Calm is Contagious
This is a maxim of the Navy Seals and makes instinctive sense.
It is also most powerful when the person who exudes calm, even under extreme pressure, is the leader in the room. In my experience, some people naturally become supremely calm under pressure. For them, time may even feel like it moves more slowly and they have all the time they need to make decisions, bringing focus and confidence to their decision-making.
Such leaders are easy to follow, as how they show up is what draws people towards them, more even than what they say or do.
For all of us, how we show up is also at least as important as what we say or do, and yet, I see very few leaders giving anywhere near as much focus to how they show up as to what their words and actions are going to be.
I could write for hours on this topic, but for today one simple tip. Before any important meeting, give yourself at least 15-30 minutes of stillness. No checking emails or your phone, no conversation, nothing but stillness. Perhaps go for a walk around the block (or any nearby green space), sit on a park bench, lean on a wall and look at the sky. Whatever you do, give yourself that time to “clear”, to bring calm and stillness. From that space, then walk into the meeting and how you show up will be different and others will notice.
Oh, and the photo above is of Dalmore Beach on the Isle of Lewis, a stunningly beautiful place, with a river running through the sands to the sea, with thousands of ancient Lewisian Gneiss (the oldest rock type in the world) stones polished and just lying there. I feel instant zen calm in that place, added to the fact that my grandparents are buried in the cemetery overlooking the beach, with a front row seat to that view for all eternity.