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We all have to live stressful situations in our day to day life, they can be personal or professional but we all have to deal with them. A great leader knows how to manage these situations, however to manage them you need to manage yourself first. These are a few tricks I have learned to help me manage myself in situations that are out of the ordinary and stressful:
Take your distance from the situation
Its very important to emotionally distance yourself from the situation. Don’t take things too personally even if they are. When you are emotionally involved, it clouds your judgment. In these type of situations your judgment is your best tool to resolve the issue.
Put things in perspective
I am glad to say that most of our problems in western countries are superficial. Technically if we have our health, food and a roof on top of our head we are better off then 2/3 of the world population. This said most of our problems arise from the complex society that we created. Sometimes remembering that about 100 million people will not eat today reminds us that we are way better off regardless of our situation.
Focus on problem solving
I can never put enough emphasis on the fact that you need to focus on the solution of the problem at hand and not what caused the problem. Most people dwell on the issues or try to find who is responsible. Blaming other people will never fix the problem (even if it’s the case). Take responsibility and show your leadership skills by fixing it and making sure you don’t get into such a situation again. Being a problem solver is seen as a great tool in corporate America, so if you have that skill chances are the next promotion will be yours.
Ask for help
Don’t be afraid to ask for help, there is NO SHAME in doing so. No matter how much you know or how good you are there are always people who can help you. It’s better to ask for advice and succeed then failing on your own.
Educate yourself – Learn by example
School will teach you how to read, write and count. Later in life you get advanced courses about marketing, business and a little bit of philosophy. However most classes don’t teach you how to manage your thoughts or emotions. Read on how people deal with life situations. Everything we know we learned from someone else, the same thing applies to real life situations. The more you deal with hard situations the easier it will be to manage new ones and we all need to start somewhere. See what others are doing and try to use what you learned. Chances are if you are reading this you are already on the right path 🙂
The above are general tricks that will help you keep your two feet on the ground when you feel the world around you is collapsing. It’s important to remember these tricks to keep your mind on track, I can never emphasize enough the power of our brain, all our actions are a direct consequence of our thoughts.
