We all have them, those days when you get up on the wrong side of the bed, and the day got increasingly worse from there. But, a leader can’t let a bad day define their day. So, how do leaders contain their frustrations and anxieties when it feels like the whole world is against them?
- Compartmentalization – Put that angst and frustration into a compartment and step away from it – isolate it and contain it
- Choose your response – Exercise your right to choose how you respond to the bad karma days
- Choose your attitude – We can choose to be upset or anxious or to be calm and in control.
- Identify what you can control and what you can’t control – Focus your energy on what you can manage and let go of what you can’t control
Leadership is always about choices, and the choices made should never focus on the uncontrollable, never serve to feed our egos, attitudes, or angst but the those who follow you and the organization you serve.
About Richard Jones
Rich Jones is the Founder/Principal of Leading2Leadership LLC. Before starting his strategic planning agency, he spent over 20 years in leadership roles in the financial services sector. Before becoming an executive in the financial services sector, Rich was an entrepreneur, building and selling two businesses and working for early-stage start-up companies in executive roles in marketing, business development, and seeking investment partners. With more than three decades of experience, he brings innovative thought to companies and executives.
Rich published “Leading2Leadership, a Situational Primer to Leadership Excellence.” The book is available on Amazon.com and was designed to be used as a book study for leadership development programs; it breaks leadership skills into manageable situations for discussion and reflection.
Rich works with credit unions, CUSOs, and vendors, designing digital, data, culture, marketing, and branding transformation strategies. In 2014, Chosen as a Credit Union Rock Star by CU Magazine, and in 2018, Rich received the Lifetime Achievement Award from CUNA Marketing and Business Development Council.
A Marine and graduate of Colorado State University, Jones shares his expertise at www.leading2leadership.com.
Leaders who are having a bad day should also be willing to seek out a mentor or be open to listening to one who will tell them the side-effects that their “off-day” is having on others. They must be willing to be vulnerable to the fact that they are not immune from the infamous “bad day” but know that it isn’t acceptable to just accept the bad day and let everyone else deal with it. The upside is that the leader has the opportunity to make a bad day into a bad couple of hours by taking a minute (or a lunch hour), facing the facts and moving forward. Thanks Rich for being a great leader to me.
Great points you added to this post Ashli, thank you!
Thank you for this blog, Rich. Great reminders. This is the long version of your famous phrase “just get over it!” Leadership is not about me; it’s about others. And others want me to care about THEIR problems, NOT my own…
Thanks for the affirming comment Michelle.