Now I think of it, not such a stupid idea. Dodgy metaphors involving parallels between sand and money aside, filling sand bags has sometimes been all that people expecting an attack have been able to do to give them a sense of progress and control. And yet for me, engaged in my own battle with the macro-economic crisis (we’re still in the phony war stage – lots of distant rumblings but currently business as usual) there is a tendency to overlook the obvious.
Part of the problem is that people are reasonably tough. When things are going well they will endure getting tired for the sake of feeding the beast of success. When things are going badly they think that they have no alternative but to work dawn ’til dusk. In both scenarios hard work is not the only consequence of the situation. It might be alright if it was. But when the pressure is on, a number of essentials are jettisoned as unnecessary luxuries. Things like eating properly, sleeping enough, mental breaks, exercise, having fun, laughing, thinking creatively, learning and even just feeling good about how life (or parts of it) are going.
Toughing it out…
Because we are tough we find that we can do without many of those things for a very long time, if indeed we even notice their absence at all. In fact, some people manage great chunks of their lives in this fashion, waiting for the opportunity to catch up in retirement. Others will, for months, work themselves into a stupor and then use a costly family holiday to make themselves well again. And all the time, at work, in the build up to the break, becoming less and less able to do a half decent job of leading and yet never recognising it.
In light of all this, I don’t think difficult periods in business, however long they last, are really any different from the good times, as far as most people in leadership positions should be concerned. Instead of worrying about falling behind with growth plans, they’ll worry about meeting ‘negative growth’ plans. Instead of worrying about losing good people to competitors, they’ll worry about having to ask good people to leave. Instead of pushing themselves beyond their sustainable limits to keep up with demand, they’ll keep pushing themselves beyond their sustainable limits to fend off the real or imagined threat of going under.
The big message – eat more pie
So, as a client once said to me as we were parting for the last time: “It’s been great working with you. I realise what I must do: eat more pie.” And that is as good as any plan for success I have heard so far. In fact, in a recent mini telephone survey amongst clients and contacts that conducted, I found that no one knows what the heck is happening more than a month out at any point. So why not plan for well being as a way of being ready for anything?
Therefore, with immediate effect, my plan is…eat more pie. This is my shorthand for: have more fun; more sleep; more breaks; more living; more play. Will it turn around the economy? Could do. Will it make me a better leader? Possibly. Will it make me a nicer person to be around? Probably. Will I feel any better for it? Yes! But no matter what, I will at east be doing a decent job of looking after myself, and in the process, I may well make myself better able to handle whatever comes next – nice or nasty.
Paul Furey PhD. is a Social Psychologist and consultant. He founded his firm, Performance Enhancement Consulting (PEC) over 20 years ago. PEC is hired by multinationals to provide solutions to human behaviour problems and to help senior individuals and teams to succeed faster. PEC helps its clients to save huge quantities of money and time by resolving problems quickly and quietly.
Paul and his team are currently also undertaking two pieces of psychological research. The first is into empathy on the phone and spotting emotions in voices: http://www.originalempathytest.com. The second is into the emotional problems for emergency line (999) call takers in the British Police. The PEC website is worth a look – it’s packed with useful and free information about how to help people to succeed at work. It can be found at http://www.pec.org.uk.
Contact the author directly:
paulfurey@pec.org.uk
UK 0844 888 6345
Outside UK 44 (0) 1527 894 607
