I have no idea what this saying means! I mean Chive ON? What is that? According to Amy DIY (http://www.fmgwebsites.com/aleblanc/blog/what-is-the-chive-what-is-kcco) this saying originated in WWII and essentially means hang loose or be cool. It has recently gained popularity again.
For me being calm is not something I am good at! I spent a few years as an EMT/Paramedic and calm was not something I exceled at. I am a type A person. I go at a 100 miles an hour ALL THE TIME! When I am not moving that fast I am freaking out! Literally, this is not a good place to be ever!
I have recently started working with horses, well 1 in particular. He has a great personality, unlike the one I own.. Well today I experienced the whole keep calm thing. Duke (the horse I own) got totally freaked out because we dropped something. (Yea we know he has some issues) however what I learned today is keeping calm is the most important when working when horses.
Being a leader also means keeping calm. Not losing your head when things are spiraling out of control is not an easy task for anyone. For some people it’s so much easier than others. As a leader we MUST remain calm at the face of everything because our team is looking to us to set the tone.
Just like with the horses today if we’d lost our cool they would of freaked out even more than they did. Now think about this a 1200lb animal running scared. This is NOT good! Well neither is have 10 people on your team running scared!
As a leader it’s OK to not know it all, its even OK to get upset from time to time. It’s going to be how you recover. Today when Duke decided that the whip that fell was TOTALLY going to kill him ( I am not joking that was his response) my response was to take a few deep breaths and try to back up the horse I had. However, I didn’t yell, I didn’t start to cry I simply talked calmly in that moment.
How we deal with a crisis is a true test of our leadership! However the bigger test is how we deal with the after. Did we lose our cool? Do we need to apologize? We are human it’s OK to learn from our mistakes and missteps.
When your team goes into crisis mode work through it and then go over it after. Talk about what went well where can you improve and think internally about how YOU as the leader reacted.
Today think about how you react in a crisis, what’s good, what’s bad? Ask those close to you for feedback. Think about what is said and what you can learn from it. This is what will make you a better leader
Leadership Simplified 