This “meh” feeling seems to be everywhere right now. “Indifferent with indifference,” as Adam Grant’s article on languishing brings out, calling it the “neglected middle child of mental health”.
“Quiet quitting.”
You might think, as Simon Sinek recently, that we’ve put a new name on disengagement. Some think it’s the person checking out- doing only what has to be done. Some think there are signals that a leader should pick up on that signal this is happening. I’ve also heard that “quiet quitting” is the unacceptable version of what we see more executives doing when they are “finding balance”.
Wow, so many nuances to process. Is it this? Is it that? It can be very overwhelming.
No matter what we call what we’re experiencing, the important part seems to be that we’re interested enough in what’s going on with us to bring our awareness to it. “Naming brings noticing.” If we can name something, we can notice it more. When we notice more we can understand more. This can possibly give us more practice to try different things that help us shift out of the feeling we’re hoping to turn down a bit, like a knob on a stereo (not a button).
If we’re interested enough in ourselves, hopefully we can be interested in what might be going on for others and check in with them more often in different ways. I hope we can do more of this. Just a simple and real “How *are* you?” No fixing, no solving, just listen.
It’s how we help ourselves with balance and those that we rely on.
Here are a few things that I’ve enjoyed recently and have been sharing:
1 // Brené Brown’s “Dare to Lead” came back from a break with a 2-part podcast episode with both Adam Grant and Simon Sinek together. She’s done this one other time before and it was incredible. Note how many times Brené says, “WAIT, say that again?”. Here’s Part 1 (40 min listen), and Part 2 (42 min listen). They talk about teams, leadership, “quiet quitting”, “passion tax”, and other trends they’re seeing at work.
2 // Challenge your perfectionism, challenge your assumptions, and outsource or delegate where it’s possible. These are just a few helpful points mentioned in this HBR article about “How to Deal with Constantly Feeling Overwhelmed“. (5 min read)
3 // How about we take a break from all this and watch tiny wontons being made? (3 min of ease)
“Leading into a world of unknowns, a world where you don’t have the answer, the best you can do is to ask better questions, as well as help those around you to do the same.” – Pascal Finette
Speaking of learning to ask better questions, I just launched a 3-hr workshop to build core Multipliers leadership skills, one of them being, “Ask Better Questions”. This is one way I might be able to help you or someone you know.
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