Tic Tacs

When I was a kid I used to love the orange flavored Tic Tacs. A few months ago I was telling my kids, “hey just take a chill pill” (a consistent phrase from my childhood- both on the giving and receiving end). I got to thinking about carrying around a box of orange Tic Tacs and handing them out to my kids as “chill pills” when they needed to calm down about something.

I was at the office and I had an interaction where I thought, “this person needs a chill pill” and it hit me: a large part of being a leader is staying more calm than the other person. Whether in life, work, or relationships… most of the challenging situations or problems we are facing can be overcome if we can simply remain more calm than the others around us.

We tend to want our environments to be more peaceful – especially if we are facing rough and confusing waters that we aren’t sure how to navigate. Sure it would be great if “all of a sudden” things just calmed down. But typically, the way an environment changes is slowly each element or person that makes up the environment responds differently. So if we can be more calm than the others around us, they in turn can be more calm until eventually the entire environment is changed.

Might be worth having a box of Tic Tacs around just in case.

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