High Performance During Times of Chaos

A friend of mine was complaining to me about all the chaos in her life right now. I asked her was there a time when there wasn't chaos? Sure there may be more right now, but was there ever a time in your life when there wasn't any chaos? Surprised by the question, and I think more surprised by her answer that she couldn't remember a time when things weren't crazy. When she didn't have a lot going on.

There will always be periods of chaos or at least times when things are difficult. Maybe there was a short period of time when things went smoothly, but then chaos erupted.

We shouldn't be surprised by chaos or difficult times or times of struggle. To me, that is like the person who gets mad at rush hour traffic in Chicago. Yes, there is traffic. Yes, it is going slowly. Yes, it is irritating and frustrating. But should you be surprised to see the highways jammed with people that "don't know how to drive".

We make a tragic mistake when we think at some point in the future, anything will be smooth sailing and there will be peace in our lives. Right now we are experiencing a global pandemic. We all can't wait for this to be over so we get back to our "normal" lives. That day will eventually come. When is anybody's guess, but it does look like it is getting closer every day.

Here's the thing though. There will be something else that won't go perfectly, something that will surprise you. Work may be difficult at times. The stock market goes up and down and up and down. The economy goes up and down. The kids get older and have new challenges. As you improve and get better you will have new challenges.

If you run a business, you know there are always things in motion. There will always be things that need to be addressed, problems that need to be solved, things that don't go as smoothly as when you planned them on the white board. But if you are a high performer you know that is all part of the game and getting upset about it doesn't solve it. 

There are two ways to handle this. We can blame, moan and complain about it. Or we can have the attitude well, we didn't want that to happen, but it did. Now what can we do to handle it, mitigate it, or meet this challenge.

In the book Good to Great by Jim Collins, he talks about Level 5 Leadership. One of the traits of a Level 5 Leader is the ability to collect and accept the "cold hard facts". The facts of, this where we are. This is not where we want to be. Then they go about making plans with their team on how to improve the situation. What they don't do is blame the economy or whoever is President at the time, or anything else and stop there.

Blaming and complaining can feel really good sometimes. The problem is it doesn't get us anywhere. If we need to do it, we should give ourselves a time limit, like 5 minutes, 1 hour, or even 1 day. We can complain, moan and blame all we want for that period of time. Call someone and get it out of our system. Then it is time to move on.

As high performers we take 100% responsibility for everything in our life. If we want to improve something, we figure out what we can control, how we can improve it, and then go about the actions to take to improve that part of their life. 

Here is how we can handle chaos like a high performer:

• Anticipate there will be times of chaos, struggle, challenge, distraction and interruption so we shouldn't be surprised that they occur from time to time. 
• Accept that it is there. Accept the "cold hard facts" of the situation.
• Own it. Accept 100% responsibility for handling like a high performer.
• Ask yourself, "How would I, as a high performer, meet this challenge." 

When we can anticipate, accept, own and meet the challenge as a high performer, then you will not be overwhelmed by challenges and able to function at a high level even during times of chaos.