Welcome to the October edition of The Inbox Coach. The last few years have felt very disrupted, and as we go into the winter months with even more turmoil in the world, I thought it would be a good time to revisit the topic of Uncertainty.
I first covered the topic of Uncertainty back in March 2021, but with everything that is going on in the UK now I thought it was a good one to revisit.
Uncertainty is something I have had to deal with throughout my career. Sometimes it has been a minor issue and other times it has caused me to be stuck for months at a time, leaving me feeling frustrated, angry, and hopeless about my future. I’ve learnt that those feelings are an indicator that I need to change my behaviour so that I don’t fall into the trap of waiting until I have all the answers before I can move forward.
How do I know what to do?
The worst thing about uncertainty is how it can cause you to stop working altogether. You get so caught up in the not knowing, that you feel like you can’t do anything until you have more information. The first time I worked in an environment of uncertainty I struggled. I was dealing with a potential restructure of my team, which was going to happen at some unknown point in the future, and it stopped me from being effective at work.
Instead of focusing on what I could work on, I spent so much time second guessing what might be that my work almost ground to a halt. What I realise now is that the way to deal with uncertainty is to question what we do know and to focus on what we can control.
Focusing on what I can do
The problem with uncertainty is that it focuses your attention away from what you can control to the things you can’t. When we find ourselves in an uncertain situation, it can be easy to focus on the uncertainty and to feel stuck because you can’t move forward without all the answers. What I find is that often there are either things which you would need to do regardless of the outcome, or a parameter of possibilities that have lots in common.
If you are faced with the possibility of redundancy at work, it can be easy to think that you can’t make any decisions until you get more information. Whilst you might not know what your job situation will look like in 3 months, there are things you can do without that information. A risk of redundancy might mean you need to change your role, so spending time reflecting on what you are good at and what you enjoy at work, as well as where your gaps are and what you dislike, will help you to get into the mindset of preparing for a change.
Whilst the threat of redundancy might seem like anything could happen, there are only a few options. You may have the ability to choose your future, by applying for a role or taking voluntary redundancy, or you may have a choice made for you, being assimilated into a role, or being made redundant. 3 out of 4 of those possibilities would require you to apply for a job, so spending time on your CV and working on your interview technique wouldn’t be time wasted. You might not know what is coming around the corner, but you can make an educated guess about what you might need to be prepared for and focus on that.
Reflection
*If you can’t do the exercises from this email now, then don’t forget to pick a time when you are going to do them and add this email to your calendar
When you are faced with an uncertain situation it can be easy to think that you can’t do anything until you have all the answers. If you spend some time reflecting on your situation you will be able to find the things you can work on, which will help you to feel less stuck and also to take actions which will help. If you are working in a period of uncertainty, ask yourself:
How do I feel about uncertainty?
How is this mindset impacting my ability to keep doing my work?
What would a more helpful mindset look like?
When things are uncertain, what stops me from making decisions?
What would I do if I had all of the answers?
What can I do today that will help me to get some of those answers?
Action
The best way to overcome the overwhelm of uncertainty is to focus on what you know and what you can control. Rather than feeling stuck and doing nothing, you can focus on the tasks that you can influence which will help you to feel better about your situation. You are then better placed to think about what you might need to put in place to deal with the unknowns.
Task
If you are facing uncertainty this week, spend a few minutes writing down what you know and what you can control. Reflect on the questions that you want answered and think about what you could do to get some more clarity.
Inspiration
“I was annoyed from the start by the attitude of doubt by the spectators that I would never really make the flight. This attitude made me more determined than ever to succeed.” - Harriet Quimby
Harriet Quimby was the first American woman to earn a pilot’s license, back in 1911, and she was also the first woman to make a solo flight across the channel in 1912. As well as being an aviator she also wrote screenplays for silent films. Her life was cut short at 37 when she was killed in a flying accident and perhaps this is why she isn’t more widely known.
Being an early pioneer of aviation, Harriet was faced with uncertainty on a daily basis. The planes she was flying were a new technology and many of her achievements had never been done before. Faced with this uncertainty, Harriet wasn’t deterred, if anything it made her more determined. Speaking about her channel crossing, Harriet recounted “I could not see ahead of me at all, nor could I see the water below . . . there was only one thing for me to do, and that was to keep my eyes fixed on my compass”. When faced with so much uncertainty, Harriet focused on the little information she had and used it to make her decisions.
We can do this in our careers too. When we are facing a period of uncertainty and lacking in the information we need, we can seek out our compass, the small pieces of information we do have and use these to make a plan.
You can find out more about Harriet Quimby and her short but remarkable life here.
If the challenges of the world are leaving your feeling uncertain at work, I hope that you can focus on what you can control. Something I do a lot with my coaching clients, is to help them to see the possibilities in front of them when they are overwhelmed with uncertainty. If you are looking for support in your career and navigating uncertainty, see how you can work with me and book in for a free enquiry call to find out more.
I’ll be back next week with more thoughts on how to thrive at work when you are living in an uncertain world
See you then
Laura
P.S. I’ve listed all the previous editions of The Inbox Coach emails on my website which you can find here. Each email has reflection questions and action tasks, so if you need to revisit a topic you can now browse them all in one place
