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Keeping Your Composure!

24975217_sToday’s workplace needs more composure from their leaders now more than ever. Market changes, increased demands, change management requirements and just trying to keep up your overall direction; makes a leaders job difficult. How that leader reacts to these demands is extremely telling about how effective that leader is. Remember that all eyes are looking at the leader! How do you project when the workplace is needs you the most? Composure is reflected in you attitude, actions and overall presence. As leaders you have to not only focus on elevating performance and development of your team, but we can not forget about making the workplace and your team feel safe and secure. Uncertainty and fear are the biggest down fall that goes unnoticed.

I have been lucky enough to work with many folks that are role models in keeping their composure in the toughest of times. I have also had the unlucky pleasure of working around folks that just lacked composure. The most experienced with all of the credentials still need to have composure. I can safely say that the role was probably not too big, but due to his flair for the dramatic and lack of focus on the bigger picture just flat out makes him ineffective.

When a crisis or tense situation arises you need to remember a few key items to make sure you are an effective leader…

  • Don’t allow you emotions get the best of you. Seasoned leaders really don’t wear their emotions on their sleeves. They make sure to remain calm and not run around yelling and pointing fingers. When you act that way – your team really sees that you lack objectivity in the heat of battle.
  • Don’t take things personally. Everything is really not about you! There are more people in the organization. I is not in TEAM! As the leader, you must remind calm and don’t get defensive.
  • Keep a positive mental state. Negativity really does not have a play in anything. Being negative is a huge lack of understanding. Getting to the end state needs positive reinforcement and an upbeat attitude to get to the goal.
  • Act like you been there before. This probably is not the first time that you have been in a crisis. I definitely know it will not be your last. You must show the confidence that you and your team will get through this.

I have had some experiences that definitely helped me shape my thoughts in this area. I led my teams through a few redeployment activities. These are when we all know that the organization is going to be downsized! We were communicated to that there will be a reduction and the complete size of the reduction has yet to be determined. Fear of the unknown! I used the above to remind myself that I must lead my team through this time. We still had our jobs to do, even though we may not have a job in the future.

Image by: Copyright: yaryhee / 123RF Stock Photo

 

Published inLeadershipObservations

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