Professional Fatigue – Taking steps to recovery…

Professional Fatigue – Taking steps to recovery…

By Karen Amos

‘Fatigue’ and 'Exhaustion' seem to be the word of the moment for many, with an inevitable impact on productivity and mental wellbeing.  Of course, some sectors are suffering more than others, education and health care to name but two, but there are increasing signs of strain everywhere.

Whilst there's no magic wand (I wish!), here are some tips and coaching questions to help you on the road to recovery...

Prioritise:

I’m not going to suggest you just down tools.  OK, if that’s possible with no consequence, go ahead, but for most people that just isn’t the case.  There will definitely be some activities that are ‘must do’s’ at the moment however, and some that will have lesser consequences if not done immediately.

'Where am I feeling the pressure right now?'

Ask yourself, ‘Where am I most feeling the pressure right now?’, then list all the things you can do to minimise or eliminate this, however improbable these may seem.  Talking this over with a colleague or someone else you trust can help you out of the ‘stuck-ness’.  It may, for example, feel impossible that you can hand some tasks over or re-schedule, but an outside perspective often helps bring a new reality.  Many more things are possible than we first perceive.

Another useful question to help challenge is, ‘What will happen if I don’t do this activity right now?’ and if it’s unavoidable, ‘How long can I postpone it for to give me more space and time to restore my energy levels?’

Rest:

This is so obvious to be insulting right?  But, even in the best of times, most people don't get enough proper rest.  Again, it’s easier said than done, but many of us are experiencing a state of underlying anxiety and in some cases, possibly hypervigilance.  This leads us to constantly scan our horizon for threats and reassurance that all’s ok.  Signs of this include sleeplessness and constant checking in, or compulsion to check in on the latest news and social media updates.

The paradox is that the more we check and strive to stay on top of things, the more tired and less productive/more anxious we become.

Here are some ways you can give yourself permission to rest:

  • Take time off work – This is the obvious one, but many of us haven't had a 'proper' break for months now and have nothing booked in for the near future.  It seemed a bit pointless to take time off when we couldn’t really go anywhere during lockdown and for many people a 'proper holiday' means abroad.  No matter what your plans, it can help to plan some activities in beforehand though, so you feel your time has been well spent – even if that means catching up on some reading or taking a day-trip from home.   Taking time off means a complete break however – no checking in on calls, or emails.  Just a couple of days can make all the difference.  To do this consistently, engage and discuss this with your team beforehand to ensure you’re not disturbed.  Remember to plan ahead and book the time off in your diary.  It's unlikely to happen if you don't.
  • Cut out the media – Give yourself a social media break. You can do this by:
    • Allocating a specific window of time you’ll check in each day
    • Blocking or unfollowing accounts that you find stressful or negative
    • Asking yourself, ‘Will reading this help me right now?’ if you’re tempted to click on something contentious that’d send your blood pressure soaring
    • Having a social media ‘holiday’. Switch off or even uninstall the apps on your phone
    • Make social media unavailable. If you find yourself getting caught in a ‘scroll hole’, put your phone out of reach. I charge my phone on the landing each night, so I don’t take it into the bedroom
  • Ration the news – Things are changing fast at the moment, so it’s natural to want to be on top of developments, but again, this can feed anxiety. One way to solve this can be to set a daily check in on the news.  Choose your preferred news ‘channel’, be that on TV, the radio, or the internet and set a time each day where you’ll have a proper catch up.
  • Set manageable working hours – Even in the best of times, there’s always more to do than there is time to do it in. Accepting that is the first step to taking back control.  Remember that the longer we work, the less productive we become, so long working weeks quickly become counterproductive.
    • Planning a start and finish time for your day in advance.
    • Set out what you wish to achieve that day – remembering to keep this realistic and finish as soon as you've completed your tasks.
    • Plan in what you will do when you finish work. That way you’ve something to aim for.
    • Packing away your laptop/work equipment when you’ve reached your finish time. This is particularly important when working from home.
    • Asking someone to give you a nudge when you reach your prearranged finishing time.
    • Telling work colleagues when you will/won’t be available and asking them to help you with this by not contacting you outside these times.

