The Election’s Over, Now What?

I’m writing this before Election Day, not knowing who will be elected to serve as our President. And I’m not writing a political piece, but I am making a prediction (not that one). And I hope, that for those who read it, it will make my prediction wrong.

Anxious and emotional.

Lots of people, regardless of who they have or will vote for (or even if they don’t vote), are anxious and emotional. And it is the mix of emotions that concerns me and leads to my prediction.

While I hate to say it, I predict that the election response of many in the coming days will be overly emotional in both directions, regardless of the outcome. I worry that the election response will look like this:

Those that feel they won will gloat, and those who feel they lost will be far from gracious. And those soaring or sinking emotions will negatively impact the productivity, dynamics, relationships and long-term health of teams (and maybe careers).

I am not saying you can’t or shouldn’t care about and even have strong feelings about who you vote for and what will happen based on who wins. And I know you could have real excitement or concern, based on the result. It will be natural and ok to be happy or sad.

But realize that not everyone will have the same emotions you have. And while the President will sit in the Oval Office, you will sit in the next office, cubicle or webcam window with some of those people.

The way we respond and interact with each other on the micro level will have more daily impact on your life, emotions and work than whatever happens on the macro level. And even if you voted, you have far more influence on the performance, and success of your team and your career than you do on who presides as President.

How can you do that?

I believe the answer is to reconsider our perspective, and I have five suggestions to help you do that – whether you feel amazing or abjectly concerned about the Electoral Vote count.

However invested you are or have been in the election and the election process, it’s time to consider your perspective today, tomorrow and beyond.

Because your perspective will inform your behaviors, which will inform your results.

Five Ways to Reset Your Perspective

You will alter your outward election response differently if you do one or many of these things.

• Take a breath. I think this is the thing I most hope we all do once we know the results. You have consoled a child or a friend when they were upset to take a breath to get some oxygen and some perspective. The advice is just as valuable if we are super excited. The breath (or breaths!) has a way of helping us respond to a situation rather than reacting.
• Look back. I am not going to give you a detailed history lesson, but history is helpful. We have had contentious elections before. We have had deeply divided opinions before. We fought a Civil War for heaven’s sakes. It isn’t always pretty, but we have survived and in the prism of most criteria, thrived in historically amazing ways. Even after very hard times. If you are feeling worried, looking back will be helpful for a more useful perspective.
• Look beyond. When we lift our eyes to this historical view, we can escape the 24-hour news cycle and see that we have survived and succeeded in tough times before and so there is no reason we can’t do it again. If you are worried, looking beyond can be helpful too.
• Live local. As important as the big picture, macro view is, that isn’t where you live every moment. Think now about how you can be the best team member now (because of or in spite of the election results). Your words and actions in the coming days can have far reaching impacts on your work and life – for better or worse. I’m betting you’d prefer they go for the better.
• Take charge of your emotions. Again, I am not suggesting you can’t be elevated or joyful, worried or concerned, or even just relieved. What I am suggesting is that you are in control of your words and actions – including with those around you who might have different emotions than you. If you need to have a pity party or a celebration, do it alone or with someone you know feels like you do. Then get back to clear, gracious, humble, and helpful conversations and communication. When you do, you will move your workplace forward in positive ways.

I urge you to think about these perspective changes for yourself. I hope that you model what I am suggesting, and yes, if you are a leader I hope you share these ideas with your team too. Doing this before there are results will be better, but this conversation can come after results are known too.

If we all do the things I suggested to help us lift our eyes and alter our perspective, my prediction won’t come true.

Here’s to making me wrong.