“I don’t even know how to lead you guys right now” one of my clients recently told her team. Her government agency has been decimated by recent executive orders.
“How do we plan for the future, when each day is whiplash and quicksand?” another client contemplated how to create a roadmap and a structure when the world is in chaos.
These are unprecedented times, and leaders in public and private sector are struggling with new leadership challenges multiple times a day. The metaphor my executive leader clients are finding useful right now is that of the snow globe.
Aside…did you know the stuff that floats around inside a snow globe is called “flitter”? I just learned this here.
We are in a double snow globe situation. Internally, our central nervous system and stress responses are one snow globe. The environment we are leading and living through is a macro-level snow globe. One we have no control over, the other we can learn to handle.
Externally, we have no control over the environment and circumstances in which we have been thrust. The macro-snowglobe is being shaken, dropped, tossed down the stairs, and repeatedly flipped and flopped so often, we have no chance of seeing through the flitter or getting that flitter to settle long enough to see the scene in front of us, let alone see through the snow globe to the other side in order to make a plan for the future. Too much is uncertain at the moment, too much is in flux. We are all just waiting for the giant snow globe of our environment to stop spinning and flipping and shaking. If that weren’t enough, this mega-snowglobe is on a roller coaster and we can’t do anything but hold on until the ride is over.
Internally, however, even though our inner snow globe gets disrupted every time the external one flips or flops, we actually have some control over what we do internally with our response to the upset. The list of things you used to do to calm yourself down in the past may not be enough now, or even the right things. Your job now as a leader is to manage your internal snow globe, and help those you lead to manage theirs. What can you do to settle your flitter? Make a list of activities and thoughts that you can turn to when you observe that your flitter is aflutter. Consciously, intentionally build a few of those activities into your work day every day, so that you can create pockets of space within which to settle your flitter. Try it out and see if you are less exhausted at the end of each day.