How To Demonstrate Calm And Optimism In A Crisis
“What leaders need during a crisis is not a predefined response plan but behaviours and mindsets that will prevent them from overreacting to yesterday’s developments and help them look ahead.”
These are the words that open a powerful series on “Leadership in a Crisis” by global management consultancy, McKinsey which inform this and my next three posts. I explore four behaviours and accompanying mindsets that may help leaders navigate the coronavirus pandemic and future crises, as well as recovery from them. The second post is about making decisions in uncertain times, the third is about mindful and effective communication during a crisis, and the fourth and final post is about cultivating empathy as a mindful leader during times of crisis.
As a mindfulness coach working with the leadership teams of a number of South Africa’s most influential businesses and institutions, what delights me the most about this series is that it speaks directly to the belief that underpins my approach:
That as progressive human beings, we have the capacity and the ability to choose one response over another, so that our lives are not governed by reactivity.
As we grow in mindfulness, we increase our response choices so that we are not held captive to our habituated, reactive responses.
Mindfulness enables us to identify the negative triggers, isolate our reactive response, name our feelings and provide us with a choice space between stimulus and response. We are able to expand our choice of responses and maintain calmness and clarity despite the disturbing nature of the situation we find ourselves in – personally, nationally, globally.
Some – most – of this primary experience, is completely beyond our immediate control: the pandemic, the current unrest in our country and abroad.
What is always within our control, however, is our interpretation of, and response to, these situations.
This is not necessarily easy, it is not necessarily quick, and it may not always be possible.
Mindfulness is not a silver bullet. It is not a panacea. It is not the only option.
But it is proving to be a game-changer for many individuals and organisations that are prepared to open their minds to a new way of doing things.
Reactivity taps into habituated behaviour that we have developed over time in response to various stimuli in our lives – stimuli such as disturbing situations, annoying people or frustrated expectations, the unchecked experience of which is highly likely to show up in our bodies as stress or dis-ease.
My mindfulness offering involves ‘practicing the pause’ and it is all about learning to acknowledge this mind-body connection, becoming accustomed to using the body’s myriad signals, and using this awareness to observe – and then increase – the gap between stimulus and response. Instead of operating from the kind of heightened reactive mode so prevalent in these times of unprecedented change, disruption and uncertainty, we are working with ourselves in a conscious and proactive way to best serve the situation, others, and most of all ourselves.
Whilst there is plenty written about how leaders can shift their organizations to a crisis footing, from launching nerve centers to creating networks of teams, the focus on this post is on leaders themselves, and how they can prepare themselves mentally, physically, and emotionally to respond to the pandemic through the months ahead.
Integrative Awareness
The coronavirus outbreak is posing profound challenges to the way we live and work. A crisis of this scale has left many fearful that disruption—personal, financial, societal—is going to be a way of life for some time.
When the path ahead is uncertain, people turn to leaders to help them gain clarity and a grounded hope for a better future. They want someone with a positive vision, who is confident about tackling the problems we all face yet courageous enough to confront uncomfortable truths and admit what they do not know.
What’s more, people seek community and safety. Business leaders can underestimate how much their employees look to them for information. To address these needs, leaders should act with deliberate calm and bounded optimism. Those who can visibly demonstrate these qualities help their organizations feel a sense of purpose, giving them hope that they can face the challenges ahead.
But that is hard to do in a crisis, since humans are biologically wired to have a stress response (fight, flight, or freeze) when confronted with volatile environments, unpredictable events, and constant stress.
To stay calm and optimistic while under such pressure, leaders should practice what we call integrative awareness: being aware of the changing reality in the outside world and how they are responding emotionally and physically. This intentional practice allows leaders to shift from viewing challenges as roadblocks to seeing them as problems to be solved, and even learned from.
Six practices for leaders to develop their integrative awareness.
While they may seem straightforward and commonsensical, too often leaders don’t follow them, thinking they’ll worry about themselves after the crisis has passed. That won’t work in the current context.
1. Adapt your personal operating model
Your priorities, your roles, your time, and your energy are all elements of the way you operate on a daily basis. Create an operating model that can act as your compass, especially in a crisis that is expected to last for some time. As the coronavirus emerged as a threat, we saw that many leaders went into overdrive, working around the clock to respond effectively. It was only after some time had passed that most started to build more of a structure into their lives.
Ask yourself: How does your personal operating model align with the changes in your work life right now? What does this mean for how you operate with your direct leadership team? What does this mean for how you engage with your family? What are your “non-negotiables” in this model (for example, sufficient sleep, regular exercise, meditation practice, and healthy food)?
2. Set your intention
Take a few minutes at the start of the day to go through your agenda, identify high-stakes topics, and set an intention for what you want to accomplish and how you want the experience to unfold. Many people do this as a visualization exercise, like a Formula One driver imagining driving the circuit before a race. This enables you to predict “emotional hot spots” and provides a bulwark against reactive thinking.
What challenges, curveballs or brutal facts might you have to face, and what possible opportunities can you expect? How do you intend to stay focused on what matters most? How do you intend to react emotionally? What are your non-negotiables and where can you give ground? Also reflect on the outcomes and experiences for others. How will your actions affect other people?
3. Regulate your reactions
While in a stressful situation during the day, observe your emotions and where they are showing up in your body, so you can recognize the stress response, taking a pause to assess the situation and engage your “rational mind” before choosing how to respond. Using the STOP mindfulness technique can help defuse stress in the moment (link).
4. Practice reflection
Reflection is a way to process what happened during the day and to create space to listen to your inner world (mind and body). For example, analogous to a practice in the military called “contemplation,” you can reflect daily about critical situations. What moments were difficult and why, how did you feel, and why did you respond the way you did? Reflection helps you with the big picture and your own reactive behavior and its drivers. It’s also helpful to ask trusted colleagues to give you feedback about critical moments where you had to respond under pressure. What are your blind spots and how can you address them the next time? People have many ways to reflect. Some use meditation, some reflect while running or walking the dog. The important thing is that you make it a regular planned practice.
5. Reframe your perspective
When we’re tired from stress, we tend to see negative messages and threats more readily than opportunities and positive messages. Keeping a balance and staying realistic is not easy. Knowing this, is step one. Handling these situations effectively, is step two. When facing a difficult situation, try to redirect away from the negative explanation and toward an exploration of other possibilities that could be true. Viewing the issue through different possibilities and scenarios—from the most positive to the most negative—can help in planning responses later.
When detailed scenario planning is not an option, choose to take a flexible perspective: this is integrative awareness in action. When faced with a difficult situation, ask yourself: Am I jumping to conclusions too fast? What else can be true at this moment? What is important to me and my team right now? With the information on the table now, make a conscious decision about the best way to move toward what matters most. Build time to revisit decisions regularly, with an open, curious, and learning mindset, building on fresh information coming in and at different stages in the crisis.
6. Manage your energy
One of the most difficult things to do in times of crisis is to balance work needs with your own physical well-being. In a crisis atmosphere, you will need recovery time, or at some point something will give—performance or, worse, health. Top athletes know this, and they make sure they build in sufficient time for recovery when they train for top performance. Apart from recovery time, which may be different for everyone, micro practices that are in support of healthy recovery can include meditation, breathing exercises, cardio sports activities, and even power naps.
In Conclusion
Leadership in a crisis like this is an enormous responsibility, yet it can also be seen as a great privilege. Integrative awareness keeps leaders centered in the storm, giving them the focus they need to take care of themselves and the people and organizations they lead.
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With metta and deep breaths
Nicci
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