Looking at the tips above, try this coaching question:

 

Remember to enlist others to help you to succeed.  Your colleagues, friends and family can make great accountability buddies.  Good luck with your next steps...

For further support for you or your team, check out our training page HERE.

For an informal, no-obligation chat about how we can help you, call us on 07714 855757, or email [email protected].

Karen Amos is an executive coach and founder of BrightBird Coaching & Training. She supports business owners and managers who are feeling the pressure, to get the best out of themselves and their teams. She brings a practical, down-to-earth approach to improving working lives through better leadership, communication and working relationships. 

 

by karena

Investing in Staff Wellbeing - Can you afford not to?

Investing in Staff Wellbeing – Can you afford not to?

By Karen Amos

The Education Staff Wellbeing Charter is launched this autumn.  Whilst few would argue this isn’t needed in the sector, the practicalities of publicly signing up and implementing such a measure can have the paradoxical effect of actually increasing the stress of those charged with the task.

This is a fantastic opportunity to commit to positive steps to improve the working lives of all working in education.  The danger is however, that it becomes another ‘bolt-on’ to the day-to-day work.  The fact is that for any actions to be truly meaningful, the principles of this charter need to form the bedrock of your setting and define your wellbeing culture.

So what is culture?

Culture can be defined as the guiding beliefs and values evident in the way a school operates. ¹  Put simply, culture is seen in our behaviour, or ‘the way we do things around here’. ²

This is more than just having some pretty graphics of your values on the wall.  This is about observable, tangible behaviour.  For good or bad, your setting’s culture is determined by how people consistently behave.

In practical terms, this means we have to do much more than just bring cake into the staff room.  This is a nice gesture, not a wellbeing support intervention.  If you have a team who are stressed out and on the edge, you’re quite likely to make matters worse and risk being told where to shove your cake, if there are no other support mechanisms in place.

The costs of not implementing a wellbeing culture:

Of course there are clear ethical issues why staff wellbeing should be a priority.  But there is also a financial and business case for improving wellbeing too.

The latest Education Support Teacher Wellbeing Index survey showed some shocking statistics. If they don’t constitute a crisis in the education sector right now, there should certainly be some very loud alarm bells ringing.

Deliotte’s research highlights the financial impact of the problem.   The cost to the Education Sector in 2020 in the UK is £1.1 – 1.5 billion per year.   That £1.1-1.5 thousand per education staff per year.   Let’s put the ethics aside for a moment and just ask yourself what your setting could do with that money instead?  What difference would this make to the outcomes of the children or communities you work in?

There are obvious costs such as sickness absence, but also other less obvious, but equally impactful issues, such as lack of productivity and presenteeism from burnt out or disillusioned staff.  And what about the time costs of counselling unproductive, unhappy or unwell staff teams.  How much time do you and your team spend each month on these activities, when someone reaches crisis point?

Viewed this way, implementing a culture where staff wellbeing is front and centre should be seen as an investment, not a drain on resources.  In fact, Deloitte4 found a clear Return on Investment from implementing wellbeing support in the workplace, with a 10:1 ROI on training.

Also at a time where many schools are struggling to recruit the right calibre of candidates, wouldn’t it be a benefit for your setting to be seen as a ‘go to’ employer?

How to implement a wellbeing culture in a busy setting:

Whilst there is some element of ‘setting up’, a successful wellbeing culture shouldn’t add to your workload and does not have to mean a major financial investment.  Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

  • Embed wellbeing in training and development – The Education Staff Wellbeing Charter states there is no expectation for managers to provide professional wellbeing support for which they have no professional training, so…
  • Consider outsourcing – See this as an investment. How much do you currently spend in staff cover or lost productivity?  Consider the business case for bringing in the experts, whether that’s training, resources, or an Employee Assistance Programme.
  • Build staff engagement – start with building great conversations in your setting. Not just between managers and their teams, but also between peers.  Recent surveys show that 57% of education staff were not confident in sharing unmanageable stress/mental health issues at work.  3  Building trust and understanding are key to positive staff engagement.

