When you are a key influencer, leader, or manager in a work unit, however you show up affects your team. Like water, your mood flows downhill and across flat areas, always seeking to level the space. Whether you show up happy or stressed, it spreads.
Use these four quick tips to change the energy you bring to work.
- Breathe. Before you enter a meeting, pause at the door and take a deep breath. Take another as you take a seat. When you are centered on your presence and your agenda, you are less likely to get distracted or knocked off balance by the unexpected.Bonus: with extra oxygen flowing to your brain, you might show up as the most creative person in the room!
- Always bring water. When your brain feels fuzzy, take a drink. When you feel compelled to respond emotionally to something your colleague or boss just said, take a sip to let reaction pass so you can respond more logically.Sidebar benefit: if things do not go well in the meeting, you’ll always have something heavy to throw. J
- Get Good and Enough Sleep. Turn off your technology 30 minutes before bed and don’t turn it back on until 30 minutes after you arise. Your sleep will be of a higher quality and a rested mind will take less time to process your inbox when you do address it.To your advantage: won’t it be great if you are the most calm and rested person in tomorrow’s standup meeting?
- Spread Hope. No matter how far underwater your project may be, speak about what is going well and right at every opportunity. Do you have to solve the problems? Absolutely! Yet if you and the team are trapped in darkness, it won’t hurt you if you’re the one who can point to the end of the tunnel and remind people that the light they see is the end of the problem.