Social and economic crisis can have a toll on us both physically and mentally. While it is important to indulge in our feelings and understand them, it is also important to keep being productive, and adjust to the uncertainties that surround us. In order to do so, having a mentally healthy and motivated pack can help us adapt and overcome these challenges. Maintaining a positive environment, communicating and empowering your pack are three ways to keep them motivated to push forward.

1. Maintain a positive environment!

A sick employee will not enjoy coming to work every day to talk about his or her illness. Equally, to maintain a positive team morale, we should make sure the workplace is an optimistic environment; a place where they can come, be productive, be together and do their best to overcome everything.

This can be accomplished by creating more collaboration between departments, more collective meetings, events and lunches. While the budget might not allow for much, a collective coffee hour to start-up the week might allow the team to catch up, have a laugh and start the week with a boost!

Engaging work begets an engaging team!

Lauren Karam

2. Value Communication!

We are social animals, we love to connect, in all sort of ways. Communication plays an integral role in building trust and relationships within the pack.

Relationships within the workplace define the ability for your team to connect and communicate, work and brainstorm together. Relationship creation can be endorsed through genuine interactions and spontaneous gatherings.
Trust is built upon those relationships. Building trusting teams are interwoven structures that allow for exponential growth. Trust is what will allow team members to interrupt each other, shout, and connect freely in brainstorming session. Making everyone feel safe, fulfilled and satisfied develops trust.

3. Empower everyone around you!

Feeling helpless kills motivation. Your team’s morale will affect how engaged they are with work. By making them feel empowered and responsible, they will feel motivated to create a change within their position.
Try asking each person in your team the following questions:

– Do you think we are doing everything we can to adapt and overcome the situation?
– What do you think we can do to make this situation better for us?
– How do you think we should implement these changes?
– Could you prepare a proposal about the changes you think are necessary?

By asking these questions, you are making your team think about how they can impact the company, know their opinion matters to you, and motivate them to take action.

A ship was sailing in the ocean when a light appeared on the opposite side on its sailing course. Rushed, the captain orders to send a signal advising the other ship on the opposite side to deviate its course by 20 degrees. The message was delivered, the sergeant on the other side confirmed the intersecting course and advised the first ship to shift its course by 20 degrees. Furious, the captain sends the signal himself saying: “This is the captain speaking, change your course or we will crash!” The sergeant agrees and replies: “This is a sergeant speaking, I agree, we advise that you shift your course by 20 degrees.” The captain was impatient and threatens the sergeant by saying: “this is a battleship, I order you to change your course.” The sergeant replies: “this is a light house”.

The captain changed his ship’s course.

A paradigm is a distinct set of concepts, beliefs and patterns, including theories, research methods, postulates and standards; constituting a legitimate base for an aspect or field in life.
From the captain’s paradigm, he was right; meanwhile on the opposite side, the sergeant’s paradigms showed that he was right too.
From the captain’s paradigm, he was right; meanwhile on the opposite side, the sergeant’s paradigms showed that he was right too.

A paradigm is the lens through which we see the world. It may be blurry, too zoomed in or too zoomed out, slightly to left or slightly to the right and it could be completely off.

These paradigms are greatly affected by our principles, values and beliefs: our CENTERS.

We all have centers that control our daily lives one way or another, centers providing a narrow and focused paradigm blinding the bigger picture and clouding our judgments.

We might be spouse centered finding ourselves dependent of someone else, losing wisdom and power in the counter dependent negative interactions with our spouse.

Family centered getting our sense of security or growth exclusively from our family members, thus becoming vulnerable to any changes or influences.

Money centered, making decisions based on income and expenses, seeing the value of items only by their price and neglecting family or other priorities assuming everyone will understand that the economic demands come first.

Possessions centered, where our significance comes from materialistic items like fashionable clothes, home, cars and jewelry but also intangible possessions of fame, glory and status. If my state of security and lies in my reputation or my possessions, then I will live my life in a constant state of threat that these possessions might be lost or stolen.

Friend/enemy centered, making decisions based on dependence of one person or a group of friends. Acceptance and belonging to that group becomes the main concern, accepting or rejecting jobs, judging other people, going places and doing things based on the paradigm of making our friends “happy.”

Self centered, violating the values of people around us by focusing too much on ourselves and becoming selfish, instead of taking part of interdependent relationships where service, production and contribution are the core values of our personal growth and fulfillment.

These are some of the centers we may be submerged in, dominating and controlling our actions without taking into account other paradigms.
Finding your center is important to your well being and to living a balanced life, but what is more important is to balance your centers to constantly shift your paradigms.
Shifting your paradigm will give you a clear and accurate image of the world and provide you with more wisdom to act.

What is your dominant center today? How do you think it is negatively affecting your other centers?

As humans, what scares us the most is the unknown. We like to feel in control and we feel uncertainty robs us from being in control. Moving forward and reaching goals in an uncertain environment comes in 3 steps: Acceptance, Assessment, and Setting an action plan

1. Acceptance

Embracing the idea that nothing external is really in our control is liberating. The pressure created from this idea limits us and drifts our focus from what really matters. However, we should also know that the only thing we can completely control is our reaction. Acting as enablers instead of reactors opens infinite possibilities in front of us and helps us turn any situation to our advantage.

