Ever felt overwhelmed? NALP’s June 24 webinar looks at how you can identify how you feel and discusses potential solutions to help you overcome overwhelmed.
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Transcript
0:06
So today we’re talking about overwhelm and how to how to overcome overwhelm. I think if you’re anything like me, you’ve had those days for quite often. You sit there just going, I just can’t do anymore. I just feel well. And that’s the point at which if you’re feeling completely overwhelmed and you feel like you can’t do anything else, you’re gonna need some help. And that’s what our guest today we’ll be talking about. So Hillary Briggs was once described as Britain’s most exciting woman, the woman executive under 40 by Business Age magazine. She’s trained as an engineer at the University of Cambridge
0:39
before embarking on a corporate career with the Rover Group, Whirlpool Europe and Lead Group PLC. For the past 20 years, she supported smaller businesses in improving performance and managing changes, handling overwhelm in its many, many forms.
0:54
In the last seven years,
0:56
Hillary has taken up triathlons. Doesn’t that just make you feel like you should be doing a lot more with your life? So Hillary has taken up triathlons, transforming herself from a low grade amateur to a member of the Team GB age group team. She is the 2023 European Champion and a World Championships silver medallist, having overcome a major Achilles injury along the way. She’s also an international award-winning TEDx speaker. So, Hillary, thank you very much for joining us today and welcome to today’s NAP webinar.
1:26
It’s a pleasure and great to be here. Now, I can imagine that with all the things that you’ve achieved in your career, you must have had those times when you’ve also felt totally and utterly overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that’s in front of you. So I’m going to want to talk about a bit about that because I am really curious as to how you overcame it. But let’s just do some little bit of sort of backtracking for a moment.
1:52
How would you say like what is overwhelming is, is there a definition for it? And generally what causes it? Let’s kind of get that sorted first. OK, So the like definition that I like to work with, there was a doctor, Peter Nixon in the 70s did research on how much stress people can handle. Because if you have no stress, you might well just sit on the sofa and and not do anything. So stress, it has bad press, but there are good aspects to stress.
2:23
And I think what we’d like to think of is the more that we push and put ourselves under under stress, that at a certain point that our performance actually increases, we’re able to to do more. The reality that he found is that for all of us, we’ll reach a certain point. He enabled the fatigue point where things actually start to to go downhill. And ultimately, if you don’t do anything about it, you will end up with burnout and break down and so on, which is obviously not good.
2:54
And that point is probably going to be different for everybody. But I think what I would say is it’s really important to understand roughly where that is for each of us and individual. And yeah, we’ll get into what what you can do to to manage around that point. But some of the things I’ve found in that that are likely to lead to overwhelm
3:18
if we take work situations it yeah, there can be new projects come in and perhaps new role that we’re not quite certain what we’re doing. So we’ve got extra mental work required to figure out what we’re doing. So new tasks might be things suddenly get dumped on us because someone else is off sick, off on holiday.
3:42
The can be situation where someone suddenly resigned and it’s like, Oh my goodness, how was I as an individual or as a team? How do we cope? Things can go wrong and those that can put us under pressure. There’s also then a personal issues that get in the way. It may be we’re a bit poorly. Illness might be relationship issues, bereavement, caring for people. There’s all those, if you like, domestic pressures that come on us and it’s sometimes it can be a combination
4:13
of, of things. So and, and our own attitudes. Have we got that perfectionist streak that everything’s going to be just right? Because that may not be achievable in in all situations. So a whole, whole host of things is in my experience,
4:31
and I know that when one feels overwhelmed, you’re kind of, you’re right in the thick of it in a way. I guess you kind of know you’re stressed, but you’re not necessarily consciously thinking to yourself, I’m overwhelmed. I I now need to do something about being it. So how do you recognise it? How do you kind of manage to step back and go, oh, I’ve got a problem and I need to sort it out? Yeah, I think some of the tips from Peter Nixon and other things. And this was in early in my career, I was in production management in the car industry and the pressures
5:02
were unbelievable. If you can imagine a production line, it’s supposed to be producing, you know, 30 cars an hour. If it stops for some reason, all hell breaks loose as, as people squawking on the radios and so on. And I, I think I found it’s also the situation. You think, well, everyone seems to be struggling, therefore man up and get on with it. And I think sometimes you can think, well, putting your hand up and saying, oh, I can’t do this might be career limiting. I mean, hopefully these days people, there’s a bit more
5:33
understanding, but you know, let’s let’s be realistic, it’s not going to apply in all situations.
