When Things Get Tough
Brandon R Allen
25 years working with leaders to help them organize their work life and transform their relationships by helping them see what they can’t see and do what they didn’t think possible.
If you are a business owner/leader for any period of time, tough times will find you.
When things get tough, it can feel pretty overwhelming and begin to feel like nothing is going well and every situation is against you.
For me, tough times as a leader started the day I said yes to a promotion and ran an office for the first time. I managed to lead our team to poor results, low morale and was left with a feeling that I couldn't do anything right.
My boss, at the time, focused me on one thing to help turn things around. That one thing happened to be me and how I was showing up. I went to a coach training, among other things, recognized some things I could do differently, and started addressing the way I was showing up as a leader.
As it turns out, I was the problem. There were specific things that I realized and learned about myself as a leader that initially was a blind spot. When I started the difficult practice of becoming more aware of my patterns and slowly started to change the way I was showing up. Something happened over time.
Success.
Whatever you are facing right now may not be directly because of you but rather than try and focus on the world around you and change how other shows up or wishing outside circumstances could be different, focus on what you can do.
领英推荐
Focus on the one thing that you know would make the biggest impact in turning things around.
Be mindful and aware.
Be open to change.
Let other people in and collaborate.
Focus on that one thing.
One last thing before I wrap this up for the week. When things aren't going my way, I focus on who I can create value for. Who's on my calendar that I can serve? Who can I reach out to and support?
Instead of wallowing in my own misery, I look to who I can help. There's something about serving others that helps to get me out of scarcity when I find myself in that place.
If you are struggling right now, identify that one thing you can focus on to turn things around and look for the people that you can serve in the process.
When things are tough, what helps you?