During this pandemic, accepting that it is impossible to go down to the office, and looking as the situation from a positive perspective will make it easier for us to use this time towards productive activities, and things we want to do and have been postponing for a while, whether it’s working out, learning to play a new instrument or starting a side-business.
In order to be in control of our reaction, we should avoid panic and look as rationally as possible at the complete situation.

2. Assessment

The average person has around 70,000 thoughts per day. It is very important not to get lost between thoughts, losing focus from what the problem really is, and how we can solve it.

One very helpful tip would be to write down the things we feel we’re not in control of, and on the other side, all the things we feel we are in control of. Being aware of our thoughts, and transforming them into words makes us understand what really scares us, and therefore helps us control how we react to this fear. The root of uncertainty is the fear of failure, and by stating the things we are in control of, which are our actions, how we divide our time, our routines and our habits; we realize that we can do much more than we think to improve our situation.

3. Setting an Action Plan

After accepting the extent to which we can control external elements, and that we have assessed the things we feel in control of, our strengths and our weaknesses, it is much easier to set an action plan that can bring us closer to our objectives.

Setting Goals

Setting short-term and long-term goals that match our vision helps us track our progress, and staying motivated towards our journey. Having personal goals gives us something to look forward to, as well as accountability to change our situation, instead of being pushed around by external factors we cannot control.

Moving Forward

Now is the time to connect the dots: matching your strength and weaknesses to actions according to your goals. What seemed at first as an unknown and unstable situation suddenly feels clearer. Someone who saw his business come to a stop during the pandemic would have identified his weakness in digital marketing, a set a short-term goal to open a social media account and selling his products online. This shift in perspective turned a “dead-end” situation to an opportunity of improvement.

Ready to start moving forward?

Imagine going on an adventure with your buddy, and committing to living in the present. Disconnecting from all your surrounding and connecting deeper with your mind and body. Constantly expressing your thoughts, to make them adhere to the present.

The weather was clear, the sun was strong, the wind felt good as it streamed in the open window of the car while driving an hour from home. Our mindfulness journey was about to begin. We hiked along a river reaching virgin spots overlooking the valley, meditating while listening to the current streaming down brushing earth underneath. We watched the wind caress newly born tree leaves while we sat down meditating. We usually build bridges to cross rivers, this time however, when the trail and the river intersected, the trail went below. We crossed looking up towards the flow of the water appreciating the energy it carries and recharging on its determination. The trail disappeared in the river, we had reached a beautiful spot carved in the colored rocks. The current was slower, the rocks were larger and we were about to engage in the most amazing exercise of mind-body awareness. We dipped our feet in the cold running water, closed our eyes and felt the power of the river, the rhythm of its flow. Its energy grabbed our feet and its temperature was climbing up through our body asking our brains for comfort. It felt like talking to the river, connecting our bodies. We were one.

The little things, the little moments?
They aren’t little

jon kabat zinn

On our way back, a water pipe crossed the river from side to side, hanging 9 meters above. We walked on it, and when in the middle, with nothing but void between us and the running waters we sat down and engaged in a mindfulness conversation.

We were far away from our familiar surroundings, so we headed to find a good camping spot. Sunken in between spring trees, with an incredible sunset view, we set up our tent. As the sun was setting and the sky was turning into a spectrum of purple and orange, we embraced the silence of the moment to listen to Nature around us. And there it goes, the infinite symphony of noises that we usually take for granted. In that moment, nothing was for granted; we appreciated everything, from the oxygen we were breathing to the gravity that was grounding us. Earth rotated, we lit a fire.

Gazing at one of Nature’s mysterious element, looking at the infinite shapes formed within the flames of the crackling wood. Peeling crust after crust, burning and sparkling light from within.

Mindfulness is appreciating the light beneath your crust.

It is almost difficult to imagine that a sailboat could leave shore when the wind is coming from the opposite direction. In fact, sailing upwind is all about understanding the physical forces hitting the sail of the boat and maneuvering the sail’s rotation to get the resulting pushing force needed.

A sailboat never sails directly upwind: it would be entering the no-sail zone, where the boat will stand idle and not move at all. Sailing upwind would require the boat to follow a curved path varying between 40-45 degrees while rotating the sail.

Steering a boat towards a specific destination is similar to making a change happen in someone else’s life. 

How can you influence and trigger change in someone else’s life?

You should know that we may all speak the same language, but we almost never fully understand each other. What might seem rational, simple and basic to you might be the total opposite to the person sitting next to you.

Changing someone you care for is not your responsibility, influencing him is.

elias soueidi

1. Find the North

This step is about defining the ultimate goal, a clear vision of where the person is heading.
It is about finding the other person’s north and not yours. Make sure you see the vision from his perspective.

Although the goal might look the same, but the vision of a bride losing weight for her wedding is not the same as the athlete who wants to optimize her performance.