Building trust and understanding are key to positive staff engagement – which leads us to…

  • Develop a supportive leadership culture – Where people feel supported, not criticised. Using a coaching approach is a fantastic and practically cost-free strategy.  This doesn’t mean lengthy 1-to-1 sessions with people, but simply that we have meaningful conversations where leaders are curious and solution-focused.
  • Draw up a Wellbeing Strategy – this will support everyone to maintain realistic expectations and standards, including around workload. This doesn’t need to be a huge document. No-one needs another ‘War and Peace’ that never sees the light of day.  Just one page with your aims for the coming year and a couple of concrete actions constitute a strategy.  This could be as simple as having a realistic workload policy and an effective return to work interview format.
  • Develop robust HR procedures and get the right support – This way you can ensure you ‘do the right thing’ by your staff, but also ensure any responses and approaches are proportionate and aligned with your setting’s wider strategy and outcomes. This isn’t about giving in to unreasonable demands or lowering standards, but setting clear expectations and knowing what support you will and won’t give.

The ethical argument in favour of building a wellbeing culture should be obvious, but if implemented, everyone wins.  Everyone.  The children, the staff, the setting, the community… everyone.  What are your next steps?

  1. Fullan, M., (2007) The new meaning of educational change, Routledge, New York.
  2. Hawkins, P., (2021) Creating a coaching culture: Developing a coaching strategy for your organisation, Open University Press, UK.
  3. Education Support Teacher Wellbeing Index 2020
  4. Deloitte – Mental Health and Employers –  Refreshing the case for investment – 2020

If you would like to find out more about how you and your teams can improve their time management and productivity, whilst minimising stress and overwhelm, check out our new Positive and Productive online programme.  

For schools

For Business and VCSE organisations

For an informal, no-obligation chat about how we can help you, call us on 07714 855757, or email [email protected].

Karen Amos is an executive coach and founder of BrightBird Coaching & Training. She supports business owners and managers who are feeling the pressure, to get the best out of themselves and their teams. She brings a practical, down-to-earth approach to improving working lives through better leadership, communication and working relationships. 

by karena

Dealing with the Curse of Perfectionism - and the Cure of Good Enough

The Curse of Perfectionism - and the cure of Good Enough

by Karen Amos

In my line of work, I have the privilege of meeting many people from all walks of life, albeit virtually nowadays.  In doing so, it’s easy to pick up themes.  Here’s one – January was tough.

The end of January is always a difficult time.  It’s towards the end of the winter when we get the fatigue. When the long nights go on forever and we’re starved of sunlight and to compound it all, we’ve been locked in.

I work with schools and I know many parents of school-aged children.  There have been numerous fractious exchanges between these two groups, which is almost inevitable when you consider the pressure everyone is under.  And that's the key to it – it’s about the pressure.  When we feel under pressure, we naturally go into self-preservation mode.

There has been huge pressure on teachers, who are not only dealing with uncertainty, but also trying to juggle online and face-to-face learning with concerns and follow-ups of children in their care, not to mention the politics, with a large and small 'P'.

In the meantime, parents have suddenly had the pressure of trying to hold down jobs whilst working from home and managing the almost impossible expectations of home-schooling.

I’ve posted about the philosophy of Stoicism since the new year.  Here’s the thing – everyone just wants to do a good job.  Sometimes though, we have to accept that ‘least worst’ is the best on offer.  In doing so, we have to simply accept what is.  That’s not defeatist by any stretch - it’s pragmatic and allows you to give yourself permission to just do what’s ‘Good Enough’.  By good enough, I mean good enough in the context of the circumstances in which you find yourself.

The concept of ‘Good Enough’ has its roots in child development and parenting and latterly in social work, then also in software and systems design.  But there’s a message for all of us in there…

‘Perfection is the enemy of action.’

Magnifying shortcomings and failures, just leads to disappointment and grows, resulting in guilt, anger and blaming.  ‘This isn’t right, ergo someone must be at fault.’

Whilst being Good Enough Parents to our children, how about being Good Enough Parents to ourselves?  Let’s set out reasonable expectations in advance and not expect more of ourselves than we would of others – or indeed, not expecting more of others than is reasonable.

Here are some helpful coaching questions to take a stoical, 'Good Enough' approach to life:

  • What could I achieve today in order to think, 'Yes, that was good enough'?
  • What would I tell my friend was good enough if they were in my position?
  • What are the consequences if I do this to a good enough, rather than perfect standard?
    • What will I gain?
    • What will this cost me?
  • What's the most important thing to achieve today?

