“No matter what the situation, never let your emotions overpower your intelligence.”
–Anonymous (although it could have been said by me many times this week)
These last couple of weeks have been have been weird…I’m not going to lie. I’m transitioning out of my CEO position of 13 years. This ministry has been my life for during this time frame, and as a recovering control freak, I am having a bit of a difficulty letting go.
I think some of the struggle is that I have questions. What is my new life going to look like as a full time leadership trainer, coach and speaker? Did my Board of Directors feel that the transition was effective? Am I going to have an identity issue? “They” keep telling me I’m going to experience grief. If so, what is that going to look like? Questions cause me to doubt myself. If the questions weren’t enough…this happened:
I planned to use Zoom video conferencing for the Mastermind that I started last night. Since I hadn’t ever done that before, I had a practice session earlier in the week with a couple of friends of mine. Zoom worked like a charm. We could all see and hear each other well. I was so excited.
Last night, one of the participants entered the conference early. We were having a great time chatting. All of a sudden, five minutes before everyone else was to join us, my microphone went out. I tried everything I knew (which wasn’t much) to fix it. I would click on the audio and Zoom would NOT respond. In fact, my screen would go grey and that little mouse thingy would just circle. This is a facilitators worse nightmare.
I took a deep breath and consciously relaxed my shoulders. Somehow, I got the Zoom chat to work, typed the phone number and access code for my freeconferencecall.com, which is conferencing by phone. Success! At least we could all hear each other! My notes were scattered, and I was scattered.
I was trying to find my way through my jumbled up notes, still be brilliant, and this memory floated quickly through my head. It was the time when I got all puffed up in the gym because “I’m in such good shape:)” I got closer to the mirror and realized that not only was my shirt on inside-out, but it was backwards. I started to giggle on that conference call…quietly, of course..I didn’t want anyone else to hear. I knew it was going to be okay.
Yes, it’s going to be okay. All of it. My new life and the letting go of my job may look and feel messy, but it’s going to be okay. I might not look cool, professional and perfect on the outside, but it’s the inside that counts. My inner vision is to add extreme value to those that want it. I want to unstick those that are stuck, and encourage people to pursue their full potential. That’s who I am.
There was some very amazing and transparent sharing on last night’s call when we finally all got settled. That’s the sign of a successful mastermind gathering. The participants said they were very excited to become people of more influence. Self-doubt flew out the window.
Oh, I almost forgot…leadership tips. That’s what this blog is for!
1. Have faith in yourself. You can exchange adversity for victory.
2. A deep breath engages the vegus (not Vegas) nerve. That stops the fight or flight response which drains all the blood out of your brain when stressed. A deep breath gives you back your intelligence.
3. Don’t take yourself too seriously!
4. Expect the unexpected. Treat it as an adventure. (okay, that mindset might take a couple of minutes while you’re in the middle of the unexpected.)
5. Always…always have a back up plan.
6. When technology is not cooperating, shut down your computer and turn it back on. It works perfectly after that. Really. When I got off the call, that’s what I did. Zoom worked perfectly after that.
I hope this helped you–it helped me just to write it. Thanks for listening.
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