Chaos: How Does it Affect Your Team? 5 Steps to Getting it Together!
Are you an entrepreneur with chaos at your core? Do you have team members or staff that always comes to work late? Is Chaos getting the best of you or your team?
Let me share a story about Samantha’s Chaos
Samantha is a business owner, steadfast and strong dedicated wife and mother, and has a “110 percent” personality. Every time she thinks she has chaos at bay, she does something to throw a wrench into the mix. Somehow doubt, fear, and anxiety rear their ugly heads and she feels scared, feels like her armor is cracking, and she reverts to living on the edge—somewhere between a cliffhanger and Evil Knievel. She does not know how to live any other way. She finds her days filled with running marathons; only to realize at the end of the day she is going to an endless array of circles.
Samantha could just as well be Sam. Both females and males experience similar stressors in their day-to-day lives that spill over into the home and work; creating imbalance, sadness, anger, and a loss of peace and harmony. Every day Samantha does not know whether she will clear the self-imposed impossible goals she sets for herself or if she will drown in the marathon existence of life. It does not take long for Samantha’s days to spiral out of control.
For instance, if she is late for work in the morning, her whole day is affected. She is in a frantic race to catch up the remainder of the day. Any emergencies she encounters at work become the team’s emergencies. The emotional merry-go-round she has created for herself affects Samantha’s performance at work, as you may suspect. Then the effect ricochets off her and affects everyone she encounters at work and at home.
Samantha begins feeling frustrated and starts blaming others, her self-confidence and self-esteem suffer, and everyone around her gets pulled into this manic cycle. Lacking confidence and her sanity, Samantha questions her daily decisions . . . both at work and at home. It does not take long for dark clouds to gather and make her uncertain of her decisions, uncertain of her days, uncertain if she has the power and wherewithal to pull it all back together. Panic sets in and she may well experience a full panic attack and symptoms of heart racing, all while flipping out and searching for anyone and everyone to fix it.
By the time Samantha reaches this point, her affective factors are out of control. The worst part of the whole scenario is she is clueless as to what is happening to her. She has not a clue because affective factors operate on an unconscious and conscious level. For this reason, Samantha experiences aversion, discouragement, or elation, all without recognizing the source of her frustration. You guessed it—Samantha has not connected the dots. She does not recognize the hidden source behind her body’s reactions of heart palpitations, tremors, and perspiring hands.
5 Steps to Getting it Together!
In order to get a handle on the chaos, assess and address all areas of your life. This includes work, the home, and you.
Step 1: Get serious about where you are and where you want to go. Embrace Change!
How do you embrace change? Start by acknowledging there is an issue, have a desire to change the status quo, and determine what needs to change.
Step 2: Take control of your plate!
A process called Brain Dumping. This requires you to physically write down everything that is on your plate. People who constantly live in chaos have too much on their plate. This process is profound for my clients because it gives them a visual of what they really have on their plate. Everything we do is a choice, and often times there is a consequence to those choices. This activity will take you miles when determining what needs to change.
Step 3: Purge and Simplify
The more you have, both physically and on your calendar, the harder it is to keep up. Do you really need all that stuff? Do you really need to have your calendar so full? Slow down, focus on what is most important, and release all the extra. Looking at your plate, what can you delete or reduce? Delegating or reducing doesn’t have to be forever. It’s an acknowledgment that now is not a good time. What can you delegate to someone else? Or hire out?
Step 4: PLAN!
Once you have a reduced picture of what needs to be on your plate, you can address what needs to get done. Pull out your calendar. Break a bigger project into steps. What will you do? When will you do it? How will you do it? And the most important, why are you doing it?
Step 5: Train your staff on a variety of topics, and not all work related!
Take a 360² training approach. Don’t be afraid to train on topics that affect the home and wellbeing of your employees. Ask the team questions or survey them. What is challenging in their life right now? If a large part of the staff is in the throws of raising children, train on the issues parents face. If a large part of the staff is taking care of elderly parents, train on those issues. Be in tune with your staff. Happy and healthy employees produce better at work!
Check out The Complete Guide for Balance & Harmony workshop below. A powerful 360² training day for your staff or organization that addresses work, home, and you? Give us a call 704-896-1621.
Author, Trainer, Life Organizer®
Melinda Smith, CPO® organizes, optimizes, and implements action plans, training, and consulting. Great referrals are Entrepreneurs, executives, and companies looking for actionable change and results.
Especially relevant is the fact that Melinda has worked with companies and individuals for over 20 years consulting and conducting workshops across the East Coast. They included over 60 cities in 19 states.
Focus topics include Strategic Thinking, Teambuilding, and Organization. As well as Balance Strategies, Stress Management, and Embracing Change.
Furthermore, Melinda as she was one of the first 200 in the nation to achieve a Certified Professional Organizer status and is a graduate of the Western School of Feng Shui (pronounced feng shway).
Melinda has owned Balance & Harmony 360², Inc., since 2003 and is the author of The Complete Guide for Balance & Harmony OWL (Organize With a focus to Liberate) Kit. The kit includes a book, workbook, F.O.C.U.S. Journal, and five products to systematically organize Work, Home, and You.
Finally, if you are not convinced we can help. Check out more about our company with the links below.
Melinda’s training, books, consulting, advising, and speaking options, as well as where to purchase, visit:
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