5:39
So what I found, there was one particular morning I woke up and it actually hurt to breathe. And I thought that’s not, that’s not good. And it’s the only time in my life I’ve called out to GP And eventually after, after a couple of days and got someone else come out and they asked me a bit about what I did. You kind of rolled his eyes at, you know, not another production manager, you know, with stress and so on. So I learnt and, and the pain actually manifested more as a backache. So interpreted that that’s my body
6:10
telling me I’m pushing too hard and I use that then as a as a indicator that I needed to do something because that was, yeah, my body was starting to complain. Other things you might experience could be disrupted sleep, you know, in a more extreme cases, panic attacks,
6:32
eating disorders. Some research I saw recently by an outfit called Utopia said about one in six people are likely to hit the bottle. I start to drink more and the stress. And so there are things noticing changes in behaviour. And I have to say, you know, whether it’s eating or drink or other worse things, absolutely unhelpful for all sorts of reasons. But I think when, when you look at the impact on the body,
7:02
it’s, it might, if they may help you feel good right at the moment, the impact is not gonna be helpful. It did it decreases your mental abilities and so on. So I think cut a Long story short, it’s about being aware of of your body and, and changes. So little aches and pains. And even if you just got a, a sort of one to 10 scale of how you’re feeling in the morning, that’s a start. I’ve got because of all the sport. I’ve got a Garmin watch. It’s got
7:33
some feature called body battery and that I find is a useful indicator of how much, you know, quality of sleep, heart rate, heart rate variability, so measures of stress basically, I don’t know all the INS and outs, the algorithm, but I think most of these wearables now have got some ways of tracking sleep and stress and it it’s an indicator. So if things are starting to go off the stale, it’s like maybe I need to do something here.
8:01
And I guess that can apply to both long term stress. So for example, if you’re working as a paralegal and maybe you’re helping out on a on a very large case or something and you’ve been dealing with it for a long time, that’s almost like a chronic stress. And then you’ve got acute stress, which I guess is you can deal with it in the same way, which is, Oh dear, something serious has just happened. I don’t know, I’ve got to get these papers in or whatever by tomorrow. Yeah, you know,
8:28
and it may be as well, you know, unconscious a lot of you members are studying at the same time. So exam pressures and things coming up and that if that happens to coincide with work pressures because it might again, in my experience, life doesn’t tend to bring these incidents in a nice handy sequence. It’s you know, it’s just life. Sometimes things arrive at one time. So it doesn’t matter how organised you are, things things can hit you. So knowing no signs that actually
8:59
there’s something here that’s a bit more than
9:03
then should be happening. I think particularly if you’re getting physical signs, that to me is a red flag and you need to do something.
9:11
So let’s say you’ve you’ve recognised that, you know, you’ve got a problem. There is something going on for you that you do need to sort out. What do you do? Yeah. So that feeling and I, I put this as as a bit of the feeling, you’re in the spin cycle on a washing machine. You know, where you just going round and round, horrible feeling. I’ve never actually been in a washing machine. I did go on some fairground ride once which was equally horrible. So that’s not a good feeling. And being able to say, OK
9:41
just stop and grab if necessary a flip chart sized piece of paper. Do a brain dump of get all of the things that’s buzzing around in your head out onto a separate piece of paper. I find and have found very helpful. So sit down with a cup of tea or a coffee. Doesn’t need to take long,
10:02
just get get the things out of your head because if they’re in your head jangling around, I’ll find, yeah, it’s hard to make sense of it. Get it out onto the paper as the first thing and then actually test each item and be be honest. And this is where sometimes the perfectionist might have some challenges, but I urge people to go through it. But would the world really stop if I didn’t do this? Would would it? You know, there might be implications in terms of reputation,
10:35
might be some financial impacts, but would the world really stop unless you’re involved in something that’s really life and death? I would assert that probably not. And it’s it’s so it’s getting that perspective and also thinking about, well, who, who actually needs this
10:52
and when do they need it by and what standard? Because again, I think having thinking that everything’s going to be absolutely gold plated is not probably not true. And times that I’ve got unfortunately doesn’t happen too often. But even now I can get to the point where I think, ohh, it’s too, too many things all coming together
11:13
in in worse situations. I just pick up the phone, you know, want to identify who needs this? Pick up the phone. And you know what happens more, more often than not, someone will say, ohh, actually, yeah, I’m, I’m glad you phoned about that. We’re running behind. So if you need another couple of weeks, no problem. It’s like, oh, you know, you can work yourself up into a real ladder about I’ve got to have this and it’s going to be there.
