The challenges of business, and life more broadly, can at times seem overwhelming. As we close out calendar Q1 2025, the changing landscape of consumer demand, industry disruptions, global tariffs, expanding federal layoffs, uncertain global alliances, and literally the list goes on and on. Every week… and sometimes every day ( every hour??) there are announcements and updates that make all of us take a step back and wonder/worry about the path ahead. We ask ourselves, our families and our friends a myriad of unanswerable questions. What if the administration shuts down this agency or that department… what if the economy goes into a minor/major correction…what if layoffs hit our family or company…etc…??? The questions, the fears, and the “worries” seem to expand and its hard to know which way to turn, or what action to take next. Candidly, when surrounded by fears/worries its common for all of us to get into a sort of “spin” where the worries take over and productive “forward focused” action seems elusive.
Recently, I was in a conversation with a good friend and work colleague who seemed surrounded by business concerns/worries. While the business is flourishing, the competitive pressures, customer requirements and board expectations are all increasing. Add those business dynamics to todays’ uncertain political and economic landscape, and the conversation became centered on a growing list of “worries.” After a few minutes of empathetic listening, I blurted out (in full “rainman” style) “you need to work the problems, not work the worries.” My odd outburst stopped the conversation’s direction immediately, and I was asked what I meant by “work the problem, don’t work the worry?”
I shared that I TOTALLY understood and shared in the anxiety/worries that this person was facing. It is a crazy time and its hard to determine which way to turn, or what action to take on any given day, or at any given hour! In my experience I have seen moments of massive uncertainty before… I think back to the attack on 9/11, the global financial meltdown of the great recession in 2008/2009, the onslaught of the Covid pandemic in 2020, or the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the capital to name just four! In each of these incredibly intense, world-shaking moments the fears/anxieties/worries seemed insurmountable… yet here we are. In each of those moments, I had leadership roles in businesses that needed my immediate attention and focus…. and action! In each of those situations I needed to refocus myself on the real problems/challenges/issues that we were facing and “work the problems!” Yes the worries were still there… yes I still had fears and anxieties (and probably didn’t sleep very well during those days of crisis) but I worked hard to put the worries to the side and work the problems at hand.
In my conversation, I shared a few stories from the past and specifically talked about how it felt to be leading a large company through the first few months of covid. There was no playbook… we didn’t know what to do… there weren’t any vaccines as of yet… it was so scary and yet we needed to work on two basic concepts… keep the business running and make the workplace safer that our employee’s homes. Those two concepts… those two “problems” became our complete focus and it actually allowed our front-line leaders to focus in as well on those two ideas for their departments and their teams… and it worked! Yes, the fears and anxieties were still there and yes, the madness of that moment would persist for months (and years), but the focus on “working the problems” at hand really helped us find our way thought those VERY uncharted waters!
Just as I shared with my work colleague, take a look at your world today, and I am sure that worries abound. Its natural and understandable. Work hard to find a way to put the worries to one side, and work on the core problems that face you as a leader today… and work to focus your teams energies toward productive problem solving, vs spinning on the worries/anxieties that surround us all.
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