I think we are defined by who we become in a crisis.

When we are under stress, when things go wrong, when you’ve made a mistake, when the unexpected happens. Our reaction in times of trouble can be telling.

Do you take action to fix things, or do you just talk about fixing things?
Do you figure out what went wrong, or do you try to forget it ever happened?
Do you own up to your mistakes, or do you sweep them under the rug?
Are you interested in solving problems and fixing things, or are you only interested in who’s to blame?

Stress strips away all the pleasant veneer of interactions, and you get down to the center of who you are. It’s not always pretty what you find there, but I think it is an important place to visit occasionally.

But only occasionally.

I feel like I’ve been operating from that crisis stress center all week, raw and angry and frustrated. It has been a challenge to temper reactions to events that normally I would handle in stride.

How do you heal over-stress? How do you put back the protective layers of normality, of things going as planned, of occasional wins and compliments?

And more so, how do I ensure my team gets those things?