How was your week? Adjusting to life with the new norm?
Do you have the new work routine set up and your teams all charging ahead? Working from home all figured out?
My answer is - NO, not even close, I wasn't nearly as productive as I wanted to be, I struggled to get out of bed, keep my energy up and focus on anything for more than 5 minutes. I was angry, scared, emotional and at times a bit crazy.
I craved interaction with other people, and I judged myself for not being productive and not having the willpower to pull through it. What happened to me?
In this episode, we explore the rollercoaster of emotions many of us went through last week through the eyes of an Emotional Intelligence expert and coach, Cathy Mott
We explore the grief cycle, the 4 quadrants of emotional intelligence, active listening, vulnerability, fear, why we need to lead ourselves first before leading others and much more.
There are valuable insights to share as we step up and lead through this crisis.
00:53 What happened to me last week
08:03 The grief cycle
10:20 Take the space you need
11:16 Judging yourself
14:34 Active listening
20:24 Vulnerability/strength and balance
22:51 Time to be tough?
23:58 Coaching questions
26:10 The 4 stages of Emotional Intelligence
29:20 Resilience
31:16 Taking action and accountability
37:27 Advice from Cathy as we face Monday
[Trasncript]
[00:00:00] Jan Griffiths: Welcome to the Automotive Leaders Podcast, where we help you prepare for the future by sharing stories, insights, and skills from leading voices in the automotive world with a mission to transform this industry together. I'm your host, Jan Griffiths, that passionate, rebellious farmer's daughter from Wales with over 35 years of experience in our beloved auto industry and a commitment to empowering fellow leaders to be their best authentic selves. Stay true to yourself, be you, and lead with Gravitas the hallmark of authentic leadership. Let's dive in.
Last week, I recorded an episode, a special episode. It was focused on leading through crisis. Recognizing what was happening in the world, I wanted to go off my normal structure and cadence and provide the audience with something that they desperately needed at the time, which was insights and perhaps some guidance and comfort around what it takes to lead through a crisis. And I thought, "You've got this. This is going to be easy." I've led several organizations through crisis situations; I know how to keep a team positive, how important it is to have a schedule, how important it is to have a routine, and how to get up in the morning to work out. I've even got lots of lessons learned to share about working from home. So, I felt good about pushing that episode out last weekend. We had some positive feedback. Then, Monday morning came, and I got up, and I did what I told everybody not to do; I hit the snooze at least three or four times. That energy, the mojo, whatever you want to call it, that zest for life had simply gone. I didn't quite know what was happening, and I thought, "Well, it's a change. There's a lot going on in the world right now, it's okay. Give yourself a break from Monday." Then, Tuesday came, and I did the same thing again, and I started to get mad at myself. How could I stand up on stage and talk to people about how important it is to start your day and how important it is to have a schedule and I couldn't do it? This was a strange, very unsettling feeling. I started spending more and more time in front of the TV, gripped with fear and anxiety as I watched what was happening around the world. I felt those feelings of isolation; I couldn't go to the co-working space, couldn't meet with clients, and couldn't do what I normally did. And then, later in the week, I had to do something that tore me apart. I had to tell my teenage daughter that she couldn't see her boyfriend and deal with that trauma. I don't want any human beings anywhere near me. I'm afraid, I am, I'll be the first to admit it, of the risk of the coronavirus coming into my home. All of these feelings going on in my head, making me feel scared. And there were often times of anger, and then I was very emotional, and then I realized I was going through the grief cycle. I was grieving the loss of my world as I once knew it, and once I recognized it, I started to feel much better.
