\u201cWhat is next?\u201d was my first thought after I hung up the phone. The sudden announcement of the 100M+ business loss still tumbled through my head.\u00a0 It had taken years to develop, nurture, and deliver extraordinary services for this large customer, and now it was scheduled to disappear within 90 days.\u00a0 My facility was now on a different trajectory to finish the fiscal year, and my mind was uncertain.\u00a0 The questions continued to spool.\u00a0 How do I deliver an effective message to the team?\u00a0 Why would someone want to stay and risk future employment? How will we function as a team with 1\/3 less volume at our facility?\u00a0 What does it mean to our relatively new ownership, and what other decisions might be made as a result?\u00a0 How would I conduct a potential reduction in the workforce?\u00a0 How do I precisely plan for a budget next year?\u00a0 And even what could it mean for my future as a leader within our organization?\u00a0 I began to feel threatened.<\/p>\n
Uncertainty crept in quickly, and my brain’s focus immediately narrowed. As a leader, I needed to assess the risk, develop a plan quickly, and deliver on the daily business requirements. Our team also needed to roll out four new initiatives this quarter. The clock was already ticking down, and I felt myself slowly creeping into survival mode. My mind became overcrowded extremely fast.<\/p>\n
The Brain is Powerful<\/strong><\/p>\n In Dr. David Rock\u2019s book Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long,<\/em> I was reminded of and discovered new tactics for understanding the neuroscience of the brain and its limitations and how it can ultimately drive how I function during the day.\u00a0 This book provides tip-of-the-spear guidance to \u201cbe more focused and productive, work smarter, and stay cool under pressure.\u201d[1]<\/a>\u00a0 Reflecting on the earlier readings from this term, I concluded that if Kahneman\u2019s Thinking, Fast and Slow<\/em> was about the theory, and Duffy\u2019s Why We\u2019re Wrong About Nearly Everything was<\/em> the data, then Your Brain at Work <\/em>is a daily instruction guide to help focus, lower stress, and effectively aid the decision-making process.<\/p>\n Understanding the neuroscience limits of the brain\u2019s pre-frontal cortex, Rock utilizes the imagery of a stage overwhelmed by too many actors, limited mental energy, and complex map formats to organize thoughts properly.\u00a0 His focus is simplification, eliminating the external inputs, and optimizing the finite mental energy we can control.\u00a0 Rock emphasizes the importance and health of our peak mental performance, which requires \u201cjust the right level of stress,\u201d[2]<\/a> which isn\u2019t zero.\u00a0 He also recommends how to \u201cconsciously manipulate\u201d[3]<\/a> neurotransmitters to improve our overall alertness and interest levels.<\/p>\n Rock introduces us to the importance of knowing or observing our own brain at work through a character called the director, who is a metaphor for our \u201cpart of the awareness that stands outside the experience.\u201d[4]<\/a>\u00a0 In order to obtain peak performance, it is critically important to combine \u201cknowing your brain and being able to observe your brain processes occurring in real time.\u201d[5]<\/a>\u00a0 This is the director’s role. Self-awareness and the ability to view oneself differently are essential to growth.\u00a0 \u201cBecoming self-aware, having a meta-perspective on ourselves, is really like interacting with another person.\u201d[6]<\/a> \u00a0Interwoven within the director role is the concept of mindfulness and our ability to be present in the moment.\u00a0 For leaders, \u201cmindfulness turns out to be important for workplace effectiveness.\u201d[7]<\/a><\/p>\n Circling back to my immediate business issue, I searched for an answer.\u00a0 Activating this director role while allowing my inner signals to inform my next course of action was a roadmap to overcome my heightened level of uncertainty. I would need to be increasingly mindful of that voice, along with the voices of my business partners, to navigate through this complex situation successfully while continuing to uplift the spirit of others.<\/p>\n Reappraisal for the short-term win<\/strong><\/p>\n I spun around in my office chair to face the window, closed my eyes, and began to pray.\u00a0 I felt the sun beat in through the window and began to warm my face.\u00a0 I sat there without moving within the stillness of my office for ten minutes to help regain my composure.\u00a0 I also began reappraising the situation and leveraging \u201ccognitive flexibility to unleash the capacity to see things from many angles.\u201d[8]<\/a> I regained composure and better regulated myself while present \u201cin a quiet alertness, one in which you are able to think on several levels at once.\u201d[9]<\/a> One key memory that I often leverage as a grounding influence is my combat experience. I simply remind myself that I am not getting shot at and don\u2019t have to sleep on a cot this evening.\u00a0 While this approach might be considered extreme, this \u201cperspective of myself at another time\u201d[10]<\/a> has been invaluable.<\/p>\n Reemerging with renewed clarity, I quickly stood before one of my favorite tools again: the whiteboard. After an hour, I stared at a long list of topics \u201csimplified and chunked\u201d[11]<\/a> by their importance to the entire team, risk to the employees or business, or time-critical decisions. Later that morning, I scheduled a meeting with my immediate senior leadership team to introduce them to the stage and share the new challenge. It was important to collaborate with them and gather their collective input on the considerations I drafted that morning.\u00a0 We continued to refine the action items and made decisions on what needed to be addressed immediately and what external resources needed to be included to succeed.\u00a0 While the team was overwhelmed by the original bad news, we were collectively in much better mindfulness to move forward with a rough draft timeline and a short set of action items to be addressed immediately.\u00a0 The eventual outcome of the reduction in business is yet to be determined as we approach the ninety-day deadline. \u00a0During this timeframe, I am refining my daily practices and quiet time as I continually attempt to remain mindful of the desired outcomes.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Dr. David Rock, Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long,<\/em> (New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers, 2020), ix.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Rock, 71.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Rock, 71.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Rock, 87.<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Rock, 87.<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Rock, 89.<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> Rock, 90.<\/p>\n [8]<\/a> Rock, 133.<\/p>\n