🤯 A somewhat less cheerful but oh-so-important topic to cover in #HackingAcademia: dealing with Difficult Situations!

I'm always happy when I'm learning, and as I've stepped up in leadership responsibilities these last few years especially, a natural consequence has been having to deal with an increased number of challenging professional situations.

It's been a tough learning curve - much harder than technical research or giving a talk in many ways - with plenty of missteps along the way. But, as I reflected when writing some position statements recently, realized I feel much more comfortable in dealing with difficult situations compared to even a few years ago.

This video outlines a few key concepts I think are important, and what I would have liked to have told my younger self say around 5 years ago...

Key concepts covered include:

💡 how much easier it is to navigate a difficult situation the SECOND and subsequent time - some expectation of what might be coming, and what you might do about it, makes a huuuuuuuuuugeeee difference. The first time often really just suuuuccccksss - not much getting around it, although you can compensate by borrowing from other's experience.

💡 self-preservation: especially for extended affairs, you need to protect your health and psychological safety enough to sustain a reasonable response - you do no-one any favours if you burn out, and one rash decision or comment can unwind months of hard work in some situations.

💡 perfect is the enemy of the good - and is often just not possible. You can't perfect dealing with bad situations: what you can aspire to is being effective in finding what is probably one of the better paths forward (you may be able to confirm, later, that you took the right path, but you may also just never know for sure).

💡 support networks are amazing, come in multiple forms - but take time to build. If you invest in building your trusted relationships - including helping others in their crisis times, they will be so helpful in times of dealing with crisis yourself!

💡 whilst I think some people get to a stage where they can reasonably say they perfected a certain skillset, I don't think (maybe crisis managers might say differently) you ever feel like you've perfected dealing with difficult situations. But if you can become broadly effective, without it completely derailing your sanity or mental health, that's a great capability asset for your career.

YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gqRiaXRM