So, I reached out across the pond to my partners in Berlin, and we scheduled a Zoom call to get people together to talk about leading through the crisis. And let's start to share our feelings and emotions and what have we learned. And what about working from home in this new routine? How do we make that happen? But before we can do any of that, we have to learn to deal with this ourselves. And it took me a lot longer to get into the program than I had originally anticipated. And I suspect that many of you out there are going through the same situation. So, I wanted to reach out to somebody who understood this and understood the elements of emotional intelligence. Because when we wake up on Monday morning, and we're recording this on Saturday, March 21st, when we wake up on Monday, the realization that perhaps some of the fun and the excitement and the funny stories that we had and maybe shared on social media last week, it was kind of a fun thing to do, all of that is now our reality. It's not just a week of adjustment and now we're back to normal, we're not. We're all getting used to this new norm and we are going to have to draw on the elements of emotional intelligence to lead our teams and businesses more so now than ever before. I am still a firm believer that this will be the most rewarding leadership experience that any of us has ever gone through, I just know it. But we're going to need help, and I myself need help getting through this. So, I am thrilled today to bring to the show to share her insights, Cathy Mott. Cathy is an author, an executive coach, a keynote speaker, a facilitator, and a trainer who has worked with senior leaders for more than 25 years. She has a talent for helping others discover their natural gifts and talents. But what I love about Cathy is that her area of expertise is emotional intelligence. She's a certified social and emotional intelligence coach. So, when I talk about emotional intelligence, I understand some of the basics, but she's got this, and she's been doing it for many years. She's worked with many reputable companies, such as Mercedes Benz Financial, Michigan State University, Trinity Health, Ascension Health, the Michigan League of Public Policy, and the Kresge Foundation, to name but a few. So, she understands this subject very well, better than most. And she's also a lot of fun and she has a great personality. And if you haven't read her book recently, she has just released a book called Shh...just listen! Great things happen in the silence. Perfect timing, don't you think? She's also published an article in the CEO magazine in the February 2020 Edition: Authentic Leadership, What Makes It Real? She's the perfect guest for us to have on the show right now at this time. We need her expertise more than ever before. Cathy, welcome to the show.
[00:07:43] Cathy Mott: Thank you. Jan. Thank you. How are you?
[00:07:46] Jan Griffiths: I am doing much better now that I have called myself out and realized what I was going through last week. So, I shared my story about what I was going through last week could you give me your take? I mean, analyze for me and for the listeners, what happened to me last week?
[00:08:08] Cathy Mott: Well, Jan, you were actually going through the grief cycle. And I love that we're here together talking today because part of this emotional rollercoaster that we ride, I often talk about, is helping organizations move through cultural changes. And so, when we think about the global changes that we have had over the past few weeks, definitely, we are all riding this emotional roller coaster, but some may not be able to articulate it or even recognize the phases of the roller coaster that they're riding. And so, it's interesting to note that whenever we go through a change, we have suffered a loss, so we've lost something. So, in organizations prior to the coronavirus, it can be a change in your schedule or a change in leadership. You've lost something. And it's okay to take a moment to sit with yourself to figure out what is it that I've lost. And so, the grief process that people go through when we experience change is very similar to the grief process we go through when we lose someone in death, and people will readily recognize that. They give us, they show us kindness and compassion when we lose someone in death because they recognize that we're grieving. So, thinking about where we are today, the global pandemic that we're facing, the coronavirus, wouldn't it be safe to say that we all need kindness and compassion as we go through the grief process?
And as you mentioned, Jan, in your intro, some of the emotions that you experienced last week are the same emotions that are tied to when we're grieving the loss of a loved one. And those emotions are shock, denial, fear, anxiety, anger, frustration, and confusion. Who of us has not experienced all of those emotions in the past couple of weeks? And it's okay to give ourselves the time, the space, and permission to work through those emotions. They're heavy.
[00:10:37] Jan Griffiths: It's soothing, actually, for me to hear you say that. I feel like you've just given me permission to go through what I went through this past week. And I was really hard on myself because I am that person. I mean, I get up at 4:30 in the morning. I go to the gym at 5 AM. You know, I spend time with myself. I do a little sort of meditation thing in the morning now, and I'm so proud of this routine that I have put together and the structure that I have in my life. And I was so mad at myself last week that I simply couldn't make it happen. That sort of judgment of yourself, you know, help us get through that. How do we get through some of that?
