Read this if you're overwhelmed
I was speaking to a room of 75 managers last week and opened up by accepting that - yes - the world has gone bananas.
You won't have missed the headlines. Or the impacts. Fuel prices are up. Interest rates are following suit. The cost of living continues to crunch.
If we're not careful, it's easy to become overloaded in times like these.
But what does it mean to be overloaded? I hear that word a lot, but what is it? And what can we do about it?
Cognitive overload - brains struggling to comprehend.
This is the overload we hear about most often. The constant barrage of crises is inexplicable. Our brain exhausts itself hunting for answers that don't exist.
How long will this war go on? What will Trump do next? How high will fuel prices go?
These unanswerable questions pile on top of the ordinary demands of life. Is my job safe? Why isn't my kid sleeping? How did I come across in that meeting? Should I send that email or not? Did I leave the kettle on!?
Then you're in the shower and you're thinking about your workmate who you can't stand and your brain goes: "For goodness sake, why am I bringing my workmate into the shower with me!" 😅
The solution for cognitive overload is space
When our head is hurting or we're having more headaches than usual, it's a sign that our brains are working too hard. We've got to give it a rest - and not with a phone in one hand. Blank space is what's needed.
Emotional overload - hearts in pain.
Gosh, it hurts to watch a war from the sideline. It sucks when you walk past somebody sleeping rough in the shade of an office building. It breaks your heart to hear about people turned away from food banks. To be on the phone to a client whose business has gone under as nobody is buying food with their cups of coffee anymore, or buying coffee out at all.
We can't cope with the feelings of despair, loss, hurt, anger, frustration, and helplessness. We don't like these feelings. So we push them down, get on with our work, and hope they'll go away.
But the feelings don't go away. In fact, they get worse. Then we lash out at somebody, and regret it.
The solution for emotional overload is acceptance.
One of the fascinating things I found in researching The Question Effect is that naming an emotion changes our emotional state. Even if we just go "I feel sad" or "I'm unhappy", that's enough. When we name it, we tame it.
(Easier said than done though eh. I've just finished working with a leadership coaching client where that was all we worked on for 4 months.)
Spiritual overload - souls feeling lost.
It's understandable then to feel a void; a lack of meaning; a disconnection from our fellow human beings. We check in and check out from work, but we wonder... is it making a difference anyway? Why bother? What's the point?
The solution for spiritual overload is connection.
Our society has designed connection out of our lives. We've put fences up around our homes. We've shifted from in-person neighbourhoods to online networks. Of course we feel lost and meaningless. We've designed the connection out of our lives... but we can design it back in!
Overload is a leadership issue
You might have noticed the flow-on effects of this overload at work. People are taking more sick days. Projects are blowing out. Meetings feel even more tense than usual. All that crummy stuff.
Pushing people harder is not the solution here; they need support. But neither is giving everybody a free-pass; they need accountability too.
This is one of the never-finished, always-important jobs of a leader. Balancing support and accountability.
Go well,
Paul
P.S. If you reckon your people are overloaded, then here are three other ways I can help:
- Grab a bundle of The Question Effect: In Chapter 2, I explore how curiosity is an antidote to all this overload.
- Book me as a speaker. My Lead with Curiosity keynote helps to reset how your people approach work in these topsy-turvy times.
- Arrange a team offsite. If you feel your people need some oh-so-critical space to just think, email me and we can chat about your next team offsite.