to observe and reflect. Take several deep breaths. Scan you feelings. Be alert to fleeting impressions and the early cues about what might be happening around you.
• Make yourself useful in all situations. Ask yourself, “What can I do so that things work well for everyone?” Your ability to find ways to be useful makes you valuable—and valued.
• Take time to appreciate yourself. Appreciate your accomplishments. Feelings of positive self regard help blunt the sting of hurtful criticism.

I'm constantly amazed at how resilient we humans are. No matter how dire our situations, we strive to right our ships--to establish a sense of normality. We suffer, yet find strength to carry on. We work together. Strangers reach out helping hands. Kindness abounds.

During challenging times, in order to keep our equilibrium, it's important to pause and reflect on what we do have; what is happening that's positive--even the smallest thing; what we're learning from the experience; and to focus just on the next step. Otherwise, it's easy to become overwhelmed and to stall out.

 

Like the picture of the flower growing in the parched earth, we are resilient. The power is within us to pick ourselves up, to start pulling our lives together (even if they don't look the same as before), and to move forward. 

 

It's times like this when we realize what's really important in life and how critical it is to combine efforts to lift up the whole.
  

 

"Like tiny seeds with potent power to push through tough ground and become mighty trees, we hold innate reserves of unimaginable strength. We are resilient.”

                                   ― Catherine DeVrye, The Gift of Nature

 

Click here to download an infographic on Mastering the Art of Resilience. I invite you to share this blog post and the infographic with your teammates.

 

Be well and find joy and laughter whenever you can.

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement ? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees or a SMART Development consultant please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, energy storage and facilities management, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Smart Leaders Practice Mindful Pausing to Boost Performance and Well-being

 

 

 

 

 

"The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail. Travel too fast, and you miss all you are traveling for."   ~Louis L'Amour

Leaders have a lot on their plate – and a lot on their  minds. They have responsibilities galore and likely a full inbox. They are expected to be on point, on-the-ball, and on top of everything. Many wear busy as a badge of honor. Despite all this, and perhaps even because of it, smart leaders practice pausing throughout the day.

The most effective and confident leaders know that even when it seems they shouldn’t (or don’t think they have time), they need to take a deep breath...

And mindfully pause.

Six Reasons Leaders Need to Mindfully Pause 

Here are six reasons why mindfully pausing is so important – even if it is counter-intuitive to the pressures and demands of the job.

1. Pause to gain perspective. When we are in the middle of the fray, we can’t look up and out to see a bigger picture. But when we stop and pause, we can (literally and metaphorically) lift our eyes to see a different and bigger picture. And a pause might look like asking others for their perspectives too – which is often a very good use of everyone’s time.

2. Pause to refresh. For many years, Coca-Cola used the tagline that it was the pause that refreshes. Maybe you need a soda or water. Maybe you need a five-minute walk. Maybe you need to sleep on a decision or next step. Pauses often help us refresh our minds and reset our attitudes – and both can be valuable to us, and to our teams too.

3. Pause to reflect. The best leaders are learners. If you want to be a more effective learner, one of the best things you can do is reflect on what you have already done. Asking learning questions like “what happened?”, “what worked?”, “what didn’t?”, and “what will I do next time (or next)?” will build your knowledge and skills. But none of that happens until you pause long enough to ask yourself those (and other powerful) reflective questions.

4. Pause to think. Our brains don’t multitask. If we are answering questions and making decisions in real time, we are reacting to the stimulus around us. And reacting isn’t thinking. The biggest reason we need to pause to think is to help us make better decisions.

5. Pause to ignite employee ownership. The powerful ask more, tell less tool is predicated on leaders staying curious a little, rushing to advise a little more slowly. It requires leaders to pause and let silence do the heavy lifting after they ask an empowering question designed to facilitate employee buy-in.

Click here to read a related post:  Leaders Who Ask More Leverage the Power of the Brain to Ignite Employee Ownership ( 5 min read) 

6. Pause to overcome habits. As leaders, we are asked to make decisions and take actions all day long. And the largest percentage of those things we do on autopilot. We react based on our natural inclinations and learned responses - by habit. Habit is incredibly helpful to us. If we treated everything as new, we would be immobilized and accomplish little. 

But if we never consider any options beyond our norm, how can we expect to improve? How can we expect to adjust to changing situations? To be an effective leader in a changing and uncertain world we must be willing to flex. And until we pause long enough to consider something other than our habit, we won’t flex, we will simply repeat.

Most would agree that these outcomes are important. Most leaders would say they could use more perspective, a reset or refresh, new ideas and more. And most of those same leaders say they don’t have time. 

A pause could mean 3 or 30 minutes. It could mean overnight or next week. A pause is a mental deep breath – which doesn’t have to run counter to your need to move projects and plans forward and solve problems and choose between options.

The power of the a mindful pause helps you do all those things more effectively.

Now that you have seen the six reasons to understand the power of the pause, I hope that you will be more willing to consider it as one of your leadership power tools.

I urge you to practice mindful pausing today.

Click on the following links to read two related posts: 

Why It’s Vital for Leaders to Cultivate Mindful Moments During the Day (3 min)

Stop Rushing All the Time  (1-2 min read) 

To your greater success and well-being,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement ? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees or a SMART Development consultant please 

contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, energy storage and facilities management, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.