[00:11:21] Cathy Mott: So, I will share a little bit about emotional intelligence and how we can let go of the judgment, invalidate what we feel. So, the four components of emotional intelligence are: self-awareness, self-management, and then awareness of others, and then managing the social setting that we're in. So, let's take the self-awareness piece. So, aware of what you're going through, being able to name the emotion that you're experiencing in the moment, and being able to validate that emotion. Once we can validate and give ourselves permission to feel that particular emotion, then we can respond to it instead of react. And once we validate an emotion, the intensity of it lessens. And from there, we can make productive decisions.
So, if we talk about fear, being able to validate that emotion, we can say, what am I afraid of? Okay, I’m afraid that my life has changed for quite some time, I don't know how long. Okay, the validation is, you have every reason to feel that way. And for all that know me, I will always recommend journaling on your feelings because it's an avenue to take what you're feeling out of your head, process it, move it through your heart, and put it on paper. And I've even recommended journaling our daily activities around emotions for this entire time period. What a gift that will be to ourselves to go back and read, once we're through this, go back and read the emotional journey that we've come through. What a gift to ourselves. So, giving ourselves permission and then validating what we feel. And I think one of the most important things to remember about our emotions, they're not good or bad. They just are. They come to us unbidden. They give us information about ourselves. They can give us permission to take care of ourselves, to tune in to what we need to experience around the particular emotions that we're having. So, validating that is giving yourself permission to feel it.
[00:13:43] Jan Griffiths: And I think that this is one of the things that I talked about in the podcast last week. It's so important for leaders right now to do that with their teams because everybody's going to respond to this in a different way, right? So going through and really, not only having the team meeting to acknowledge and validate the emotions and the roller coaster that we're all going through, but also to do that on an individual level with one-on-one virtual calls, you know, video calls to be able to connect with people one on one because now the next step for the leader is to help provide some sort of comfort and safety. Is that fair to say?
[00:14:23] Cathy Mott: Yes, it is. And to be able to successfully authentically do that, you have to have had a space where you've provided comfort and safety for yourself.
[00:14:34] Jan Griffiths: Ah, yes, because, clearly, I didn't do that last week. Yes.
[00:14:38] Cathy Mott: Yeah, and that is so important. And when you're getting to the team together, let's say on a Zoom call, and it's okay to create that space to check in to see how they're feeling and as a leader, being very in tune to responses and actively listening because a lot of times we'll ask people I want to start this meeting off and give us a few minutes to talk about how we're feeling around what's going on with the coronavirus? And some people will say, "Well, I think this will be over in a short period of time." And so, that tends to make all of the other people who had an emotion around it, who wanted to express fear, that may shut them down.
[00:15:24] Jan Griffiths: Oh, yeah. So true.
[00:15:26] Cathy Mott: Yes. So, a great leader could say, "I appreciate your thoughts. But tell me, what are you experiencing? How are you feeling about what's taking place today? Because I want to support this team moving forward."
[00:15:42] Jan Griffiths: Yeah, that's, that is great advice. I mean, honestly, I'd have the tendency to say, "You're in denial; get over it." But that's not, that would not be the best leadership approach to that point in time. But that's okay, you know, I mean, everybody's got, everybody's going to have a different response, but you're right. Somebody comes out with that right away, the rest of the team's going to shut down. And that's why I think it's so important for leaders to have the team session but also to have that one-on-one session so you can get in deep. You know, most of my background is in the automotive industry and manufacturing, and it's a very sort of, you know, aggressive, tough kind of environment. And there's this tendency for, not all companies, of course, but for the leader to say, "Hey, we're going to get through this. It's all going to be fine. We're just going to muscle down. You know, we're going to do this, and we're going to work through all the customer shutdown situations. I'm going to manage cash, right? And we're going to muscle through it. Not so sure that's the, you know, that's not the approach to take right now given this situation. So, what advice would you give to those leaders who have a tendency to move even more into commands and control type of positional power kind of leadership?
