When life and business get tough… 5 Steps to get going again!  

With today’s business challenges  – 5 Practical Steps to Success 

It just feels horrible, doesn’t it? When you, your colleagues, your team or your company are thrown into uncertainty, loss, change and the messy pain of not knowing what the hell is coming down the track. It’s totally normal during business challenges that everything feels confusing, unbearable and just plain awful.  

There are clear actions you, your team and your business can take to not only navigate tough times, but learn to sail through them and come out stronger. You’ve absolutely got what it takes and you can do it. We promise! Because if there’s one thing that connects us all – it’s that we all face tough times – and we can get through them.  

My dear, late father was both a very clever and very practical man. An Oxford graduate turned ultrasonics engineer – he was working out solutions to life’s challenges until the day he died. I don’t exaggerate. He redesigned his home hospital bed for maximum comfort and ease. Amongst many words of wisdom he left me and my sisters, one phrase has always stuck. When faced with difficulty or stress or uncertainty, his one simple mantra was “just solve the next problem.” In other words, don’t get lost in the anxiety and fear, rise up, fire up your ‘can do’ attitude, talk to people and DO something.  

So, in this spirit –  when the clouds of uncertainty descend – don’t wait in fear or anger – rise up above them, get energised, get communicating and take steps! 

You might be facing your own job loss or a colleague’s. Maybe you are worried about hitting targets or the profit line. Or perhaps you’re anxious about the shape of the job market or unpredictable consumer trends. Whether it’s personal or professional, when we’re faced with change, loss and uncertainty it has a huge impact on our mental resources, emotional stability, relationships, energy and ability to move forward.  

The temptation can be to desperately search for certainty by drowning ourselves in data, strategy planners and reports. Failing that we look for people to blame. All in a futile attempt to grasp for certainty.  In fact, a much better strategy is to stop grasping for the myth of certainty and to accept and embrace that you simply don’t have all the answers. You might however have the solution – right under your nose. 

Because absolutely everything in your business – from new ideas, production line, innovation, targets, business results, customer relationships to brand reputation – absolutely everything comes back down to your people and how they feel and communicate. There are things we can do to help get people back on track. This is about modelling great leadership. Your colleagues, your friends and your children learn from how you show up – not in the easy moments but in the tough moments. And these tougher moments are an opportunity for us to model great leadership – to unite and to move forward with energy and creativity. 

5 clear steps to overcome difficulty

So, when the going gets tough – your leaders and people need you. This is NOT the time to ignore your own or your leaders’ needs. This is the time to follow these 5 clear steps to overcome difficulty and move forwards with renewed hope and energy:  

1. Increase Communication: In tough times an empty space gets filled with negative voices – keep communicating. 

2. Accept and Build Mindset: get your leaders in the right mindset – the mindset of possibility  

3. Energy to Act: get your people fired up with positive energy to take solid, realistic actions 

4. Connection: get your people together, connected and united 

5. Story of the Future:  get your leaders communicating a clear and shared vision of positivity 

You want your leaders to be modelling energy, action and the possibility mindset – this is the ripple effect you want through your organisation right now. 

While things are tough, and you may not have a lot of time or resources for long leadership training programmes – none of this has to cost you a fortune or take much time. With the right messaging, energy and motivation – us human beings can turn things around in a heartbeat. 

A 4D Human Being Interactive Keynote or big Group Experience is one of the easiest, most engaging and most cost-effective ways to quickly excite your people, energise your business and change the game. All the 4D tools focus on energy, mindset and behaviour – meaning a 4D session helps you and your people genuinely and tangibly move from problem to possibility, from crisis to creativity and from uncertainty to unstoppable.  

The way we overcome difficulty, loss and uncertainty are not fear and isolation. They are connection, energy, and creativity. There are clear things that you, your leaders, your people and your organisation can do to stop flailing and to start sailing through difficult times: 

The 5 Steps to move from Uncertainty to Success: 

1. Increase Communication 

Communicate, communicate, communicate. The way to make things even worse is to stop communicating. When you stop communicating you leave a big empty void, and that void will get filled with negative assumptions and fears. Less communication means more panic and anger. Even if you and your leaders don’t have any updates or answers – keep talking to your people. They will thank you for it and the reward will be a workforce who is far less anxious and far more reassured and trusting. So, in the tough times – communicate, communicate, communicate and then over communicate a bit more.  

Through your  internal messaging or a 4D Keynote, 4D Digital or in-person Communication Skills Training –  help your people be more communicative and collaborative, your leaders structured and inspiring, meetings more impactful and everyone more energised and engaged.  

