It’s Emotional – Finding Comfort in Uncertainty

This is the 6th and final installment in the series, “It’s Emotional – Creating an Unprecedented Team and Customer Experience.” This series of short presentations offer tools to help you manage your emotions and to support the emotional journey of your team, prospects, and customers.

I suspect you may be at least a little like me. I like spontaneity, but only on my terms. I’m a fan of agendas, plans, and being confident that my position on an issue is well informed.

Then came COVID-19, a sub-microscopic infectious agent, roughly 1/1000 the width of a human hair.  I am lucky to date in that the virus has not rendered me or those I love ill, hospitalized, or worse. But it, along with the death of George Floyd, sent orderliness, planning, and knowledge certainty whirling. Those events probably did the same for you, your team members, and your customers.

It sounds strange, but I am starting to find value in discomfort and uncertainty. I fought it at first. For example, I read as much as I could about the virus, thinking I would be able to plot a course to safety based on knowledge alone. But some of what I took for knowledge has gone by the wayside with more case data.

So now, I am getting comfortable in the fog of uncertainty. I spend less time trying to know the unknowable, or control the uncontrollable. I am finding value in challenging my assumptions about what I think I see, how tomorrow will be, how others feel, what it is like to be a person of color in America, and so much more.

I wonder, and I’m filled with wonder and curiosity these days, if, upon reflection, you might find uncertainty is helping you be more vulnerable, real, and willing to challenge some of the beliefs you took for truth. Ironically, I think I’m gaining control by not fighting so hard for control. For me, that is a fascinating paradox.

I hope you’ll take some time to think about your comfort in uncertainty, consider the paradox of control, and replace some of your assumptions with questions, particularly when it comes to your prospects, team members, and customers.

I’d love to listen and explore ways we can work together to help you find more comfort in the uncertainty that swirls around your business! Simply reach out to me.