How Fast Will You Go

You’re on your way to this wonderful, incredible place to meet your friend. Relying on your KAS’s (Knowledge, Abilities, & Skills) you know there’s no doubt about making it there. Except, you didn’t anticipate just how long of a journey it was. Day after day, night after night, you push forward towards your destination. Little by little you notice your car starts to stutter. It doesn’t have as much giddy-up when you press on the accelerator. Warning lights and whistles start to go off, but you ignore them all. Stomping the gas pedal to the floor you think, “I’m just too far down this road to turn back now!” Suddenly there’s a loud BANG…smoke…then nothing. The car couldn’t take the pressure and speed at which you were determined to go.

On the side of the road, you stand looking at an empty vessel of metal and something that used to resemble your shiny, new car. The road was filled with bumps and obstacles that caused dents and scratches. You just never thought the bombardment of potholes, hills, and valleys would lead to such a terminal shut down.

As you continue to focus on your leadership skills, it’s imperative you know how quickly you’ll run out of gas. Evaluating your own energy, effort, and barriers to success will aid you in determining how fast you will go.

In the module series you will:

Module 1- Clarify where you are going. 

Module 2- Establish how you will get there. 

Module 3- Determine how fast you will go.

Module 4 – Identify who will choose to join you.

The remainder of your business, building blocks will be placed on top of your foundation so don’t take these first modules lightly. Your effort here will be palpable and measurable later.

Building an organization and turning it into a success is a journey. How fast you achieve success depends more on your level of energy (gas), effort (traction), and how well you navigate barriers (agility). People that are skilled at leadership and possess the clarity of their vision, mission, and mantra can still fail at being an effective leader when they push and force their body and other people to move faster and faster without being aware of or ignoring warning signs. Just like in the previous analogy, regardless of how strong your will is to get there or how hard you stomp on the gas pedal, your body and other people can only take so many potholes, hills, and valleys before complete shutdown and burn out happens.

It’s time to make sure you have the know-how, tools, and resources to refuel. It’s something that seems so basic and common sense that most people don’t plan for it. They overestimate the amount of energy they can produce and undervalue the amount of energy it takes to go the distance. This module will help you ensure you are well prepared. You start by learning about personal energy and how it impacts you and your leadership. You’ll then discover ways to assess the energy of your team and how to build high-energy relationships. Having the agility to maneuver around barriers with confidence comes by accurately predicting what lies ahead, and the activities in Section 3 will help you with that.

And what if I don’t?

Stress is not inevitable but it is increasing. COVID-19 plunged us into fears around a new disease, unemployment, and food insecurity. A study by the CDC compared similar populations from June 2019 and June 2020 for symptoms of anxiety, depression, and strain. Anxiety disorders rose from 8.1% in 2019 to 25.5% in 2020; depressive disorders tripled (from 6.5% to 24.3%); and mental strain rose from 30.9% to 40.9%. 

Workplace stress is life-altering at all levels of an organization. According to a recent Yale School of Management study, high exposure to very stressful situations reduced a CEO’s lifespan by at least 10 years. Moreover, 80% of second-level executives identify themselves as burned out. Finally, a 2018 survey by Wrike found that in both small and large companies, the major contributor to employee stress was poor communication.

Workplace stress is too costly to ignore. According to the American Psychological Association, at a minimum stress causes U.S. businesses $300 billion a year, a figure that would certainly be revised upward during crises like the Boeing 737 Max airplane failure or the pandemic. A Gallup poll found that 51% of stressed employees are disengaged; and a Colonial Life poll found that 41% are less productive. Stress compromises customer service, causes distractions that lead to costly errors, increases absenteeism, and hurts the company image among future employees and customers.

What if I’m lost?

If you discover through this module that you notice some of the signs and symptoms of high stress and burnout are impeding your leadership:

1. Remind yourself that you are in the right place.
2. Go to the Facebook group and share with your tribe what you’re going through.
3. Email Jen directly at Jen@JBPartners.com for some one-on-one support. 

“When times get tough, and they will, we have to know how to handle those conflicts, manage our teams, and positively deal with clients that we find difficult. If we want a light at the end of the tunnel we have to make sure to create it for ourselves.” Jen Butler, MEd