Suck It Up, Get a Helmet, and Drive On!

It’s been just over a month since the last Leader’s Locker post, but for good reason.  It’s not because I’ve been lazy or had no desire to post, this last few weeks have just turned out to be pretty crazy busy.

Crazy busy to the point that these old adages have been floating around in my head for days.  You likely know them well enough to complete them…

When it rains….

When life gives you lemons….

When the going get’s tough…

What doesn’t kill you….

Did you get them all?  Apparently, when it pours your supposed to make lemonade and get going so you can be stronger!  Right?

My favorite saying though was one that I used often when I worked in Emergency Management when things got really crazy – “Suck it up, get a helmet, and drive on.”

So what do you do as a leader when it’s raining heavily in your life and the demands are coming at you faster than you can count them?

Here are 4 things to consider:

• Project Confidence!  When the ground shakes and the skies grow dark, the troops look to their leader for strength and direction.  If you appear rattled it can have a devastating impact on the morale of the team.  They need you to be calm, even-keel, and steadfast.  This is the time to lead and provide direction – regardless of how bad it gets.  If you get rattled, they get more rattled.  If you get scared, they get more scared.  If you stand strong and are unwavering in the face of a tough situation, you may be the one thing that keeps them going.  They look to you.  They need you.

• Lean in to it!  Have you ever stood in a strong wind?  What happens if you lean backwards?  The wind either pushes you backwards or knocks you over.  BUT, if you lean forward, what happens?  You can usually endure whatever the wind dishes out at you (unless you’re in a tornado – then it’s just plain bad unless your name happens to be Dorothy).

So what can we learn from leaning forward?  When things get crazy – lean in to it so the situation or demands don’t knock you off of your feet.  Approach the challenge head on, get a good look at it, and quickly determine how you’re going to approach what’s coming.

• Prioritize!  The faster the demands come in a short period of time, the higher the stress, the more likely that you are going to miss something – which is why triage becomes an important activity.  Looking at all the tasks and asking – What is it?  How important?  How long will it take to accomplish?  Where does it rank in all of the other things I need to get done?  This means that you may have to decide to delay some things and/or not to do some things at all, but at least you are making a conscious and calculated decision as to what demands your precious time and where you spend your energy.

Quite frankly, this is why I haven’t posted in a few weeks.  It’s not that I don’t love blogging, rather it’s that I had to prioritize increasing family and work responsibilities over blogging.  ….and sometimes that’s just the way it goes.

• Fight the good fight!  This is where the phrase – ‘suck it up, get a helmet, and drive on’ comes in.  Some times you just need to double down on your resolve and dig deeper to get things done.  And as a leader, you often need to take people with you, which means you need to ratchet up the energy throughout the tough times.  Not only will you need the energy to stand on your feet, set priorities, and make decisions, but you’ll need it to feed your people.  Your example, your direction, and your ability to inspire will be key to charging your troops’ batteries to keep them going (in the right direction) when the chips are down and demands are crazy.   They will literally feed off of your energy – so you need to make sure that your energy output is at the right level.  Perseverance and tenacity are key words that comes to mind here.  This is the time that your true leadership colors are on display.

The good thing about crazy busy times?  They don’t last forever.  Sometimes it may seem like it – but eventually the craziness subsides.   And I know that I can handle anything for a short period of time.  And so can you.

So when the  raining turns in to pouring – suck it up, get a helmet, and drive on.  Be the leader that your people need you to be.

What do you do when times get crazy?