[00:16:58] Cathy Mott: My advice would be for them to step back and really understand that people need a space, a safe space, to be able to share how they're feeling about all that is going on. It seems like every day, we are experiencing different changes at such a rapid pace. So, really create a safe space for them to be able to say how they're feeling. Authentic leadership would include the leader opening up and being honest and vulnerable about how they have experienced the changes, just as you opened the podcast this morning. You know, saying that I have a rigorous routine that I normally keep to every morning, and I didn't do that this week; I went through a grief process, and it's okay.
You know, I will think about six years ago, I lost my mom to lung cancer, a 15-month battle, And I journaled, so I've been journaling for 20 years; I journaled every day what that process was like and how I miss her. And I look back, and I say, "I made it through that." And so many things that I have done in my business are a result of losing my mom in death. And what I found during that time was I wanted to talk about my grief, but I couldn't find people to hold the space for me to openly discuss how I was feeling. I even had one person ask me, "How are you feeling today?" And I told her, "I'm sad. I miss my mom." And her response was, "Who says that? Most people say they're okay, even when they're not." I said, "Well, you asked me, and I want it to be openly shared." So, it's so important that we as leaders be able to hold the space for people to openly talk about the grief process that many of us are in today. I think back to losing my mom, and this is a grief process, but there was much more hurt, pain, and anguish to that grief process of losing my mom.
And so, looking back, I know I'll make it through this. And that's the importance of journaling because you have something to refer back to, to say, "I made it through that, I can definitely make it through this." But as leaders, being vulnerable and being courageous enough to hold the space for others, even when you feel uncomfortable around them sharing, just hold the space. You don't have to fix it. You just have to hold the space for them to express themselves.
[00:19:48] Jan Griffiths: I love the way you say that hold the space. There's leaders out there right now, some of them possibly listening to the podcast, although I doubt it because they probably wouldn't be in my audience, but there's some tough leaders out there right now saying, "Oh, I'm not a counselor. People just need to deal with that stuff. That's HR stuff. That's soft stuff. I just need him to run the business," right? And this is absolutely, I keep hopping on this point, right? This is not the time to be the tough guy. It is the time to connect at a deeply human level and, as you so eloquently said, give people the space to be able to express their feelings and emotions. You mentioned the word vulnerability, and vulnerability gets a lot of attention these days. You know, many of us like the work of Brené Brown.
[00:20:38] Cathy Mott: Yes, I love Brené Brown.
[00:20:40] Jan Griffiths: Vulnerability, and I think some people think of vulnerability is just something that, oh, weak people do, you know, you just share how you're feeling, and it's weak, and now isn't the time to show your vulnerability because you have to show strength. And I think that there's a very fine line and a balance right now that leaders have to show; they have to show their vulnerability, but they also have to show that they can bring calm to the chaos. That they have a positive view and they can, they will see it. They see a way through this and they will get through this, so that's a balance. So, what are your thoughts around, you know, how to keep that balance?
[00:21:20] Cathy Mott: Keeping that balance and being vulnerable and showing strength is, again, going back to authentic leadership, you know, thinking about the emotions that you, yourself, as a leader, have experienced. And because you have experienced them, you can articulate them, you can talk about them, and decide productive things that you can do with those emotions. You have an opportunity to respond to emotions instead of reacting. So, when you're with your team because you've done the work with yourself, then you can show that vulnerability and state, "This is how I was feeling: I was afraid. I was in denial. I was angry. And here are some of the things that I have done to validate what I'm feeling and to do something productive with all of those emotions that I feel around what's happening in our world today."
So the balance is showing vulnerability but also having something productive to do with your emotions, being able to intentionally respond to what you're feeling instead of reacting to what you're feeling, and then creating that space for your team to do the same thing. When the leader is vulnerable, they give other people permission to be vulnerable as well. When we show up as authentically human, we give other individuals the opportunity to show up authentically human as well.
