Can MORE Actually Be LESS?

By Amilya Antonetti

As leaders, part of our roles and responsibilities is to predict crises. To proactively provide the training, systems, and "people tools" to prevent chaos and, in turn, failure by leading our teams away from or through difficult circumstances. This know-how is critical now more than ever as our people are asked to go from an almost complete halt back into "productive" lives. This intentional expectation of being "productive" must be instilled with the training needed to accomplish productivity and not just be busy. Let's face it, we have more people who have been promoted into positions they were never trained to do successfully. We have more work than people to deliver it and hybrid teams and unfocused environments where excellence is still expected. Worse, we seem to have adopted an attitude of indifference as people try to reclaim their place in the working world around them. 

Anyone else recognizing the state of confusion,  over-busied and over-stressed energy pouring out of people as they struggle in uncertainty. Are we not heading to repeat the same burnout people were suffering from in years before COVID? Are we forgetting what we learned as people? Science has continually proved that although people believe they can multitask well, very few can. 

As a behaviorist and one dedicated to healing "people problems," I'd like to remind us all that what we feed is what becomes. If you are feeling that you are running to keep up, this is what you are delivering to everyone around you (they feel it too). Never underestimate the power that energy has on energy. 

We are busier than we have ever been. We have more devices to connect, more technology to schedule time, and more access to everything, yet we suffer from the belief that we are missing something. So much so that FOMO is an actual word. How can we be a society presented with everything yet stay committed to the belief that we have nothing? As your behaviorist, I am unsure how much more evidence we need that "comparison thinking" is a direct highway to destination "lonely." This road offers many exits from suffering. Let's not get back on that freeway, please. 

When we get invited to speak with people, we like to begin by showing you that you have an appetite for everything and yet are surrounded by habits and beliefs for nothing. Your days are insanely full, and yet so many hearts remain empty. Leaders unintentionally create chaotic energy as they push themselves and, in turn, their people to run as hard as they can to catch up to "the day." They end up completely depleted, giving leftovers to their families, creating more chaos, energy, and misalignment, and rise again to repeat it daily.  

Our new normal is talking on the phone while driving, walking while talking on devices, and accepting less-than-quality interactions while dining, in meetings, and collaborating. Earbuds have become like jewelry, a recognizable and acceptable accessory in bizarre situations. Is it only me, but don't the people we value deserve our attention? How can we really serve anyone if we are only partly present, at best?

If you are scrambling under the belief that you must be able to do more, may we ask you to consider a very powerful lesson, to "go slow to go fast." When you slow down to choose to "design your life" with intention and move away from living by default, what to do, how to do it, and why? Transform your actions to be focused and energetically aligned for impact... We call this Genius Living. 

Want to know more? We welcome a call.