By CSDA Communications Specialist Kristin Withrow
What is your stress response? Do you push it away, tamp it down and ignore it? Do you rev up, move faster, check off the To-Do list in rapid fire order? Do you shut down, paralyzed by the enormity of the tasks at hand, unable to determine an order of operations to begin?
Stress is a physiological response recognized by all organisms. The response is a physical manifestation designed to elicit an action for self-preservation. Survival of any species requires response to stressors, from predators, to hunger, to all things in between. The human condition is not immune to physiological responses to stress. The heart rate increases, breathing becomes rapid and shallow, we may break out in a sweat, muscles become tense, our focus narrows to address the perceived threat.
This stress response in the workplace, or in most instances people encounter in their personal lives, is disproportionate to the type of stress modern humans encounter. An interaction with a frustrated customer, an unreasonable teenager, or an uncollaborative coworker do not require the heightened fight or flight response evolution has hardwired in the human brain. But how can we decode it?
Our day one keynote speaker for the CSDA General Manager Leadership Summit has keys to help us unlock the code. Dr. Jannell MacAulay is a combat veteran who served 20 years in the U.S. Air Force as a pilot, commander, special operations consultant, international diplomat, and professionalism instructor. She currently serves as a leadership and human performance consultant for the Department of Defense, government sector, and corporate America. She is the co-founder of Warrior’s Edge, a high-performance mindset training program she developed with Pete Carroll of the Seattle Seahawks, and high-performance sports psychologist Dr. Michael Gervais.
According to Dr. MacAulay’s website, she “takes leaders and teams on a transformational journey of self-reflection, leaving you with actionable skills to master your internal environment, command your mindset, and elevate your performance.”
“Most of us spend a lot of our day not clearly paying attention. That can lead to poor decision-making from misreading situations, a lack of communication, or not clearly being aware of your employees’ or coworkers’ struggles and frustrations,” explained MacAulay.
Her emphasis on training awareness by doing what she calls “mental pushups,” enables people to pre-load a better response to stress. Importantly, this work also makes people more aware of the situations, circumstances, and people around them, so they are better prepared in their actions and responses.
One aspect of the mental training involves finding one-minute moments, every day, to practice mindfulness. At a stoplight, instead of reaching for the cell phone, take a minute for some long slow breaths. While stuck in line at a store, waiting for an appointment, during a TV commercial break, these are moments the brain can be trained for calmness. Literally breathing calm into the body will train the brain to access the calm response in times of stress.
“Stress is actually a perceived emotion. We have the power to shift a threat to a challenge or opportunity in a high-pressure moment, if we practice mindful breathing skills. That’s why it’s difficult to just tell someone with an untrained mind to ‘take a deep breath and calm down’ because they don’t know how to access that response in that environment,” said MacAulay. Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly for our purposes, when leadership learns a new skill, it can in turn be infused into the operation to result in an overall operational improvement. Dr. MacAulay noted sometimes audiences find it counterintuitive to build time into the day for mindfulness, but in the long run it garners efficiency and productivity.
“In the Air Force special operations world, we have a motto: ‘slow is smooth, smooth is fast,’” she noted. Building the psychological skillset she teaches will empower staff to operate with calm efficiency that is coordinated and collaborative. The result can be enhanced cohesion as a team, reduced instances of mistakes caused by taking action without enough forethought, increased customer satisfaction and ultimately improved overall efficiency.
The CSDA General Manager Leadership Summit is the premier conference for special district leaders to come together to learn about emerging trends, best practices, new laws, human resources, budgeting, risk management, and more. But first, attendees will come together, with Dr. Jannell MacAulay, in a space to learn to be present in the moment, with a calm mind that is ready to absorb information and inspiration for the betterment of their district.
Dr. MacAulay’s website offers a free downloadable leadership guide as well as an inspirational video explaining her outlook and teachings. She can also be followed on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.