From the beginning, my desire, if you like my vision, was that I would like to work in a calm and stable manner, if possible, not to do firefighting daily, but to focus on essential tasks. As a leader, I realized pretty quickly that if I'm tense, my team will pick up on it and I'll make the overall situation worse.
I started to research what calms me down, how I can act as a shut-off valve and let in just enough stress from the outside so that the team is well and can devote all its energy to the task, or if there is a problem within the organization, how to get out of the tense state as quickly as possible and move towards the solution again.
There are two simple things that I have used often, I will share them in case it helps someone.
One is the three question technique. If I saw that one of my colleagues was very nervous, that his mind was spinning on something, or that he brought it to the daily meeting, I asked the three questions:
- Did someone die?
- No.
- Was there a serious personal injury?
- No.
- Does the financial damage exceed one million HUF?
- No.
- Then nothing irreparable happened. What can we do?
This interrupted the tense internal monologue, he was able to calibrate the extent of the problem, and we were able to move on. Of course, this also requires that the interviewer not take over the tension, and the limit of one million HUF must also be set for the organization, it was relevant for us in relation to production costs. And if the damage exceeded the mentioned amount, even then we were already past the point of clarifying that everyone is fine and healthy, nothing could be more important than that. We'll sort out the rest somehow.
The usability of the other thing depends on the personality of the given colleague and the good and trustful working relationship, because you really have to be a troll, and not all colleagues and nexus can handle it. If you go into the office and you see that someone is very tense, flailing, nervous, and based on the information you have received, there is no serious problem, only an issue came in a wrong moment, then again, the goal is to distract him, so a really troll joke or comment should come, if possible, about a completely different subject. The astonishment, the "I can't believe you..." head comes, but the tension is already starting to release, and we can start to talk about the solution on the ground of reality.
It may be an unusual approach, but stress binds energy and attention, and if prolonged, it harms a person physically. If we achieve that the employee or the team does not remain in it, we have done something to reduce the harmful effect on them, and on the other hand, it is also good for the company, because we can move forward. It's worth it for everyone.
Do you have any such tricks? I would love to hear what has worked for others.
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