[00:22:56] Jan Griffiths: And you're right, Cathy, but that's bloody hard to do. It just is. And particularly when you grow up in an environment where the leadership model is tough, right? It's more aggressive. There's this fear of looking weak, and I know this, I've been through it. And I remember when I started my career early on, I was expected to be the tough leader. And even if you felt afraid or you didn't know something, you didn't dare show it. Now, it took me many years to realize that was not the way to lead. And that when you really brought out the human side that you connected with people in a much more, it's a different way, right? You connect with us; we talk about the hearts and minds of people. You really connect the hearts and minds of people. And it took me a long time to get over the fear of looking weak and being able to lead at that deep authentic level. Any thoughts to help people get through that learning curve faster? Because it took me, oh, I don't know, you know probably a few decades to get there
[00:24:04] Cathy Mott: Absolutely. So, I will say as an executive coach, the number one emotion that I coach executives through is fear around a lot of different things. Fear of, one of what you mentioned, fear of appearing to be weak. However, I go back to approaching this from a coach-like perspective, being able to sit with ourselves and ask coach-like questions. And the value of coach-like questions, those open-ended questions, what, how am I feeling? So, when we experience an emotion, the blood flow is focused to the back of the brain. When we ask ourselves what and how questions, it refocuses and sends blood flow to the frontal cortex of the brain, where we can make more logical decisions and we can process our emotions. So, when we go back to being vulnerable, a leader can ask in their journal, "What am I afraid of around being vulnerable?" the response may be that I might appear weak. How much truth Is in that? Is this and how well is this fear of being vulnerable, how well is it serving my ability to be an authentic leadership? And during a time when people will mainly interact through Zoom or via the internet, how much will showing up vulnerable and authentic lead to my team being connected? So really asking yourselves and writing them down, because that process, one thing that Brené Brown says that I absolutely love, she says, "The quickest way to move information from our head to our heart is through our hands." So, taking a moment to journal and write down, how are you feeling about this fear? And working through the four quadrants of emotional intelligence. So, one thing that I've done in my book is I write about 30 different emotions, and I walk through the four stages of emotional intelligence for each emotion. So the questions are, how did I experience this emotion? How did I manage to invalidate this emotion? How did I manage the social setting? What did I learn from this emotion? And then, if I had it to do all over again, what would I do differently? And then I allowed the reader opportunity and a space to write about when did you experience this emotion? How did you manage this emotion? How did you manage the social setting? What were the lessons learned, and if you had a chance to do it all over again, how would you handle it? And so it has been very effective. But really creating that space, grabbing a journal, creating that space to work through. How are you feeling? And what's your fear about? How are you feeling? What's your anxiety about? And then giving yourself permission to feel those emotions and work through them, and decide how are you going to deal with them productively. And then, what are the lessons learned?
[00:27:37] Jan Griffiths: You know, as you're talking, all great advice. This really is an opportunity for personal growth. You know, I've always looked at it as this is the most rewarding leadership experience you could have going through this crisis, but it's also an opportunity for tremendous personal growth. If it gives us a chance to sit back and think about, like you say, think about these emotions and how are we feeling and how are we dealing with it, so that when we come out of this, we're going to be more rounded, we're going to be better leaders of our own lives as well as of others.
[00:28:15] Cathy Mott: Yes, indeed. If we really create the time and the space to enhance the relationship we have with ourselves, to be intentional about it, to really spend time with ourselves and make intentional decisions about how we want to show up. And I always say in any leadership development training or class that I'm facilitating: Every person should have a regular professional and personal development program. And so, whether that's a YouTube video every day or a book that you're reading, but every day, intentionally working on yourself to become a better leader. And I always say, regardless of the title we have in an organization, we are the leaders of our own lives. And so, would you want to follow up under your leadership? So, really thinking about what kind of leader do I want to be on a daily basis? And when this is said and done, and I look back, what do I want to be most proud of? And then intentionally lead that way every day.
[00:29:24] Jan Griffiths: Yeah, that's well said. Let's talk about resilience. If there's a time that resilience needs to come into play, it's now.