Above all, Good Enough is about being kind - to yourself and others.  After all, there are always plenty of challenges in life, so why make things any harder?

If you'd like support for you or your team to reduce stress and build resilience and effectiveness at work, check out our online Positive and Productive training programme for BUSINESS & VCSE orgs or SCHOOLS.

For an informal, no-obligation chat call us on 07714 855757, or email [email protected].  Or visit our NEW training pages HERE 

Karen Amos is an executive coach and founder of BrightBird Coaching & Training. She supports under-pressure business owners and managers to get the best out of themselves and their teams. She brings a practical, down-to-earth approach to improving working lives through better leadership, communication and working relationships. 

 

by karena

What to do when positive thinking isn't enough...

What to do when positive thinking isn't enough...

By Karen Amos

I can’t think of anyone who’s not been challenged in one way or another by the pandemic over this last 9 months.  Whilst this has certainly tested many of us in the extreme, this is just one of many challenges life will send our way.

As a result, I’ve been spending a lot of time researching the frequently misunderstood philosophy of Stoicism, which is often misinterpreted as the British ‘stiff upper-lip’, ‘putting up with misfortune’ view of life.  In reality, stoicism teaches us a very practical lesson – that in life, circumstances will continue to challenge us, but it is within our gift to decide how we will respond to them.

Here’s a quote by Epicticus:

‘When something happens, the only thing in your power is your attitude towards it. It is not the things that disturb us, but our interpretation of their significance. Things and people are not what we wish them to be nor are they what they seem to be. They are what they are.’

Often coaching is seen as a bit ‘Pollyanna – all in the garden is rosy’, which is why many people (with some justification) cite ‘toxic positivity’ at the relentless ‘just think positive’ messages.  In fact coaching at it’s best is nothing of the sort.  Tony Robbins has a great approach to this.  I paraphrase:

Just relying on a positive thinking alone is like going into your garden and chanting ‘there are no weeds, there are no weeds’, when your garden’s clearly full of weeds.  You need to get in there and pull them out!

We need to accept that life is frequently challenging and bad stuff happens.  Rather than passively accepting that, drowning in self-misery, or railing against the universe, we need to roll up our sleeves and deal with it.  We need to take action that will serve us well.

Here are a few coaching questions to get you started:

  • What’s my main challenge here?
  • Is there a small, practical action I can take that will serve me better right now?
  • What are the costs and benefits of my current approach/attitude?  What can I do differently that will move me forward and have a positive effect?

Remember, we’re all human and it’s important to acknowledge our feelings.  If something bad happens it’s perfectly natural and healthy to feel down, upset or angry.  The problem is that simply dwelling on these feelings and responses will not serve us well, or help our situation.  It’s therefore in your gift and best interests to start to coach yourself to a better way forward that will.

If you'd like support for you or your team to reduce stress and build resilience and effectiveness at work, get in touch for an informal, no-obligation chat.  Watch out for our NEW Positive & Productive Programme - launching January 2021! Contact us for more details or click HERE.

We offer one-to-one and team coaching and in-house training programmes.

Call us on 07714 855757, or email [email protected].  Or visit our NEW training pages HERE 

Karen Amos is an executive coach and founder of BrightBird Coaching & Training. She supports under-pressure business owners and managers to get the best out of themselves and their teams. She brings a practical, down-to-earth approach to improving working lives through better leadership, communication and working relationships. 

 

by karena

Positive & Productive - News about our NEW beta programme!

BREAKING NEWS!

We're delighted to announce our new Positive & Productive online programme - due to commence January 2021!

This programme will bring you all the aspects and content from our existing popular training workshops, including:

  • Time Management & Work-Life Balance
  • Managing Stress & Building Personal Resilience
  • Building Confidence

The programme will consist of a combination of:

  • Short recorded webinars
  • Workbooks and training resources for each session
  • Live, online Q&A's on a variety of subjects
  • An online community to share ideas, progress and support

Check out our course leaflet for more information:

SCHOOLS

BUSINESS & ORGANISATIONS

We're bringing this at a special discounted price of £49 per person, so grab your place whilst they're still available.

