Below is an Autogenerated Transcript

An image that’s coming to mind is someone who has to cross a large desert. It’s hot. There’s, you know, it’s brutal and it doesn’t look like it’s going to be getting a lot better. And it’s longer and it’s getting hotter during the day. And now there’s a sandstorm and, you know, bom, bo-bom, bo-bom. This is called life in 2024. And as the leader, you know, wait until it passes, blame somebody else for it or recognize it and intervene in it.

So for example, I’ve got a very short playlist and I, in fact, it’s down to I know exactly which one song I need to get it into my ears at some point in a morning, if I woke up and I wasn’t in a better mood. Okay. It’s not anybody else’s job to do that. And I’ve learned the consequences of going into life if I don’t do that. Now, not everybody has learned that. But if you’re the leader, can you afford to lead people when you’re in a bad mood? You can say,”Well, I’m human like everybody else.” Yeah, but the impact of your bad mood on everybody else, it cascades. And if it could be quantified, it’s way more than you can afford from a leadership position.

So there’s number one, recognition of moods and learning how to cultivate. For some people, it’s not music. It’s take a moment. Take four breaths. Close your eyes. It could be go smell something. It could be eat. You know, whatever it is, do ten squats, whatever it is that works for you, but you’re the one responsible for that.

The second thing is that Oasis imagery that I started answering your question with. I did it on purpose because you get to be the one who creates those Oasis moments while your entire team is in the desert. It’s not just you that’s suffering from the blazing hot sun and the sandstorm. And you know what? It’s not going to let up because the next week is going to come and more requests are coming in and the end of the month is coming, and the standards are going to be raised and the targets are going to be higher. But if you develop some proficiency in creating these Oasis moments, it could be the way you guys get together for tea break. It could be the way a birthday gets celebrated. It could be that little thing you, the ritual you create- It’s always on Friday afternoons. It could be the way you do this unique ritual when a new person joins your team, if you have high turnover like a call center, you’re going to have that on a regular basis, and you can’t create an oasis type ritual and then not also revise it and update it and make it more creative and more interesting over time. And once you start becoming an oasis generator, you can get other people involved in figuring out how to invent the next oasis.