Perry Maddox explores how coping with change is an essential skill for our uncertain world and shares how to build resilience as leaders.
“You’re a bit of a change junkie. Take care though, your people may not be.”
Last fall, I spoke with a fellow leader about our next global strategy. Coffee in hand, I excitedly shared how we might adapt to a rapidly changing world.
She nodded and smiled, and only when I gasped for air did she interrupt me. Not to dampen my enthusiasm, but to remind me that others might find the kind of change that excited me, well …
Exhausting.
Coping with Change in the Time of Covid.
That conversation happened a few months before the world really changed.
Like everyone, we’ve been forced by the pandemic to change rapidly. It feels like all we’ve done in 2020 is change, get hit by something else, and then change some more. Change on top of change on top of change.
We see the pain and strain across the world and across our teams. I see it across my face in the mirror.
Yet, things are only going to keep changing. The only certainty of Covid is uncertainty, and this isn’t going away soon. Any leader worth their salt is preparing for more change to come.
It’s exhausting, our new normal. Suddenly, coping with change is one of the most important skills we can build. Here’s where to start.
Ask Yourself What You Control.
My thoughts rapidly spiral out of control these days.
You know the one where you read one innocent article and end up with existential dread an hour of scrolling later? Or when you try to make a mundane decision and spiral into trying to work out your entire future?
Something about this pandemic makes everything so meta.
We go to the news to understand what’s happening and end up overwhelmed by the scale of it all. Add it a massive dose of work stress and massive disruption in our lives, and it can become too much.
At times like this, it’s really important to step back and to assess what you control.
Ask yourself what you can do in this situation. Rather than trying to save the world, or even understand it, focus on the concrete things that you can control. Maybe that’s more rest or more exercise. Maybe that’s connection with friends or a bit of meditation. Choose your priorities, what you want to do: small changes in your life, ways you can help others, actions you can take.
Rather than drowning in the helplessness of everything you can’t change, build your foundation and reclaim your agency by acting on what you can change.
Be More Bamboo and Less Oak.
As you work out what you can control, you may become more aware of what you cannot.
A colleague once gave me a note that read:
Bamboo is flexible, bending with the wind but never breaking, capable of adapting to any circumstance. It suggests resilience, meaning that we have the ability to bounce back even from the most difficult times.
Ping Fu
We don’t control the wind any more than we control the change in our world. The question is whether we stand rigidly against that wind and snap like an oak tree, or whether we bend with it and bounce back like bamboo.
This is a year for bending, friends.
The people who bend the best start with self-care. Know that all major change, good or bad, brings some degree of trauma. Give yourself space and permission to acknowledge that pain. Seek the support you need, from friends and family, or from professionals. Create time in your day to recharge. Take care of yourself. Above all, ask for help.
Self care is foundational to leadership. Only from there can you care for your people too.
Bamboo grows in groves, after all.
Coping with Change Means Taking Action.
There is great opportunity in times of change. This is fertile ground for discovery, invention and growth.
We are incredibly resilient. You may need to remind yourself, though. Of the storms you’ve weathered before, of the transitions you’ve made, and of how change in the past made you who you are today. The past is a good reference to remind you of just how capable you are.
Leaders must do the same. “We have done this before,” I find myself encouraging teams these days.
Evoking past success is a powerful way of navigating the present, reminding us to act on what we can change and nourishing our bamboo-like resilience when the storm blows around us.
Don’t take it from me though, I’m a bit of a change junkie after all.
