To say the world has been dealing with significant uncertainty over the past 18 months may be the understatement of the year. Tasks that were once so routine that they didn’t merit a millisecond’s consideration, from how and where we worked to commuting have been changed only to be changed again.
Many workplaces rocked from preparing for economic calamity and freezing expenditures to dealing with shortages in the face of record demand. On the personal front, many are weary and have experienced psychological lows and perhaps the occasional high brought upon by more time with family or flexibility in life and work.
It can be difficult thriving in this type of environment, especially with the temptation to merely throw up one’s hands in the face of so much uncertainty, and surrender any ability to shape your personal and professional future.
Starting with You
Responsibilities don’t start and end with country wise email marketing list our workplace role for most of us. While you may be a tech leader by day, you’re likely a caregiver, friend, parent, partner, and a variety of other roles. Many of us play several roles at any given time and now have to rapidly change from providing leadership and strategy to our organizations to consoling a child just outside the view of our webcams.
It isn’t easy to bring your best to this multitude of roles without taking care of yourself. As the calendar turns to a New Year, it’s a great time for reflection on your current mental, physical, and emotional state. Avoid the urge to launch into some dramatic, but likely untenable, regime of “resolutions.” If you’ve been sitting on the couch for 24 months, resolving to run a marathon in March probably isn’t going to do much more than creating frustration and more stress.
However, you should also avoid the urge to make vague promises to yourself like “eating healthy” or “reducing stress.” Just as you would manage a work-related endeavor, set realistic and measurable goals, with checkpoints along the way to measure and adjust progress. Allow for adjustment of a “stretch” goal, or perhaps even the ability to make the goal loftier.
Disconnect from Expectations
Perhaps the worst part of recent mitigating software development costs with nearshore outsourcing uncertainty is the constant adjustment and abandonment of expectations. Vaccines promised us a route back to “normal” before the parade of COVID variants began, just as most office workers have seen a series of “return to work” dates postponed or abandoned.
The problem with pinning your plans and hopes on external or environmental factors is that they’re generally outside you or any other individual’s influence. No one can predict or control a pathogen, any more than a government official can create a policy that’s not subject to change based on outside factors.
Creating a Thriving Workplace
One of the key reasons to consider mobile lead your well-being first and foremost is that it allows you to be a more effective leader. No matter how effective a “game face” you possess, you’ll never be operating at your best as a leader if you’re on the edge of coping with everyday life.
Once you’ve practiced the habits that make you resilient in your personal life, you can apply similar thinking to your tech leadership role. If the uncertain market for technology talent has become problematic, explore flexible staffing and nearshoring and create scalable capacity while letting someone else worry about sourcing talent.
If you keep having to restructure your project portfolio as the external environment changes, rather than focusing primarily on discrete projects, focus on broadly applicable capabilities and create more organizational flexibility. Perhaps external factors allow you to “kill” a legacy system or unproductive program and provide the perfect rationale for a new effort that’s long been stuck in debate and approvals.