Leadership Hacks to overcome the Leadership Paradox

High-stakes leadership comes with a higher probability of stress and here’s the thing, stress amplifies the leadership paradox!?

Say what now? I know…let me break this down…

From a brain science perspective, our weaknesses are mostly triggered in reaction to stress and so, those high-stakes moments that require you to be at your best are the moments when it's THE HARDEST to be at your best!

Quite the conundrum right?

At Transcend Global, a lot of our work focuses on helping leaders rewire the brain to build a Leadership Operating Model (LOM) that allows them to sustain high performance even in high-stakes, stressful situations.?

As we learn from olympic gymnast Simone Biles, a big part of high performance leadership is in how we prepare for what we know is going to be a stress-inducing time.?

Here's a few of the "Leadership Hacks" our clients love most:

1?? Manage your Energy, not Just your Time: Your energy levels have a direct connection to your productivity and, your emotional states have a direct impact on your energy levels. When things get busy and it feels like your constantly running out of time, optimizing your energy can be a time multiplier.?

2?? Activate your Calm: Stress impacts our ability to think. By using the breath to activate calm in the nervous system, you can access clearer thinking, better decision making, and more effective leadership.

3?? Master your Attention: Don't let your action addiction destroy your productivity! Multitasking is NOT the solution to a long to-do list. Standford research confirms that multitasking actually kills your problem solving and decision-making skills, it increases frustration, impacts your ability to focus, to prioritize and get this...it shrinks your brain! So, instead of multitasking to try and get through your day, instead, take command of your mind's attention by focusing on what you choose and by choosing your distractions wisely.

4?? Practice Being on the Balcony: Perspective-taking is one of the most critical leadership practices in a world of accelerated change. The ability to be in dance of your day-to-day tasks while also seeing the big picture through a strategic lens is what allows leaders to change course when the tide shifts.

5?? Respond vs React: Stress isn't the things that happen to us but the way we "react" to them...by training ourselves to PAUSE between the thing that happens and our response to it, we're able to lower the stress dial.

Remember: habits automate our actions and success starts with preparation. It's building the daily routines that put us at our best and hijacks our unproductive impulses that tend to show up when we're stressed.

Sharing is caring...so share in the chat what other practices you find helpful in stressful times.