Leading yourself
Today’s topic is a deviation from working on others to working on the G.O.A.T… you!
Burnout, lack of goal clarity, indecision and frustration are all wreaking havoc on your progress. Even worse, they are crippling your ability to lead yourself and your team. Let’s look at what’s hurting you and how we can get you back to leading the herd.
Gone adrift?
It’s August 2021. COVID (sick of it, I’m sure) has run amok and the talent pool for good staff is insanely depleted. You’ve most likely had very little time off and you’re feeling like you just keep losing ground. You’ve gone from leading to simply surviving (coping feels like a distant memory). What does this pain actually look like?
Zero patience for the inconsequential – you used to be tolerant of mistakes and the learning curve the team has. Corporate politics never got you down. Now, you want to punch Janet in the face everytime she emails you.
Treading water without any idea which way land is – your goals have faded into the distant past. You don’t know where you’re going and to be honest don’t really care because you’re so f*cking busy you can’t even think about tomorrow.
Apathy for what once energised you – the thought of climbing the ladder, tackling that next innovative project or leading a new product rollout have all lost their appeal. You don’t have the energy and couldn’t care less about those next growth enablers.
Self-doubt – you’re starting to wonder if you can’t cut it. Maybe you’re not as good as you once thought you were. Minor mistakes are starting to plague you with self-doubt.
I’m here to get you back on track
While we may need a deeper convo about how we get you on track and recharged (something I thoroughly enjoy), I want to give you some tactics to jump start your batteries today:
Do a post-mortem – You weren’t always this way. You also used to really love your work/job/progress/reflection in the mirror (those are all ok!). But something happened (probably multiple things). We have to start by conducting a post-mortem and figuring out what did this. Look at: the projects that drained you, the people that drained you, and the goals that drained you. Once you identify those, we can move to step 2. Be honest and own your part in this.
Redefine your goals – Now that you know what’s impacting you, it’s time to get back to your ultimate focus: your growth and goals. It’s easy to become apathetic when you feel stagnant. If the goal is too big, make it smaller. If you aren’t seeing progress, make a new path. Remember that clear goals drive clear action. No goals = no action.
Blow up the mundane – The corporate machine is full of the mundane. Bruce’s status meeting, Janet’s project resets, your boss’s lack of focus, etc. While you can’t completely eliminate all of these you can blow up the mundane nature of them. You can exit Bruce’s status meeting, push Janet to commit and get your boss to make decisions (or even better, delegate them to you). This is about taking back control and owning your part in controlling the environment around you. Don’t let other’s medocrity determine your trajectory.
Now go do you and get back on track. It’s your time to return to being the badass you were always meant to be.
