I’ve talked with a few leaders recently who have had a devastating experience at work. Negative feedback from some of their people about their leadership was relayed to them by their higher ups. You can imagine how that felt. Gut wrenching. Mind boggling. Frustrating. Embarrassing.
They’re questioning themselves about everything they have said and done that could have caused this. The good thing is that instead of allowing this low moment to define them, they are looking at what they can do differently. One said it has been the most humbling experience in his life. He has chosen to look for the positives that have come from it.
This quote came to mind as I thought about their situations: “Two men looked out from prison bars. One saw the mud, the other saw stars.” *
It’s such a visual. They can focus on the yuck and get mired in it, or they can look further out at possibilities of what they can do and visualize themselves being drawn to better days ahead.
The best approach is to focus attention each day on taking positive action, one step at a time, working on what they want to get better at, including taking good care of themselves.
In the long run, when time has passed, looking back on this experience and what they did about it, I imagine they will see growth from it that catapulted them to a new level of performance they would not have reached otherwise.
*Dale Carnegie, Stop Worrying and Start Living: Time-Tested Methods for Conquering Worry