[00:29:35] Cathy Mott: I agree. I agree wholeheartedly. So, resilience is one of the competencies that fall under self-management. So, the awareness piece is being able to be aware of what we are experiencing. And then the self-management pieces, okay, what do I want to do with these emotions? How do I want to respond? And so, we have an opportunity to make an intentional choice to be resilient, that means we're going to bounce back. So, whether that's being resilient every day, and which it should be because it's very difficult to wake up and you have to think twice about, do I leave the house today? I have an 89-year-old father who lives alone, and trying to keep him in the house but trying to make sure that he gets proper nutrition. And then thinking about, you know, how does he get interaction. So, being resilient, I thought of some things I could do to maybe take him on a drive. My dad used to work for Motown, so we'll just drive downtown and listen to Motown music and not even get out of the car. But every day, thinking about how I can be resilient, and how I can be a resilient leader in my life so that I can have a positive impact on others. But I can only do that if I've taken care of my emotions around anxiety, fear, denial, frustration, confusion, giving myself permission to be in that space, journal about it, and then come up with a plan of how I'm going to manage and move through those emotions.
[00:31:21] Jan Griffiths: Yes, it comes back to taking care of yourself first. And I appreciate what you're saying about journaling. I can't do it, I'm sorry. It's just not me. It's not my thing. I love the idea of it, and I know you're right in what you say, it's just not, it's just not my thing. But I deal with it in different ways, you know, and I think that the podcast is one way, you know, I like to talk through it with other people, you know, it's just a different medium that I use. As I look back on last week and I came out of it probably Friday, right? When I realized what was happening and one of the things I did was, I did something right. I did something positive. I went for a run a couple of times during the week, and that, of course, helped, right? Not at the time I normally run, I went later in the day. But I realized that I need to do something not only for myself but to help others because I know other people are going through this. And that's when I reached out to my partners in Berlin, and we had this call on Friday to really get people together to talk about leading through the crisis. And I felt so much better after that. And I think people, the relief on their faces that there was this forum where we could just talk about stuff and it really helped. Well, now I'm going to take it another step further, and I've launched an accountability clinic. I have no idea what accountability clinic is, I'm making it up. We're going to figure it out on Monday, and I'm launching it, and it's going to be at 6:30 every morning, every weekday morning. So that people have something to call into I mean, yes, you're going to have meetings, right? You're going to have meetings throughout the day, but I know that when I got up on Friday and I knew I had that Zoom call and I knew I had to get ready for it. I had a much better day and it got my mind off of, you know, watching CNN. There's a death counter on CNN. I mean, really? You know, I know I do not need to be seeing that, right? Yes, we got to know what's going on in the world, of course, we do, but we don't need to be just consumed, totally consumed with the death counter on CNN, right? So, doing something productive and positive, and to help others, as well as yourself, that really helped me. And so, I thought, "Okay, we're going to do this." And once I put it out there on the podcast and on social media, I'm kind of committed because my brand, and my name, and my business are all wrapped up in it. So, it's done; I've already put the word out, and I'm starting an accountability clinic. It's going to be 20 minutes. That's it. It'll be an inspirational message, and there'll be some dancing because I love to dance on stage. If I dance on stage, I can dance virtually on Zoom. And we're going to share what anybody wants to talk about, whether it's where they got Lysol wipes from or how weird it is that you're wiping your groceries down when they come in, you know, they come through the door from the delivery place, I've been doing that lately. You know, whatever it is, but we will all leave that call feeling that we got up at a certain time every day, we did something to get our heads in the right place, then we can go on take on the day, whatever we want to do. So, that's my intention, and I'm going to run it every weekday until we're through this crisis. And that's my commitment to myself and others, so what do you think about that?
[00:34:50] Cathy Mott: I absolutely love it. Like, you have responded, so you were in your grief process, and you're coming out of it; you're choosing to do something intentional. I absolutely love it. And here's the thing to remember: even as we go through this process, it doesn't mean that we won't revisit that space of grief again, but at least you have something in place where you're holding yourself accountable. You're creating that space for others, and you're helping people get their day off to a great start. I absolutely love it.
[00:35:24] Jan Griffiths: Well, thank you. I'm not sure I want to hear what you just said that I could go back through this grief cycle, but it's, you know what I mean, yeah, okay, it can happen, but like you said earlier, self-awareness is such a key part of emotional intelligence and understanding what's happening and letting those feelings flow through you but recognizing them, acknowledging them, and giving them space to be, but then moving through them and getting to this next point, which is doing something.
