Our hearts are broken open. Wide open. Again. This time the violence is very close to home.
It’s difficult to be a Positive Leader in the face of all this horror. It’s easy to lose your balance at a time like this. Shock. Anger. Grief. Despair. All throw your primal brain into action and kick the executive functions to the curb.
Helpful in the short run, usually quite dangerous in the long run.
The powerful emotions we feel at a time like this must be felt – but not fueled.
All leaders lead by example. Positive Leaders are conscious. They are paying attention to how they live their lives. They are growing and evolving in their leadership roles as they empower and enable others to create an experience culture fueled by positivity.
Issues in our world are boiling over. The current discourse is unhealthy. Instead of smart people collaborating on solutions, we have chaos.
As a Positive Customer Focused Leader it’s your responsibility to make sure what’s going on “out there” doesn’t pollute what you’re supposed to doing “in here.” Your job is to inspire, elevate and activate the very best in yourself and others. Especially at a time like this.
Take an inventory of your own feelings.
Take a few moments to identify your feelings. The more specifically you can describe your emotions, the more likely it is that you will be able to use them to your advantage or choose ones more appropriate for the tasks and the time at hand.
E-motions move us – they put our energy into motion. Fear causes us to escape. Joy causes us to play. Sadness to withdraw. Interest to explore. Hope causes us to yearn for positive change. Anger causes us to attack. Love causes us to expand.
What will you choose?
If you don’t want to perpetuate the fear, the anger and the grief, create a reason why people should take their focus off what’s on the news and put it on making a positive difference in their world. Love causes us to expand.
I find the easiest way to get to Love is through Gratitude. Maybe you will too.
Gratitude allows you to bring the executive functions of your pre-frontal cortex back on line after anger has derailed it. It gives you access to your whole brain, not just the primal parts.
While a little anger is motivating and certainly will help push you through the early stages of change, too much of it simply makes you stupid. Without access to logic or reason, which is your birthright as a human being, you behave “like a beast.” I certainly know what that feels like. It’s not the way I want to present myself to the world.
Positive Leaders know how to access the better angels of their nature. Gratitude operates to shift our biochemistries into a beneficial state. Gratitude opens our hearts. Gratitude is medicine for our grieving souls.
Take a “Time In.” Now.
Close your eyes. Deepen and slow your breath. Place a hand on your heart. Breathe in and out though that hand and your heart. Bring to mind something for which you are deeply grateful. See it, feel it, imagine yourself touching it, smell it, taste it. Mmmmmm. Enjoy it, treasure it.
Be aware of the smile creeping across your face. Feel your face soften. Give yourself 30 seconds right here.
Allow yourself to feel goodness even in a time of sadness.
Take this practice into your next meeting (even it’s a one to one.) Help those who work with you shift from feeling helpless to feeling useful.
50 – 70 % of how employees perceive the climate is due to the actions of the leader. Leaders set the mood. It’s perfectly okay for you to feel your feelings – do it with the intention of letting them flow through you, rather than letting them get stuck on anger, outrage and fear.
It’s time for all leaders to step up – most especially you Positive Energizers. Elevate. Uplift. Inspire.
Use Gratitude as medicine for the soul. Shine the light on what is right.
Our hearts are broken open. Wide open. Again. What an opportunity to spread goodness and love into the world. Let’s do our part.
JoAnna
Namaste means, “The light within me bows to the light within you.”
2016
