Transcript of Your Best Next Move: Amplify Impact in an Economic Slowdown

Hi everyone, Bobbie LaPorte here again with my weekly leadership tip for your Best Next Move, where I help you see continuing curveballs as an opportunity. This year, I will help you actively use your personal agency to accelerate what you want to accomplish in 2022.

You’d have to be living under a rock over the last couple of months to not know we are experiencing a widespread economic slowdown. I know it’s affecting my clients in the Bay Area and beyond. Call it a retrenchment, pullback, or whatever you like, it’s part of the cyclical nature of business.

Growth, even boom times when the environment is good, followed by a more conservative, cautionary approach when it is not.

After the last two+ years, it’s understandable that we’d all be a little cautious about making commitments, while at the same time we want to get back to work, to feel optimistic, to see what’s possible and continue to invest in our success.

It does sometime feel like we’re taking two steps forward, one step backward.  We need to acknowledge that we will always be dealing with change and uncertainty, and remember how far we’ve come, to celebrate the progress we have made.

It’s all about looking at change and uncertainty from a place of “what can be,” not from fear or resignation.

So here is my tip:

In this time of ongoing uncertainty, there are limited things you can control or impact. Identify one thing you currently do have control over: maybe it’s an important, upcoming product launch, or a recent customer program that was a success, or an employee upskill program you launched that is so needed in these times of employee retention and recruitment challenges.

Then double-down on this one project or program: think boldly how you can make it even better, how you can further amplify its impact, and importantly, how you can share this success with others – and help them see what is possible even in the most challenging times.

In your own (not so small way), you can use your personal agency to create an even bigger success than you might have imagined possible, rather than defaulting to the retreating and retrenchment mindset so many others are holding.

That’s my tip for this week. Please also check out my “Summer Slowdown” tips on LinkedIn each Thursday…to help you make the most of this summer.

Have a great week; I’ll see you next Monday.

Transcript of Your Best Next Move: “The Myth of Rushing” is a Waste of Time

Hi everyone, Bobbie LaPorte here again with my weekly leadership tip for your Best Next Move, where I help you see continuing curveballs as an opportunity. This year, I will help you actively use your personal agency to accelerate what you want to accomplish in 2022.

This week I want to talk about “The Myth of Rushing.” You are probably thinking…. wait, what?  Rushing?

Well, if you think about it, many of us feel we are not relevant and contributing if we are not “busy,” always running from one task to another.

We pride ourselves on our ability to multi-task. When someone asks us “How are you,” we don’t hesitate to reply,” I am busy, swamped, booked back-to-back.” Like it’s somehow a badge of honor.

We also somehow equate being busy with being accomplished. Which is rarely the case.

So how does this relate to my intro comment about “The Myth of Rushing.”

Well, we often rush from one thing to another, reading our emails, checking our phones, wolfing down breakfast while getting the kids off to school, etc.  We believe that all this “rushing” allows us to accomplish more, but in reality, that’s not true. Our brains don’t work that way.

When we are rushed, we activate our sympathetic nervous system, which allows us to focus but does not allow for creativity, problem-solving, inspiration, and seeing what’s possible – all critical skills leaders need to be successful in our increasingly, complex world.

We get stuff done…but rarely with the outcome, we are seeking.

Research shows that rushing saves us only 4%-5% in time spent, but it significantly increases stress for marginal benefits. And this type of stress compounds over the course of days, weeks, and months until we reach burnout.

Here’s my tip:

Identify your rushing hotspots.

Consider a time during the day – maybe it’s getting to work, to the gym, to pick up your kids, meeting friends after work…

DON’T RUSH. Give yourself an additional 5-10 minutes and see if you don’t still get what you need done but with less stress and better outcomes.

I appreciate that this will not change for you overnight…. but give it a try.

That’s my tip for this week. I’ll see you next Monday.

Transcript of  Your Best Next Move: Using Personal Agency to Give Yourself a Break

Hi everyone, Bobbie LaPorte here again with my weekly leadership tip for your Best Next Move, where I help you see continuing curveballs as an opportunity. This year, I will help you actively use your personal agency to accelerate what you want to accomplish in 2022.

This week’s tip is short. Why? Because I’m tired, and from my conversations with many of you over the last few weeks….my sense is you are too.

So, this is nothing new, you are thinking. True. We’ve all been through a lot over the last  two+ years. But I don’t think many of us, sometimes myself included, have acknowledged just how challenging it was.

The cognitive load we have all been under was unlike anything most of us have ever experienced before.

And while we’d like to believe that we are “coming out of it,” the curveballs just keep coming. As a colleague said recently: “The planet just hasn’t had a break.”

So, here’s my tip:

Give yourself a break. I know we’d all like to believe that we can catch up on all the things we missed, that we can work harder, and achieve more. But I think we need to adjust our expectations.

Those of you who have worked with me have probably heard me say it’s OK to not always be an A+ student.

Often a B or B- effort gets the job done, and more importantly, allows our mind, body and spirit to regroup and recover. At least for long enough to feel like we’ve used our personal agency in a very personal way to get ready for what’s next.

That’s my tip for this week. I am recording this on Sunday. Today I’m going to do just a little work (despite the to-do’s that are looming ahead of me this coming week), watch the Giants sweep the Dodgers, hang out in the yard with Posey, and Nilla, and – just – sit.

For more help on using your personal agency to make uncertainty a part of your success strategy – check out my new book – “When the Curveballs Keep Coming: A Leadership Playbook for an Uncertain World”, and my new online leadership course – “Leading Through Uncertainty.”