August 08, 2011

Turn off the market and go back to work

Turnitoff
No matter how many times you check on the Dow, it's down.  Get over it. 

I've been through these wild market swings before, starting the the breakdown of 2000 the DotCom bubble burst.  It was a nightmare on paper, on screen and the minds of people around me.  You could tell when someone was spending too much time watching cable TV or surfing Yahoo Finance - he had the 'deer in the headlines look.' 

He was also let go in the first wave of layoffs a year later.  Because he wasn't working on his work, he was sucked up into the game.  He thought that if he checked on the market, and talked about it with his colleagues enough - it would either go away or he'd be picked as the new team leader. 

"You can't be paranoide enough," is a strange-but-real part of our bizpsyhce and it's wrong headed. During those times, I advised my team to turn off the news, stop checking on the stocks and focus on the program we were buildling for our clients, and how over-delivering on it was more important than ever.  Every single one of them that took my advice was still with the company two years later. 

You are no good to your company if you invest more than four smoke breaks of your time on market conditions.  As one analyst said last week, "Change your portfolio or sell until you can sleep, then turn it off!"  Nothing good will come from time spent watching the blow-by-blow reporting of the stock market's trades.  Management doesn't need you to play Chicken Little or Debbie Downer. Your CEO isn't going to say, "that paranoid young man, the one that's freaked out by the stock market, he's a good candidate for leadership!" Never. 

If you start off conversations this week by chatting about 'this economy' - you are part of the problem, not part of the solution.  You'll suck the energy out of everyone you talk to, and that's not being a leader.  Remember what Napoleon said, "the leader's role is to define reality, then give hope." 

If you can stay focused now, your work will rise to the top.  Can you? 

 

Posted at 11:45 AM in Business Effectiveness , Leadership  |  Permalink  |  Comments (4)  |  TrackBack (0)

Comments

Commentor

. I didn't even know what was happening with the market until I read about it in the blogs I follow... but shooting from the hip and reacting short term to the market chaos is an incredible anxiety producer. thanks for the good blog..keep it up..

Posted by: sports good  |  August 19, 2011 at 03:22 AM

Commentor

Good points. This is a challenge also in a much smaller scale. I often talk to people complaining about their job... how is that for securing your own job?

Posted by: Frode H  |  August 09, 2011 at 02:45 PM

Commentor

I haven't watched the news in years and don't invest anything in the market. Don't believe in it. I invest in myself, my business and things I know and have a say in. I didn't even know what was happening with the market until I read about it in the blogs I follow.

Posted by: Nate Guggia  |  August 09, 2011 at 06:59 AM

Commentor

Hi Tim,
Important to address the happenings in the market. We're on a ride that is not likely to subside in the near future. Being aware is one thing - but shooting from the hip and reacting short term to the market chaos is an incredible anxiety producer. Such stress can have long term effects. I figured it was appropriate to share the video on we shot a few months back in which you discuss the New Economy Depression Syndrome.

http://www.worklifenation.com/2011/07/when-work-life-balance-collides-demands-of-economy/

Best: @JudyMartin8

Posted by: Judy Martin  |  August 08, 2011 at 02:36 PM

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