What Can You Control? Start With Yourself

There's a pretty significant elephant in the room this week (or donkey, depending on your political affiliation). Much like the rest of 2020, we all have more questions than answers about exactly what's going to happen and how it will impact us. I could use this space to rant about the use of social media to create division or the mutually destructive relationship between digital advertising and politics, but what would that accomplish?

Take Care of What You Can Control

Instead, I'm going to offer one suggestion: Take care of what you can control.

None of us can control the global economy or the trade relationship between Canada and the US. What we can control is how we care for ourselves, our people, and our brand. Exactly what those things are will be unique to each of us, but I'll start you off with a list that may help to focus your thinking and block out some of the noise:

1. Take care of yourself.
   Before we can take care of anyone else or anything else, we need to be taken care of. By starting with yourself and grounding this week in what you're up to, what you're grateful for, and what's important to you, you may be more likely to be able to endure the noise. What do you need this week that will allow you to be the best possible version of yourself?
2. Take care of your people.
   Your team is feeling this too. In order for them to focus on anything productive, they need to know that their organization is looking out for them. How can you be a source of stability and certainty for your team?
3. Take care of your brand.
   This is a time to return to your principles or your brand values and make sure that what you're putting out into the world aligns with what you've set out to do. If you're working for Patagonia, there's no question about what you're going to be up to, and that certainty is the result of hard work and consistency. However your brand is showing up this week, consider how it can be consistent with what it's done and said in the past.

And finally, pay attention to context. Whether your business has any association with the US at all, the people who follow you on social media are going to be seeing your posts among a mess of polarizing content. Even the people reading your emails or visiting your website are doing so amidst a flurry of charged messages. Before you hit Publish/Send/Tweet this week, consider what's going to be all around it, and how that may impact your community's ability to absorb your message.

Written by Conner Galway, Junction Consulting