We are able to offer significant discounts for group bookings - get in touch for a no-obligation quote!

If you'd like to find out more via a no-obligation chat, you can contact us on 07714 855757 or email [email protected]

To make a booking, complete our booking form HERE

 

by karena

Want to Avoid Catastrophe? Mind Your Language!

Want to Avoid Catastrophe? Mind Your Language!

By Karen Amos

Well, 2020 truly is the gift that keeps on giving!  Have you ever wondered though, how some people seem to sail through things easier than others?  The reason isn’t usually due to their circumstances, but all about mindset – that is to say, the way they think about or perceive things.

The great thing about our mindset is that we can change it and by doing so, we can change our perception and in turn our experience in life.

Just a quick cautionary note here.  Some people are experiencing truly catastrophic events right now; they are suffering the loss of loved ones and failure of businesses they have invested their life savings in.  This article isn’t about negating these events – we need to be allowed to freely express our emotions at this time – but rather that our day-to-day language needs to be proportionate and also ‘helpful’ to us.

Mind your language...

The language we habitually use can significantly impact our mindset – negatively or positively.  This has never been so crucial as at a time like the one we’re living through.  There’s a phrase to describe this as coined by Albert Ellis – ‘AWFULIZING’ – where we perceive or describe a situation as being much worse than it actually is. ¹  I had such an experience in a recent coaching session with a client.

Like many people, my client is working under huge pressure due to the covid situation.  They are supporting a team who are dealing with negative changes on a daily, if not hourly basis.  What jumped out at me was the language she and the team were using.  ‘I had a meltdown,’ and ‘It’s a nightmare,’ were just a couple of examples.

Let’s just examine this for a moment.  ‘Meltdown’.  ‘Nightmare’. Really?  When we started to unpick this, it was obvious that such extreme language was actually adding to the stress and anxiety experienced by both the person saying the words and those hearing it.

Other commonly used catastrophic expressions include:

  • I’m overwhelmed…
  • It was devastating…
  • The situation is terrifying…
  • I’m exhausted…

Quite simply, our words generate an emotional response, so catastrophic language leads to heightened arousal levels whereas more ‘neutral’ or ‘positive’ language has the opposite effect.

So what to do? 

If you find yourself or others around you using awfulizing, catastrophic, or just plain exaggerated language, there are some useful coaching questions that can help:

  • Is this really a ‘disaster’ [insert chosen catastrophic phrase as desired!]?
  • Is there a more accurate way to describe this?
  • What’s really going on here?
  • What’s the evidence telling me?
  • What did I actually see, hear, experience?
  • Are there any positives here? (There are usually some things that we can take from a situation, however awful – e.g. that you were really challenged, but managed to contain the situation.)

Recognise and Replace...

Using the ‘recognise and replace’ process to build new, more helpful habits and language is an easy and effective way to reduce your stress.  You ‘recognise’ that you (or others) have used overly catastrophic or dramatic language, then ‘replace’ this with something more representative of what’s really happened.  By doing so, you increase personal resilience and empowerment and decrease stress levels – both for yourself and others.

An example might be:

“This situation is a complete nightmare!”

Becomes…

“Things are really challenging us from lots of angles at the moment.  Our resources are stretched and we need to make some tough decisions.”

The latter example leaves people feeling more in control and empowered within their situation.  Try it!

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rational_emotive_behavior_therapy

If you'd like support for you or your team to reduce stress and build resilience and effectiveness at work, get in touch for an informal, no-obligation chat. 

We offer one-to-one and team coaching and in-house training programmes.

Call us on 07714 855757, or email [email protected].  Or visit our NEW training pages HERE 

Karen Amos is an executive coach and founder of BrightBird Coaching & Training. She supports under-pressure business owners and managers to get the best out of themselves and their teams. She brings a practical, down-to-earth approach to improving working lives through better leadership, communication and working relationships. 

 

by karena

Don't be an ostrich - Dare to ask!

Don't be an ostrich - Dare to ask!

By Karen Amos

The change continues inexorably onwards, although thankfully not always at this pace.  It’s clear however, that the current challenges and uncertainties are going to be with us for a significant time to come.