[00:35:56] Cathy Mott: And the nice part about it, Jan, is you can look back at this whole process and say, "I went through it. I came out of it. And here I am today." So, you have that, the fact that you've experienced it and you came out of it with something productive. So, it's okay to go back and forth. It's okay. We're human. We give ourselves permission to feel what we feel with no judgment, not even judging ourselves.
[00:36:22] Jan Griffiths: I'm not very good at that part. I'm very judgy. I'm not judgy when it comes to other people at all, but I'm very judgy when it comes to myself. But I'm getting better, and when you reach out and do what we're doing today, which is I'm reaching out to talk to somebody who is truly an expert on the subject to help me understand what's going on, when you do something like that, then you're taking an action and it's helping you through the process.
[00:36:47] Cathy Mott: Absolutely. Absolutely. And I myself am going through a grief process around this. So many things have changed but being able to journal about it, create a space for myself, and then come out of it, but also not being afraid that it will happen again. It's like, you know, it's six years since I've seen my mom. In those six years, how many times have I been okay, and then, like, oh, I really miss her. And then bounce back to I'm okay. Then I really miss her. So, the same thing, and we don't know how long this is going to last, but we can make a decision today to be resilient, which means we bounce back, we go into that process, and then we bounce back, and that's okay.
[00:37:31] Jan Griffiths: Yeah, you're right. We're all going to bounce back from this. We're all going to look back on it. And yes, we need to be making podcasts and videos and journaling so that we can look back on it, share it with others, and learn from it. I am very excited now that I've got my head in the right place to help others through this. And it starts, you know, now, really with this recording of this podcast and the call we had yesterday. What closing words would you have for our listeners as they face Monday morning, the reality is really going to hit hard, you know, really, this last week was a bit of a trial run, right? People working from home for the first time. What advice would you give them? Maybe waking up Monday morning with this reality of, "Okay, this is real, and this isn't going to go away anytime soon."
[00:38:26] Cathy Mott: So, something that I have started every Monday morning is I have what's called Zoom into coffee with Cathy. On Monday morning, I have a group that comes together, and we set an intention for the week. So, what's your intention that you want to set for this week? How do you want to show up? What do you want to accomplish? How many people do you want to reach out to and help? So set a weekly intention, and every day that you wake up, look forward to doing something that will fulfill that intention that you've set for yourself on a weekly basis. The other thing I would like to encourage people to do is to check in with themselves. Give yourself five minutes to check in and say to yourself, "What am I thinking?" Really close your eyes and think about what's going on. What am I thinking? Then, scan your body and ask yourself, “What am I physically feeling?” And give yourself a couple of moments for that. And then, the last one is, what am I feeling emotionally? So, you're scanning the three domains. What am I thinking? What am I physically feeling? What am I emotionally feeling? Chances are wherever you feel you're stressed or maybe some type of pain in the body, all emotions manifest themselves somewhere in the body. So, give yourself time and space to check in with yourself and then do some kind of self-care around what you come up with after you've checked in with yourself. So, intention and self-care would be my tidbit for starting Monday off and getting it off to a great start.
[00:40:13] Jan Griffiths: That's great advice. Cathy, it has been an absolute pleasure having you on the show. A perfect timing given the circumstances and the environment that we're in right now.
[00:40:24] Cathy Mott: Thank you, Jan.
[00:40:25] Jan Griffiths: And I would love to have you back when our normal programming resumes and we can go through and understand your full story and learn more about you. Would you be open to that?
[00:40:35] Cathy Mott: It would be my absolute pleasure to come back. I have so enjoyed this experience. Thank you.
[00:40:40] Jan Griffiths: Okay. Likewise. Thank you.
Thank you for listening to the Automotive Leaders Podcast. Click the listen link in the show notes to subscribe for free on your platform of choice, and don't forget to download the 21 Traits of Authentic Leadership PDF by clicking on the link below. And remember, stay true to yourself, be you, and lead with Gravitas, the hallmark of authentic leadership.




