This Week Is Weird. You’re Allowed to Feel Weird About It

What No One Tells You — #6 This Week Is Weird. You're Allowed to Feel Weird About It YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TLevUgm6BU —————————————————————————————————————————————————— Hello everyone and welcome to What No One Tells You, the podcast where we talk about the real stuff that happens in management that nobody bothers to mention in corporate training. My name is Claudia and today we're diving into this weird limbo week between Christmas and New Year where nobody knows what they're supposed to be doing. This is episode 6. This week is weird. You're allowed to feel weird about it. Let's just say it out loud. This week is weird and you're completely allowed to feel weird about it. You're sitting at your home desk, technically working. Your team chat has gone silent and you're wondering what you're actually supposed to be doing right now because nothing feels normal and nobody's pretending it is. And speaking of this week being weird, can I just tell you something hilarious? I've re-recorded the first 3 minutes of this episode about 16 times. That's 16 times because I keep messing up, stumbling over words, losing my train of thought, and having to start all over. And you know what this episode is about? How your brain isn't in execution mode this week, and you should stop trying to force it to work normally. So, here I am trying to record an episode about how nobody can focus this week while proving my own point by completely failing to focus. But the irony is not lost on me. But honestly, this is perfect because it proves that what I'm about to tell you is absolutely true. Let's be completely honest. Nobody is in the mood to work regular work this week. Your brain is not in execution mode. It's in thinking mode, reflection mode. the kind of deeper processing that gets completely pushed aside when you're managing your team and putting out fires and attending back-to-back meetings. So instead of fighting your brain and trying to force it to do work it doesn't want to do, what if you actually use this week for what it's naturally good for? real reflection about what worked this year, what didn't work, and what you want to be different when January hits, and everything snaps back into chaos. So, here are five questions to think about this week. Grab a notebook, find 30 minutes, turn off your laptop, and just think. First, what drained you the most this year as a manager? Not too many meetings, but what specific situations or conversations left you completely exhausted? Because if you can name what drains you, you can reduce it next year. Second, what actually worked with your team that you should do more of? Think about the moments when things clicked, when your team felt engaged, when someone stepped up in a way that made you proud. What were you doing and that you could intentionally repeat? Third, what conversations did you avoid this year that you know you need to have in January? We all have them. Those difficult conversations we keep pushing off and they're sitting in the back of your mind, taking up energy even though you're not addressing them. Fourth, what do you want to stop doing next year? Not what you want to start, but what you want to stop. Because honestly, most of us need to do less stuff, not more stuff. And fifth one, what's the thing you want to get better as a leader? Just one thing, not 10. Because if you pick one specific skill to work on, you can actually make real progress. Write down whatever comes to mind. Don't make it perfect. Just get your thoughts into paper. And then don't turn this into an elaborate plan with spreadsheets and quarterly objectives. Just write down two or three things that matter, things you want to remember where January starts and leave it at that. Now listen, as we're standing at the edge of a brand new year, I need to talk to you leader to leader, human to human, because this matters. This year tested you in ways you didn't see coming. You had difficult team members, projects that went sideways, decisions that kept you up at night, and moments where you questioned if you were cut out for this, but you're still here. You showed up anyway. And that's actually everything. So, as you step into this new year, make yourself three promises that will change how you live. First promise, I will have the hard conversations within 28 hours instead of letting them fester for months. Every difficult conversation you avoid doesn't disappear. It just grows bigger and bigger and steals all your energy. Next year, when you feel that uncomfortable knot in your stomach about something you need to address, give yourself two days and then say it out loud. Second promise. I will protect my energy like it's the most valuable resource I have because it is. You cannot lead well when you're running on empty. So next year when someone asks you to take on one more thing that you know you don't have the capacity for, say no without apologizing. Your energy is not unlimited and treating it like it is will only break you. Third promise. I will change my mind when I get new information and I will do it out loud. Being willing to change your mind isn't weakness. It's the strongest thing you can do. When you realize you were wrong about something, when you see your initial approach isn't working. Changing course and admitting it to your team builds more trust than stubbornly sticking to a bad decision ever could. Those three promises will transform your leadership more than any training program ever could because they're about actually dealing with reality instead of pretending leadership is cleaner than it is. Here is what I want for you in this new year. Walk into January knowing you don't have to be perfect to be a great leader. You just have to be honest and brave enough to deal with the uncomfortable stuff most managers avoid. Build a team where people trust you because you say what's true even when it's hard. Go home at the end of the day feeling tired but not destroyed, challenged but not crushed because you've learned that protecting yourself isn't selfish. It's essential. Stop apologizing for having boundaries. Stop feeling guilty for saying no and stop pretending you have unlimited capacity when you're already stretched thin. have fewer goals and more focus. Fewer meetings and more impact, fewer things on your plate and more energy for what actually matters. And remember that leadership isn't about being the person who has it all figured out. It's about being the person who's willing to figure out alongside with your team, who admits when they're wrong, who shows up even when it's uncomfortable, and who cares enough to keep trying even when it's hard. So, happy new year. Not the polished Instagram version where everything looks perfect. I mean the real version, the messy, complicated, beautifully imperfect version where you're going to make mistakes and learn from them and keep showing up anyway because that's what real leaders do. You've got this and I'm here for it. This week, your brain is in reflection mode. So, use it for something valuable. Spend 30 minutes with those five questions. Make yourself those three promises and step into the new year ready to live like the honest, brave, imperfect human you actually are. Now you know because I told you. My name is Laudya and happy new year.