11:38
Maybe not now that won’t always happen, but you don’t need many of those suddenly to clear some space. So the ideal is to get down to top three or four priorities that because that’s a bit more manageable, you can start to focus. And then what I learned in the production management, even, you know, crazy environment thought well, just spend 5 minutes a day doing something to make tomorrow better. And I think that’s the trick when you’ve got down to these three or four priorities,
12:09
being able to break them down into little pieces. And that 5 minutes is enough to send one e-mail to make one call, even just put a timer on and think for 5 minutes about, OK, what, what can I do with this?
12:24
And I think what I like with five minutes is that it’s pretty hard to say. I really didn’t have 5 minutes in the day to do something. There will, you know, be honest. There are times when I think I haven’t really had time to do that. But the next days, another day. So make sure you get a good night’s sleep, get up and say, right, OK, let’s let’s start it again. And if you can be 8090% effective on that over three months, you’d be amazed at what you can achieve.
12:55
And I think the the thing that I found is that from going from that spin cycle in the washing machine to the point where actually you’re doing something, it’s that feeling that actually I’m a little bit in control here. I’m doing something that this will get better. And again, one belief that I’ve developed is that slow progress is progress. So no matter even if it feels at a snails pace,
13:22
if you’re moving a bit forward and are in control of that, you’re on a better track. And, and it that helps I find at least to keep me feeling positive and think, OK, I can, I can manage that or I’m in better shape than I was. That all makes sense. And I think that’s interesting that for example, with the now qualifications, because you could do them quite quickly, but actually you can get as much as two years in which to complete a qualification. But sometimes, and I know I would be the same, I’d be like, well, if it can be done in six months,
13:53
like doing it in six months, you know, but actually, perhaps it’s very good to go. Well, OK, I’ve got two years. Let’s just give us an example. My goal is going to be one year. And that just gives you that little bit more, little bit more space, doesn’t it? And if I do 5 minutes towards it every day and maybe an hour at the weekends, then
14:13
it said. And I, I think I find it’s, well, it’s kind of recognising. And so I think this requires some self reflection on what works for you, how you work best. So I’ll be honest, I’m, I’m tend to be quite deadline driven, but I have learnt to set my own deadlines as, as you say, yeah, earlier than than the ultimate deadline to, to give yourself space. I think depends on the task as well. Some things I find I need to lock myself away for a couple of hours to really immerse myself and, and
14:43
think. So the five minutes, you know, it, it won’t literally 5 minutes won’t work in all situations. But I think it, it’s, again, it’s being mindful of what is it you need to do and what’s the best way that you, you work with that. But again, if you can take these little 5 minute chunks, it is maintaining some momentum and that can make you feel better. And then as you say, no, I need a couple of hours to work on this,
15:11
find again the right sort of space. And I, I must admit, I find that open plan offices and not my best area if I really need to concentrate on something. So, you know, what’s the right environment for the task you’re trying to do. And it’s a set up for success and also remove barriers and excuses. So if you find you get distracted with the phone, with other people, with thing, with pop ups and so on, it’s, it’s about managing an environment
15:42
to take, you know, to give yourself the best chance.
15:45
Now we’ve talked quite a lot about this kind of idea of slow progress. Even if it’s 5 minutes, it’s 5 minutes, you’re progressing. What about having a break? So the reason I asked this is a technique that I used to use when I worked at the BBC and we were constantly, it was live radio. We were up against deadlines, Bang, bang, bang, literally done one thing. The next deadline was, you know, looming in the face. And of course, if we had a guest who hadn’t turned up or something, that was a risk of having dead air. And my take on that, in order to sort that out, was quite often to go and get myself a cup of tea because I knew that
16:17
by the time I got back from the kettle I’d have a solution in my head. Is that a good technique or am I
16:24
it’s like a bad thing to do?
