Daily Lab: Don’t become the emergency

Marketing and communications “emergencies” are pretty rare. One might even argue they don’t really exist.

I mean, we communications folks are famous for reassuring ourselves that “nobody’s dying” as we frantically bounce from crisis to crisis.

But that doesn’t mean marketing, PR (and entrepreneurship generally), don’t feel like emergencies all the time.

Because they really do.

Sure, maybe nobody’s in real danger—but my body, mind, and anxiety might be telling me something entirely different.

Because, while this job isn’t life or death, if you’ve been doing it long enough, you’ve been the last person to give advice before something went wrong. At least once.

You’ve also been the person who tried to help—and could have—but was prevented from it by poor communication or leadership during the crisis.

How did that feel?

I suspect—I know—it feels horrible.

That’s why emergency strategies, like the ones in Dr. Dan Dworkis’ The Emergency Mind are so helpful and important to me.

Not because my work is truly an emergency, but because these strategies help keep it from becoming one.

They help keep me from becoming one.

Because when we know how high-stakes and high-performance operators and emergency specialists perform at their best—without burning out—we become that much better at keeping our work—and ourselves—from escalating into an emergency.

They help keep us from burning out from the stress, burning bridges from panicked communication, and giving up because we don’t enjoy it anymore.

So if you want to do what you love, for as long as you want to, emergency strategies may be exactly what you need.