Tuesday Insight: Focus, not Panic

The world is a pretty scary place at times and things have rarely felt more uncertain than they do now. And that makes our role as leaders even more difficult than usual.

I’ve written before about catastrophising and the impact that can have on our thinking and mental health but when times are hard, it can be difficult to maintain a sense of balance. 

So, today, because I’ve reached another milestone in the training of my young horse, I thought I’d use this experience and another horse-based analogy (I know, sorry, but they really are one of life’s best teachers) to look at the impact negative thinking can have on teams.

If you’ve any experience at all with horses, you’ll probably have noticed how nervous riders tend to have really nervous horses. It hardly seems fair, until you review the situation from the horse’s perspective.

Imagine, firstly that you’re a horse. You can be any colour you like; it’s not important – as long as it’s not blue because that would just be weird. 

So, you’re walking along with your rider on your back when from the corner ahead emerges this huge metal monster! (We’d call it a tractor, but you wouldn’t because you’re a horse.) It looks scary! 

And then you sense your rider stiffen. Their grip tightens on your reins, and their breath becomes short and shallow. You hear some words that even a horse shouldn’t hear. Well, now, knowing that your leader is scared too, you’re really scared! 

And your behaviour reflects that.

I see this all the time. Where a horse and rider’s reactions feed each other in a negative spiral that results in each losing confidence in the other. 

What should you do as a rider when faced with an oncoming tractor? Usually, the best response is to take some deep breaths, centre yourself, acknowledge the danger, and then focus on a point beyond the danger. What you’re now conveying is, “yes, I see it, but we’ve got this.”

Now, think of this in leadership terms. If we’re running around like a headless chicken, in a state of apparent panic, what does that convey to our followers?

Panic is a demoralising response to outside stress. When we let fear and panic overwhelm us, there’s a negative impact not just on our own welfare, but the welfare of our team too. And almost certainly on our combined performance. After all, it’s difficult to stay motivated and engaged when all around you seems to be in chaos. 

Of course, it’s not easy to stay calm in a crisis. But there are things I think you can do to help you and your team approach challenges in a way that is more likely to have a positive outcome. 

And they’re surprisingly similar to what I would suggest a nervous rider do.

Firstly, try to centre yourself. Often the greatest barrier to success is fear itself – an idea I explored in the story-based activity, The Monster of Anesi. 

Of course, it’s important to be aware of risks. But it’s much easier to come up with strategies for managing them if we engage the logical part of our brain. So, use techniques like the SWOT analysis to consider not just the weaknesses and threats in the current situation, but your strengths and the opportunities too. 

And, have an end goal in sight. Focusing on a point beyond the tractor translates in the work environment to focusing on a point beyond the current crisis and the steps needed to get there. 

In the riding analogy, I’d be looking at how I can make the journey to the point I’m focused on as easy and safe as possible – there might be a place with a wide verge, where we can wait for the tractor to pass us, or a side lane we can wait in. Perhaps I can signal to the ongoing driver to slow down?

At work, the same applies:

As Rudyard Kipling should have written, instead of ending his poem with a bit of toxic masculinity (different times):

Until next time…