This week I have one of my sons with me for a whole week before he heads back to Cayman and back to work. This week is also when I am at my lowest energy on my (second to last!) chemo cycle.
Finally, this week will see temperatures in the UK over 30c (88f) for the whole week, in a country that doesn’t have air conditioning and where the brick houses will gradually absorb the heat so it will radiate inwards for days after the temperature cools.
So, we had already planned to do very little due to my chemo fatigue, and now with this unusually hot weather, we will do even less. We’ll be taking it slow, simply accepting the circumstances.
In business and leadership, I often see it regarded as a badge of honour to “press on regardless”, to try to force things through on schedule even when circumstances would strongly suggest adapting.
If we go back to when we had a pre-industrial and so agrarian society, we always worked with the weather and seasonal cycles. Sometimes that would mean working 18-hour days to get the harvest in before rains came, sometimes it would mean doing nothing at all as there was nothing to do when it rained. Think also of dairy farmers, who literally have nothing to do between morning and evening milkings.
So, if you are a business leader and temperatures are unusually high, are you still going to make your people commute to work every day this week? In London, temperatures on most tube lines will be so high that if you were transporting livestock, you would legally have to stop as it would be in breach of animal cruelty laws.
Alternatively, could you perhaps ask them what works best for them? Maybe allow them to do less this week and do more next week once the temperatures have cooled?
Consider accepting the circumstances have changed and look to adapt accordingly rather than “push through”.