Be the Leader you wish you had

simon sinek

2. Create an Influence

Creating an Influence might be the hardest thing to do in this case. You need to be smart and specific. The influence you are about to create should not look like an intervention. It is an indirect factor that will regroup parameters around the person involved, offering him support, motivation and inspiration.
Consider yourself a leader and your goal is to make that other person follow you without using authority or dictating what should be done.

A watched pot never boils

elizabeth gaskell

3. Watch the Sail

Do not obsess about results, and do not wait for immediate reactions. Watch the sail from a far; watch the beautiful journey on which that person is about to embark.

The pack travels is a program we offer in which we cover great distances while carrying our backpacks throughout the whole trip. Before every trip, a meeting is held discussing the trail’s distance, landscape and difficulty; the necessary gear and food menu and finally the predicted itinerary for the trip. In fact, thru hiking demands a professional approach with a healthy dose of common sense, curiosity, foresight and training.

It is true that the point of heading out on an adventure is to learn your limits, but careless planning is sure to make you learn those limits much sooner.

Having an outdoor mindset is willing to walk into an adventure while keeping your eyes open for possibilities, bifurcations and new experiences. It is about having an infinite mindset that will lead you through an adventure in spite of the challenges that you may face and regardless of your initial planning.

The infinite mindset is the right one to adopt in times of uncertainty, when you feel that the world around you is not what you imagined and not even what had planned for. In life, there will be no ‘according to the plan’. You will need to adapt by adopting an infinite mindset allowing you to overcome your challenges and enjoy the journey.

Go with a goal in mind, but stay open-minded to getting lost, it is the only way to a real adventure

elias soueidi

So, how do you adopt that infinite mindset and what are the steps to follow?

Step 1: Plan

Set your crystal clear goal, and develop a plan. As previously said, going without a plan will make you face your limits sooner than you think. Focus on your vision, and keep it clear in your mind.

Step 2: Be Open and Flexible

The road won’t be smooth, things will go dark. Challenges will rise and will ripple your plans and strategies. Your predictions will change; you need to accept that with an open mind. Be flexible to what is happening, accept the change and most importantly respect your surroundings.

Step 3: Adapt

This is the chance for you to reinvent your plan and yourself. Working with the situation requires you to decide to change some things. Embrace that change; be creative in these uncertain times. No one was ever declared the winner of life; we just have to stay in the game.

See you at the top!

For a lion, learning to hunt is one of the most important skills that it will ever acquire. In the early days hunting is a combination of instinct, observation, and practice for young lions.
Watching their mothers hunt, cubs learn by watching their mothers capture the prey, before going trying tactics and skills on their own.

Teaching is one thing but learning is another. So how do you make sure that the people you are working with know what to do or how to do it? What is the best leadership transition model? and how do you implement it?

John Maxwell defines the levels of leadership according to your level of authority, leverage and influence. We will dissect each level and try to understand on which level you are with your subordinates.

Ask yourself what level am I on with that person, you may be on different levels with different people. Knowing your levels with those people will allow you to become a better leader to them.

Level 1: Position

Position is the starting point. Anyone can be appointed to a position, which will give you authority over a group of people. This doesn’t make you a leader just yet, it makes you a boss, a person in charge. You have subordinates, not team members. You rely on rules and regulations to manage and lead without any influence or leverage. Your followers will follow you because you have authority over them and not because of your leadership skills.  

Level 2: Permission

‘People go along with leaders they get along with’

You have reached this level, if you succeeded at building relationships, bonds and connections with the people in your charge. You now have influence on them; they follow you and not your orders. Your subordinates will start working with you because you showed care, value and trust. This is the first real phase of your leadership path.

Level 3: Production

Reaching level 3 will require you to move from influencing others around you to help them become efficient and productive. Production separates true leaders from people who occupy leadership positions; you need lead your team into making things happen. Hitting monthly targets, building a community, lifting the spirit of the work environment, problem solving; are all aspects of you making a significant impact. Moving to level 3 requires a clear set vision, dedication, discipline and consistency.

Level 4: People Development

Shifting from Production to People development is a revolutionary shift in the organization’s structure. This shift will transform you from being a leader who gets involved in production tasks into a leader focusing on his people, their well-being and most importantly their own leadership skills. Leaders who reach the fourth level have gone beyond numbers and results and are now growing others as leaders.

Level 5: The Pinnacle

Growing others as leaders is every leader’s ambition, but seeing those grow leaders of their own is the culmination of leadership and the highest level. The pinnacle consists of developing leaders who will reach level 4 (people development) on their own. The individuals who reach level 5 lead so well for so long that they create a legacy of leadership in the organization they serve.
Leadership at this high level creates an unshakeable circle of safety, regrouping everyone in the organization and creating a unique environment where everyone feels fulfilled and happy. Level 5 leaders possess an influence that can reach everyone in the organization, this is why it is very important to lift up as many leaders as they can, tackle as many challenges as possible and extend their impact to make a difference beyond their own organization.