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Paul: Welcome to the Resilient Leadership Podcast. My name is Paul Marks and I'm an executive coach. Over the last 30 years, I've had the opportunity to work with literally thousands of leaders and teams across Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Australia. And during that time, I've also had that opportunity to draw on a real rich mix of ideas, perspectives, practices and cultures and how each of these shapes leadership. In my podcast, I'll be sharing insights and stories from my experiences, I would also be sharing leadership psychology and neuroscience where possible so that I can provide evidence-based techniques and strategies to help you develop your leadership capacity. Today's episode is about uncertainty. It's a big topic and everyone is talking about how fast the world is changing and how certain things feel. But before we get into the session, I'd like to ask you that question. Do you actually think today is more uncertain than maybe 10, 20, 30 or even 50 years ago. Because if you do, I'd actually like to push back on that. Most people I talk to actually feel the world is more uncertain, but maybe it's not necessarily the uncertainty that's actually causing the problem. it may be something to do with the relationship that we've built with uncertainty and our constant exposure to it that is really driving that stress and pressure that a lot of leaders and people across different industries and professions are feeling right now. Now, before we get into the real meat of this podcast, Let's take a little look at the world that we live in today. Sure, it's fast, it's complexed and it's never changing. It feels like, you know, everything is moving under our feet. And we are really wired into this, I think, because we're constantly connected online. We're constantly fed information through social media and news channels, and it's coming in all day long and it's all coming at once. something is happening in the US, the Middle East or Asia, we already know about it within minutes of it happening just by looking at our phones or the other devices that we have around our house or office. We are more tuned in with everything that's going on in the world today than any humans have been in the past. That's a fact. But what is the result of this? Well, a nervous system that never really fully switches off. is always scanning, it's always looking for the next thing that's happening and what's worse is because of social media and notifications and this access or easy access to information it's almost like we've become addicted to this constant flow of information and data. We're always looking for it. We're not just living our own lives anymore, we're actually carrying the whole world in our pocket. But let's take a look at this word uncertainty. Was it really more or was it less certain in the past? Let's look at the last hundred years. So, okay, let's take a step back. Well, in the last hundred years, our relatives, maybe our parents or grandparents may have gone through the two world wars. That would have been very uncertain. when I think about London during the blitzes, but also when family members would leave home to go to the battlefield, not knowing if they would ever see their loved ones again. And the only way they could communicate was through letter. They didn't have that access to internet and to be able to have those conversations. I think they probably would have felt a lot of uncertainty. During, you over the last hundred years as well, we've also seen disease and pandemics around the world, around the globe. And they didn't have the medication or the modern technologies that we have today to be able to, you know, prevent disease or even stop people from feeling pain. There was the Great Depression in the last hundred years. There was no safety net there either. No guarantees of work or food for some families. And then we had the Cold War and that very real fear of feeling that everything could end or that we could go to war. People lived with enormous life and death uncertainty. And what's more is they didn't have those tools to sort of support them. They didn't have psychologists and counsellors and coaches. They didn't have access to, you know, self-help books or they didn't have wellness programs. Where I'm from, you know, in the UK, one of the ways that people would overcome problems would be sit down and have a cup of tea. And it would always make me laugh when my mother used to you know do exactly that when there was a problem the first thing she would say is let's sit down and have a cup of tea so it was tough let's be honest it was tough so maybe the difference actually between now and then wasn't that there was less uncertainty I think what was different was that back in those days they did not have that real-time knowledge, that stream of constant information and exposure to everything that's going on in the world all at once and all at the same time. So it wasn't necessarily the uncertainty but it was this new exposure actually which I think has made things different today. Now let's talk about the neuroscience a little bit on this because it's important, right? Your brain is kind of like... and I use this, Lucy, but it's kind of like a prediction machine. It wants to know what's coming next to keep you safe or to keep you out of harm. So it loves patterns. It loves to be able to predict the future. It likes to stick with routines. It likes to know what's happening in the environment. And so when there's uncertainty, it does register maybe like a low level threat. And that is biology, right? That's not people being weak, okay? That's an important thing to remember. Now imagine that same brain getting 24x7 streams of all of the world's problems, all of the crises, everything's going on, you know, and it's happening, but it's happening everywhere and it's all coming into your brain constantly throughout the day. What even also worries me is that You know,
