President Harry Truman was asked once how he handled the high-stress environment he was in. His answer: “I have a foxhole in my mind.”

I think about that quote often. As leaders, we can struggle with stress, demands, commands, complaints, and so much more that calls our attention away from the current task at hand. Successful leaders know when to separate those demands, which ones to address right now (very few) and which ones to put aside until later.

How can you designate a foxhole, a safe place, in your mind to limit your stress and response? I can’t answer that for you but let me give you an example I use. I love small thinking oases throughout the day. I schedule in random times throughout my day and put an alarm on my watch. When it goes off, I take 90 seconds to close my eyes and think about the ocean and the waves. It’s just enough to remind me that life is not all about the current problem I’m trying to solve.

What about you? What could you do...

"I always think about what I am going to do, and what I want to happen instead of what the batter is going to do, or what may happen to me." Hugh Casey [successful and calm relief pitcher]

As a leader, what do you focus on more, what you want to happen or what you don’t want to happen?

If you’re like many of my coaching clients you WANT to think about what you want, but…. Something keeps you focused on what you don’t want: people not meeting your metrics, programs failing, screwing up that staff meeting, not getting deadlines met, etc.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Where your focus goes, your energy flows.”

My driver’s education instructor told me (way back when!), “Where you look is where your car will go, so make sure you look at where you want to go.”

What would happen if you chose to focus on where you want to go as a team and in your leadership rather than focusing on all the problems?

Challenge: set aside 10 minutes, every...

What is a crisis in the workplace? Obviously, with the Pandemic, there are many answers to that question!

But, what about in a ‘normal’ time? A crisis might look like a problem, challenge, a sales opportunity, running a staff meeting for the first time, a looming deadline, or speaking in public.

How do we prepare ourselves, and our people, to perform under pressure? Maxwell Maltz lists out 3 things that help people perform in a 'crisis'.

• Practice Without Pressure: learning while under stress creates ‘muscle memory’ for only one option. Learning without stress creates muscle memory for multiple options. The stressed brain cannot be creative or solve problems. How can you help your people perform without pressure in your workplace?

• Cultivating A Positive (Offensive) Mindset: Offense vs. Defense; those that focus on moving forward, even in tiny steps, during a challenge perform better both during a challenge and when not in a challenge. Those who focus...