AGL: 036 – Respond, Don’t React

When we react to situations, we're on defense.  You rarely score on defense.  Its much easier to score when you're on offense.  On offense, you're responding to the situation, not reacting.  There is a difference.  Responses are thought-out, planned and not usually emotionally driven.  Reactions are usually hap-hazardous, emotionally driven, and not thought through.  Mistakes often happen when we react instead of respond.  In this episode I talk about the need to respond instead of react, what happens when we overreact to situations, and some ways to avoid stress so that we learn to respond and not react.   What Happens When We Overreact A couple of weeks ago I talked about building trust with your team. Overreacting to situations is one sure-fire way to make them trust you less.  If you can't keep your cool, people want follow you when times get tough.  When you overreact to situations you allow the situation to overtake you.  You stop looking through a practical, logical lens and begin looking at the world through a panicked lens. Your cortisol levels increase in your body, and you being to hyper focus on situations, probably the wrong situations.  Remember when I spoke about the biology of leadership, cortisol is the stress chemical.  It does good things when we're in danger, but it comes at a cost.  It slows down our metabolism, and weakens our immune system.  Its only supposed to be in us for a brief period of time, when it persist, and we overreact, it causes serious health issues. We tend to make bad decisions when we overreact. The first thing that comes to our mind we move forward with it.  Its hard to think things through when we're trying to stay on top of a tense situation.  Overreaction makes tense situations more tense.   Why Do We Get Stressed Out at Work? The Unexpected Happens.  Sometimes we're confronted with events that we didn't see coming and we're not sure what to do.  When that happens, we might panic and get stressed. Fear. We're all afraid of something.  I've done 2 episodes on fear and anxiety and being brave in the past.  Take a listen to them to learn how to battle against your fears. Overwhelmed. If you've been in Technology for any amount of time, you've felt overwhelmed.  We all get overwhelmed from time to time.  When I get overwhelmed, I get stressed.  honestly, I don't know anyone that doesn't get stressed when they are overwhelmed. Competition. At the workplace, we are sometimes compared and contrasted against our peers.  This creates competition.  Sometimes competition is a good thing. It can inspire and encourage innovation.  But it also leads to stress. Non-Work Situations. Things that happen outside of work, can creep into our office life. People say you should separate work and home, and I agree, but its super hard to do... no, its impossible to completely do.  You are You.  Whether you are at work or at home, you are still you.  You carry your life with you everywhere you go.  Now, that doesn't mean you should bring your drama into work, but understand that things that happen outside of work, can influence your stress levels at work and vice versa. Remember somethings are more important than work.   Ten Ways to Stay Calm at Work Understand the big picture. Many times things that are big to us, are small outside of our perspective.  Think about the big picture.  Unless your an emergency response person, in the military, or in the medical arena, no one is going to die due to the thing you are currently working on. I regularly tell my team "relax, no one's going to die."  I think about my kids.  My son will panic and pitch a fit over not being able to get his straw into his juice box sometimes.  To him, that is the biggest problem in the world right now.  To me, that's silly, just ask for help.  Work can be the same way sometimes.  We're just like my son, trying to get that straw into a juice box.  Getting stressed out over something that is small i...