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people are attached to their phones. I get it. And I have a problem with it too. You know, if I put my phone down somewhere, I'm always constantly reaching out to figure out where it is or where I've put it. But what's worse is that people don't even just use the phone during the day. They even sleep with it and they listen to things at night. And while they're sleeping, the phone's still playing podcasts, YouTube videos. Our brain never really gets a rest from that. We stay a little wide, a little edge, a little nervous if you like, almost all the time. we are wired to this environment that we've created. So the question that I really want us to think about is how can we become a little bit less wired or unwired to what's happening around us. So let's start with some facts here. We cannot change the future because it's unknown. We might be able to predict, we may have some good ideas and sometimes, hopefully a lot of the time we'll be right. But we know that the future is uncertain. Anything can happen. What we can change though is that relationship with not knowing and how much of this information we actually allow into our brains. We need to manage that input. You don't have to carry around every crisis on the planet in real time. if you're focused on one thing in your life then you're not focusing on other things it doesn't mean you're burying your head in the sand it means that you've shifted your focus so focusing on all the wars and all of the issues that are happening all at once is something that's you know pretty much outside of our control for the most part It's important to be able to see where we have some control and where we don't. Now for leaders, this is critical because your state of mind and how you show up will have an impact on your people and your team and their dynamic. So if you have a calm relationship with not knowing, it actually can steady your team in uncertain times. However, On the other side of that, if you're panicking, you're suffering from anxiety and that's coming out in the way that you show up, the way that you behave, the way you interact, that's also going to have an impact on your team. And it's not going to improve their performance or their effectiveness and it's certainly not going to help their wellbeing. Now I'd like to just give you a quick story about one leader that I coached a year ago. And it's a good story because there's kind of a good end into this, right? This leader really makes a profound shift in how they're showing up. So this particular leader felt constantly anxious and overwhelmed about this chaotic world that we live in. Each day they turn on the news and... look at what was going on and then somehow create a story of how that was affecting him and how it could affect him and his team and his business and all of this. So he kind of like took all of this information and then created a narrative which is what we do right that's how our brain works very often. But what we found that was
in the coaching, he realized a big chunk of the pressure was not actually coming from his actual job, his life, his team, or the real challenges that were right in front of him. It was coming from being permanently plugged into everything, everywhere. when he started to change that relationship with the input, he actually started to realize that the uncertainty that he had to face with his team became a lot more manageable. Now the truth is the uncertainty didn't change but his relationship with it did. So here's a couple of quick leadership takeaways from that, I think. First of all, the uncertainty that we face is not new. History shows us that uncertainty has always been there. What is new is our constant exposure to it. The second thing is that our brain treats uncertainty as a threat Now we know we can't control or remove the uncertainty in many ways, but we can look at our relationship and how much and what we choose to absorb in our environment. And we need to be able to really separate what's the uncertainty that is truly ours to own, where we're operating, and simply plug out or plug off from the rest. so that it gives our brain a bit of space to focus on what we're actually doing instead of being sidetracked or distracted by everything else. What we found with this leader as well is that when he showed up more calm, it was really contagious. And his calmness had a really big impact on his team and how they felt about working with him too. So here's some quick practical tips that you can maybe try this week if you're up for it. So number one, I'd like you to think about how you could audit your inputs. Decide when and where you decide to tune into the news or social media, rather than it just being passively on in the background or with you all the time. Look to try to protect one window of space during your day where you unplug from the world. The second thing is if you are faced with uncertainty have a go, if there's tension, have a go at naming it. So you can say, right, okay, I've looked at the news, I'm exposed to that, but actually this is not my situation. Okay, so decide, label what is in your power and what's outside your power. And... Along with that, you can sort your uncertainties. So you can actually write down, you know, what's generally yours to act on, what issues or uncertainties you have to act on, and also everything else that's outside of that. Just writing it down can be really helpful. As a leader as well, model being calm in uncertain times. Be honest, so if you don't know what's happening, you can say to your team, I don't know yet, but here's how we're going to work it out. So you give them the steps or you start to show them the actions you're going to take and your steadiness will set the temperature for everyone moving forward. And the final one, to give you is a tip five is to protect your recovery. Give your nervous system a chance to switch off in the week as much as possible. Whether that's going for a walk, putting your phone down for a few hours, making sure that you get a proper night's sleep and if you're someone like me that you know doesn't necessarily enjoy just sitting there just watching a movie you know I get a lot of pleasure out of doing things like surfing or climbing or sailing because I'm out there with nature I'm in the moment and all I'm focusing on is that environment and everything that's happening around me and it disconnects me from all the noise. Anyway, you know what's best for you and you know where to find that space and place for your brain. So it really comes back then to that question that I opened this session with. Is it uncertainty that causes us stress and pressure or is it our relationship with it? That uncertainty was always here. What's changed is that wiring part. And that wiring part, where we choose to put our focus, is actually where we have the power to make changes. Thanks for spending this time with me on the Resilient Leadership Podcast. I do hope that you've enjoyed this session and that it's been of use for you too. If you did like it, please make sure that you like and describe and if you know anybody in your circle that you think could benefit from some of the things that I'm sharing on my podcast, please make sure you share it with them as well. In the next episode, we're going to be looking at something that's slightly different. We're going to be looking at comfort and the danger of getting too comfortable. So I hope you look forward to that. Thank you and have a good week. Bye for now.