2. Accept and Build Mindset 

The very best mindset you and your leaders can have through difficult times is the Accept and Build Mindset.  This means acknowledging the reality of what’s happening, not wasting any time on what is impossible or out of your control but stepping into what IS possible and building collaboratively into the future. This is all about the leadership of possibility. The mindset of possibility and potential rather than fear and anxiety. The chines symbol 危机 (wēi jī) means both crisis AND opportunity. We can learn a lot from this – as we always have a CHOICE in tough times to look at the danger or to see the possibility. The Accept and Build mindset is the cornerstone of the 4D Improvisor Toolkit. This toolkit gives your leaders the edge when it comes to building into the unknown with a contagious, positive and motivating energy.  

With the wealth of experience in team improvisation, we know how to help your people and your leaders to get back to choice and adopt the accept and build mindset. The 4D improvisers toolkit is a clear pathway to a mindset of positivity and possibility 

3.  Energy to Act 

Fear has an energy that is highly contagious. With the right leaders with the right skill set you can very quickly turn this anxious energy into a positive, creative force, a vibrant energy of possibility that ripples through your organisation and motivates your people to take active, creative steps. Action is key. As top sports psychologists find, players who over-analyse often end up under-performing. Sometimes when it comes to thinking – less is more.  So, you and your people need to stop wasting energy worrying about all the things that could go wrong and, rather, take clear, definite and positive steps forward. As the inspirational global leader Jerry Sternin said ““It’s easier to act your way into a new way of thinking, than think your way into a new way of acting.” Too much thinking may be detrimental to you and your business. You and your people might want to reduce analysis and increase positive energy to act. Help them create clear actions, have creative conversations, and look for possibilities rather than problems. We humans usually feel better once we’ve fired up our energy and actually DONE something!  

At 4D, one of ours specialities is “energy” and “engagement”. Our core suite of tools focuses on action and behaviour meaning immediately after a F2F or digital 4D training – your people will be activated, energised, motivated and ready to communicate with contagious positivity and intention.  

4.  Connection  

When the going gets tough, get your people together. When there’s uncertainty and a lot of change, we can easily become isolated or retreat into gossiping silos. It is connection that sees us through tough times and not isolation. The benefits of getting your people together are huge. Connecting and uniting your people gives them emotional support, shared responsibility and goals, new ideas, diverse perspectives, creative energy and a more profound sense of shared purpose. Connection and collaboration can help businesses not only survive but thrive during difficult periods. So, this is definitely the time to get your people together and, what’s more, you don’t need a big budget to have a big get together. Whether in person or online, a one-hour interactive session or keynote that inspires, sets the vision and motivates your whole organisation will mean a small amount of time and money very well spent. 

Not only does 4D have a set of tools to help team collaboration and inclusivity but our tools enable healthy dialogue in difficult times as well as the ability to turn conflict into collaboration and co creativity. Through programmes like 4D Team Performance and incredible tools like the Healthy Ego Grid, your people can quickly learn to stop wasting energy on conflict and channel that energy into productive, creative and united steps forward. 

5. Story of the Future 

In times of uncertainty when people don’t know what’s going on, a space of confusion and anxiety can open up. That space can easily get filled with negative stories and assumptions – narratives of disaster and hopelessness.  It is absolutely vital in tough times to help your leaders take control of the narrative and become great business storytellers. Your success all starts with shaping a positive narrative and vision of the future. If you can get everyone on the same page, clear about the vision, united in a shared story of the future and energised towards it – well then, you’ve just solved half your problem. Because what actually happens in times of change and uncertainty is that your conscious or unconscious story of the future has been interrupted. Remember it was only a story and is absolutely essential that you take this opportunity to rewrite the future story! Change doesn’t mean doom and gloom. It simply means a different story. Who knows…it might mean an even better one. That is up to you and the story you shape and communicate around your business!    

And you don’t have to do any of this alone… 

4D knows story. What’s more we know how to quickly help your leaders not only craft motivating narratives in the present, but also to shape an inspiring vision of the future. Your people need a positive, engaging story of the future that they can step into with a sense of unity and solidity. Your leaders need to shape an inspiring future story of your business that your people can believe in and collectively work towards. And… 

4D Can Help You 

At 4D we bring you the very best interventions to get your people energised and communicating, with the right mindset and a sharing a positive vision of the future. From company-wide Interactive Keynotes to our very special and super effective Big Group Experiences – you get your people together and we will do the rest.  With a 4D session at your conference, team off-site, or meeting – your people will very quickly be skilled up with highly practical and simple 4D tools to leaving them brimming with positivity, bursting with motivation and bonded in taking collaborative, active steps towards the success that lies ahead. 

So, which of the 5 steps will you start with…? 

1. Increase Communication? 

2. Accept and Build Mindset?  

3. Energy to Act?  

4. Connection?  

5. Story of the Future?  

With these 5 steps, you, your team and your business will not only navigate tough times, but sail through them and come out stronger and even more successful. You’ve absolutely got what it takes. You can do it. And 4D can help you. To talk about how you, your leaders, teams and business can drive through difficulty and sail to success – get in touch today. We can’t wait to hear from you. 

Love the 4D Team x