There are an overwhelming amount of challenges facing managers and business owners as we leave lockdown, whether that's in business, schools, or organisations, including:

  • Bringing staff back into the workplace from home working or furlough
  • Managing geographically dispersed teams
  • Managing redundancy and re-structures
  • Managing the health and safety needs of staff and the public

Whilst home-working has introduced increased effectiveness in many areas, there are difficulties too.  If you’re used to asking a question from the person sat at the next desk for example, there’s an inevitable time lag if you’re homeworking.

Additionally, whilst there was a huge novelty factor for many at the start of homeworking, there’s now a marked division in those who want to remain working from home and those who are desperate to return to the workplace.  Failure to address this will cost many businesses enormously.

Socially distanced working and constant change also means managers have to work extra hard at employee engagement, particularly when there are tough business and strategic decisions that need to be taken.

Of course, with challenges also come opportunities.

  • For managers and business owners to review their role and what this means in relation to the team and productivity
  • To forge a new, stronger relationship with the team
  • To re-generate a more positive culture
  • To harness new ideas and ways of working to strengthen the organisation for the future

The challenge of course, is how to maximise those opportunities in the face of what are complex business and organisational landscapes.  How do you balance the need for honesty, whilst giving your teams the support they need?

The answer lies in questions.  This will be no surprise to many of you that by this, I mean taking a coaching approach.

I know from personal experience that this can be scary.  After all, we may not get the answer we would like!  I’ve certainly worked with some people in my remote past whom I would have quailed to ask for fear of opening the inevitable humongous can of worms that would follow.  With that comes the ostrich approach to management.  You know the one – asking the cheery, ‘How is everyone today? All well? Oh, good!’, whilst departing the room at a rate of knots.  But at least you asked didn’t you?

Nowadays thankfully, I know better.  Asking meaningful questions doesn't mean throwing yourself to the lions, then being left in a position where you can’t possibly deliver on the answer.  Instead this involves employee engagement in its truest sense, where everyone is supported to take appropriate responsibility for seeking solutions.

Often our first response is to jump in and ‘do the right thing’ like some managerial Tigger, who is inevitably left wondering, ‘What happened there?’  Instead, we’re talking about a more consultative approach.  Coaching isn’t about giving everyone what they ask for – the needs of the business must come first, after all, that’s why you’re all there.

 

 

 

 

Ask yourself and your team the following coaching questions to help understand what’s really needed:

  • What is and isn’t working for you right now?
  • How would you prefer things to be in an ideal world?
  • What do you need to be productive and well at work?
  • What are your main challenges right now?
  • What do you foresee your challenges to be in the short/medium and long term?

Then follow up with:

  • What would help right now?
  • What can you change in your practice or way you’re approaching things that would help?
  • What practical measures can you, the team, or the organisation put in place?
  • What support do you need, from whom and how often?
  • How can you provide support to others?
  • How will you recognise that things are not working in future?

The obvious approach is for managers to schedule dedicated one-to-one time with employees on a regular basis.  The solution for one employee, may not be right for another, but again this is something you can agree on individually.

Another way to embed a solution-focused attitude within the team is through implementing Team Coaching.  This is an extremely effective tool in times of change and uncertainty.  The team can work out the above issues, supporting each other and taking responsibility for finding and implementing the solutions. It’s also a powerful way to build accountability.

Either way, taking a coaching approach does involve an amount of courage for any business owner or manager, but the positive benefits for the team and business or organisation will be considerable and will far outweigh the costs and anxiety of being an ostrich.

If you'd like to find out more about Team Coaching, get in touch.

For an informal, no-obligation chat about how we can help you, call us on 07714 855757, or email [email protected].

Karen Amos is an executive coach and founder of BrightBird Coaching & Training. She supports business owners and managers who are feeling the pressure, to get the best out of themselves and their teams. She brings a practical, down-to-earth approach to improving working lives through better leadership, communication and working relationships. 

 

by karena

Stop the Bus! How to Deal with Overwhelm...

Stop the Bus! How to deal with overwhelm…

By Karen Amos

I was working with someone this week who confided in me that she was feeling completely overwhelmed with work.  My response?  ‘Stop the bus!’  Well, this gained her attention if only to wonder what on earth I was talking about (particularly seeing as there was no bus in sight) - which was compounded by my next instruction, ‘Turn off the ignition. Now get off the bus!’

