“Aren’t these the most awful times you’ve ever seen?” asked the mid-level executive as she sat at the VIM Executive Coaching conference table. She expanded with a litany of current problems: “There’s inflation, supply-chain issues, baby formula, racial intolerance, pollution, COVID, hybrid workplaces, no workplaces, and have you filled up your car lately?’
“Wow. Don’t forget the Dodgers moving to Los Angeles and what happened to Pearl Harbor,” we chided.
“Huh?”
That’s our point exactly
We were not mean-spirited in trying to stop her in her tracks. Rather, we were pointing out a rather age-old truth: times have always been tough. We can let those times define us or we can define them.
We cannot control the issues of the day but we can learn to be mindful of them and control our response to them. Fortunately, in her litany of complaints, our new client did not touch too much on her personal problems.
At VIM Executive Coaching, we obviously focus on business coaching. Nevertheless, we find that in this unusual time as executive leaders and their families go from lock-down to something else, a bit of the personal blends in with the business. It adds to the pressure.
Let’s face it as well, that not only are we challenged, but messaging comes at us from all sides that only fuel the situation. We must admit that cable news – and its points of view, cell phones and social media add to stress rather than ease it. Depending on your age group, anywhere from 50 percent to 90 percent plus “sleep” with their cell phones within arm’s reach.
We often wonder if all of the messaging and immediate response mindsets created by “things digital” accomplish much more than to make challenging times even more challenging.
Dial it back
We don’t encourage our clients to consider the practice of mindfulness meditation and to become more mindful, as an escape or idle practice. Rather, mindfulness is a vital look at things the way they are, and to help us clarify. We don’t meditate to hide (or not see), we meditate to be as aware as possible to see and experience as much as we can.
The most important lesson in these challenging times is to not overly react, but to respond to the situations in our work lives.
Taking the litany of problems our new client initially presented, piling them on top of ourselves and adding conflicting points of news to our existence, accomplishes almost nothing, especially in a business sense. It only adds to stress and unfortunately, when we’re under stress, we tend to wildly react rather than to be deliberate.
Mindfulness practices help us to dial back the reactions and to respond to what we can do, and to listen to our options and best actions.
For example, every business in America, from the food truck to the insurance conglomerate, is currently worried about inflation. It is a genuine concern. Nevertheless, within our own sphere, we can either allow that inflation to define us, or we can look for ways to mitigate what we can do to navigate the situation. Within that context, our best plan of action might be to authentically respond to the advice of others, weigh the ideas of others, convey the best messaging to others with compassion and purpose.
No, we at VIM Executive Coaching are neither naïve nor blind to economic impacts, but instead to stress that the greatest lessons we may be learning may be the one where we must listen with intention and take counsel with compassion.
In the end, we may be powerless to single-handedly change anything, but instead be mindful enough to respond how we can ease the pressure on our organizations and ourselves.