Top 10%, Bottom 10%

Photo by Scott Webb.

We don't claim this as our format, we learned it from our own advisors. But it's a good one. It goes like this: there are plenty of other places for your middle 80%. What we want in this room are the things that are going so well that we should celebrate. And the things that are so wretched that you need help to get through them.

It's masterful as a facilitation tool. But it's also handy at clearing out the filler so we can get to the real stuff.

These past few weeks, we've been talking to bosses about their top 10% and bottom 10%. And in the last few days, something important has shifted.

We heard from bosses who felt very in their top 10%. Where things had shifted in good ways. And they felt some solid earth under their feet for the first time in weeks.

And we had others very in their bottom 10%. People who have been running so hot trying to keep everything going for the last few weeks. And it isn't enough. And their batteries are empty. And they need help.

Wherever you see yourself in that, remember that the people you work with might be somewhere very different. And so, a couple of thoughts.

If you are finding your way out of the fog, your job is to bring other people with you. If you've found a routine that works. If you're running again. If you're sleeping again. If you're cooking more and ordering in less. We need you. There are a lot of us still in the fog and it's not a thing we can wish away. But if you are up above it, you can see further than we can and clarity is incredible valuable right now.

So write it down. Be present in email and slack and wherever the rest of us are. Speak up on calls that sound foggier than you feel. Particularly if you can see which work is important and which work isn't these days, we need to know. So we can stop working on the wrong stuff we haven't realized is wrong stuff.

Don't impose it on us. From a foggy place, someone else being too shiny can be irritating. But offer it. Especially to the folks on your team. Do not do not do not assume that it must be obvious to them, too. In fog, nothing is obvious. Be generous with your clarity.

If, on the other hand, you are still in the fog: slow down. It's not safe to move fast in a fog. The good news is that some people are starting to get some clarity and help might be on the way soon. But in the meantime, stop trying to see through it by just burning hotter and hotter. Every driver's ed class knows this. High beams don't work in fog - you just get glare that makes it even harder to see.

If you're a boss in fog, we need you to invest in your own resilience first. From a depleted place, you're no good to your team. It feels heroic to sacrifice yourself to lighten the load for others, and to a point that's a job we're paid to do as bosses. But if you've gotten to an unhealthy place, please pull in supports, and take a rest.

If your company is betting on burnout as a strategy, that's no kind of plan. Things are different. Organizations do need to move fast. It is high stakes. But if your company is trying to juggle multiple crises right now, we have bad news. All they're saying is that they haven't decided which crisis is the most important. Because mathematically, it's not going to happen. The only choice you have is whether to wreck yourself and your team out on the way to realizing that. Hospitals are one of the only organizations expressly built to handle multiple crises at once and, tragically, we're all learning that they have limits, too.

Sleep. Eat well. Exercise. Quiet time. Therapy. If you're in fog and can't seem to get out, please start there. Not with the emails. Or slack pings. Or the zoom call that's impossibly scheduled against your quarantine-altered home life.

This week seemed to be a turning point for a lot of bosses. But we are not done with this thing. There will be optimistic top 10% moments and crushing bottom 10% ones in the weeks to come. We've all got a long way to go, yet. Take care of yourself. And each other.

- Melissa and Johnathan