Feelings of overwhelm are no stranger to most of us – I include myself in this.  Issues and tasks mount up and we become less and less effective, whilst proportionately becoming more and more anxious.  It frequently leads us to a complete standstill, or at best, with us tinkering around the edges with minor activities, whilst the important stuff is left unattended.

To be honest, I’ve found myself in just that situation this week, so thought I’d share a few thoughts and strategies on how I’ve dealt with this.

  1. Stop the bus!

In order to deal with overwhelm, we need to stop the endless cycle of panic, fear and urgency that’s gripping us.  We need to recognise these are just feelings – our feelings.  They don’t accurately reflect what’s going on in the world around us.

One way to do this is to ‘Stop the ‘overwhelm’ bus’ by literally doing just that – stopping and taking time out to evaluate your situation.  ‘Are you joking?’ I hear you exclaim!  ‘That’s the point, I can’t take time out and that’s why I’m feeling overwhelmed!’

As I alluded to earlier, we need to check out the reality of this situation.  Chances are if we’re feeling overwhelmed, we’re being completely, or at least relatively, inefficient.  We aren’t working at our best, or most effective, so looking at it that way, wouldn’t it be a good investment to take at least a couple of hours out to fix the situation, knowing you’ll be back to full capacity when you’ve done so?

However you visualise it, stop your bus, turn it off and get off.  Plot out a couple of hours for yourself where you won’t be disturbed, take a change of scenery if that helps, but lift yourself out of that head-down, flat-panic world.

  1. Work out what’s important

It’s so easy when feeling overwhelmed, to get caught up in tasks and minor activities.  This just leads to a vicious cycle of firefighting, where you haven’t a second to look up and take control.  As a result, your first task needs to be to identify what are the important, significant issues and goals you should be dealing with.

I’ve just re-visited my 12-week-year planner, to re-focus and remember what I’m actually working towards.  Seeing things in a ‘broader-brush’ context is often immediately comforting.  If you don’t already have a plan or strategy, just ask yourself, ‘What would I like to see that would make the most difference in 6/12 months’ time?’ and start from there.

  1. Prioritise

This is a word that’s thrown around like confetti, but let’s face it, if it was that easy we’d already be doing it, right?  The problem with overwhelm is that often everything feels like a priority.  You feel leaned on and obligated to other people too.

I’ve found there are some great coaching questions to help weed out what’s really a priority.  Try a few of these:

- Does this help me achieve my bigger plan/strategy/aims?

- Do I actually need to do this? What will happen if I don’t?  (If you’re not sure, try a very informal risk assessment in your head – i.e. What’s the probability and severity or not doing this).

- Is this my priority/issue, or is this really someone else’s?

- If it’s someone else’s, how do I hand this back to them, or help them with this?

- What one thing could I do right now that would make the most difference?

- When do these things actually need doing by?  Set some new timescales according to your capacity.

- Is there someone else who can help with this?

  1. Facing your demons

Just one final thought – I often work with clients who feel overloaded with minor activities and tasks at all levels in organisations.  There’s a common theme when we start to drill down though, which is that we often focus on small tasks and activities, as they’re easier and less daunting than tackling the bigger issues.

Again, useful coaching questions would be:

- Being honest myself, is there anything I’m avoiding right now?

- What would I advise someone to do in my position?

Hopefully, you’ve found something useful in there, for you, or a member of your team and can stop your runaway bus or train and embark on a more enjoyable and productive journey.

If you would like to book one-to-one or Team Coaching for your business, organisation or school, or would like an informal, no-obligation chat about how this can work for you, call us on 07714 855757, or email [email protected].

You can book a FREE Discovery Coaching session to experience the benefits of coaching yourself.  Find out more HERE.

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Check out our latest training FREE Introduction to Coaching and Essential Coaching Skills Webinars at: https://brightbird.wordifysites.com/book-a-course/

Karen Amos is an executive coach and founder of BrightBird Coaching & Training. She supports business owners and managers to get the best out of themselves and their teams. She brings a practical, down-to-earth approach to improving working lives through better leadership, communication and working relationships. 

 

by karena