16:27
I couldn’t agree more with that. And I, I think actually what comes to mind is some crazy little DIY project that was involved decades ago. And I was just struggling. I couldn’t see the way past this. But I thought, OK, I gave up, go back for a cup of tea and I hadn’t and no longer put the kettle down. And suddenly being idea in my head. And yeah, professionally I find something you can just be struggling with things and it might be just a cup of tea. Just going out for a short walk round the block again, a bit of movement,
16:58
fresh air, it’s going to get the brain going.
17:02
Yeah, I think those those sorts of techniques are absolutely brilliant. And and again, it doesn’t need to be disappearing for a whole day walk, you know, that might have other, other impacts. But just 5 minutes and and the change of this changes space can be quite dramatic. Yeah.
17:21
So based on those sort of things that you’ve said, then have you got particular tips that say as a manager, if you’ve got maybe a team of paralegals that you’re managing or something like that, how could you help your team?
17:33
Yeah. So I think one of the things I learnt in this was in the car industry at Rover, we were working very closely with Honda at the time and the Japanese seemed to have a, a, a calmness about them. I thought, well, how, how do they do this? And I think the, the, the biggest thing, they seem to have a much slower,
17:55
yeah, calmness about them because they were ramping up, whether it was new models, introductions or things, they were doing it at a slower pace. So they were more realistic in their in their planning. And I think there’s a temptation to try to rush or we’ve got to do this and assuming that everything’s going to go right.
18:14
So allowing at a planning stage that something’s might not go quite as you’d intended to building in some slack. But I think what that allowed them to actually think about
18:28
they’re the steps. They’ve got more history probably of what it takes to be successful. So things were tending to go right more often. They wouldn’t always go right. They felt better. So this thing about the progress and then ohh, I’m moving forward. But what it also allowed them to do was to have time to think about how to do things better. So there’s this continuous improvement and you hear about that with about the Japanese and their Kaizen continuous improvement. But I think if as a team, if you are
19:00
being hit by lots of it, is things going wrong, things not quite working, it’s about picking those off and thinking right, what do we need to do to eliminate that at root cause? And I guess that, you know, in engineering and manufacturing base, this kind of quality improvement is, is drummed into you. I’m not so sure in other walks of life that that is emphasised quite so much. So I think if you’re finding you’re having to do things because somebody didn’t do it, they didn’t do it
19:30
directly or something else has gone wrong, it’s actually looking and and digging into, well, why was that? What do we need to do to make sure that never happens again and doing that sort of thing. So using the 5 minutes to eliminate some of those things will as a team start to create more, more time
19:50
and then actually look at, OK, how can we do this better? Because I think that’s part of the problem of, of life. I mean, changes has always been there, but it’s speeding up more and more. It seems other people talking AI and impacts and new technology, It just seems to be going faster and faster to me. So being able to be able to step back and think, right, how do we createspace to get a heads round? This is is really important.
20:19
Lovely. Thank you. So I guess though we’ve got some tips then to help us not to get overwhelmed in the 1st place, planning, learning from past mistakes, etcetera. Yeah. And then tips for dealing with it once you’re there, which is taking that few minutes just to maybe doing things. If you’re, if it’s a big long project, like it’s a chronic overwhelm, if you like, then it’s about doing those little 5 minute things that will get you going and probably not just trying to run faster for more hours. That’s not really the solution. I think it’s, it’s unsustainable. And again,
20:51
people will have different levels of work capacity, but we all have a finite capacity that’s sustainable. And what I’ve seen in roles where I’m ending up working late in the evenings or at weekends to do the important task, which are requiring thought work, that’s not sustainable. And maybe a few months you can do that. But one way or another, it’s going to break.
21:12
And so I think the other thing is about building resilience. And this is one thing that’s really been rammed into me for my triathlon work, particularly on swimming, where there’s always going to be some surprises, whether it’s strong current, weeds in the sea or whatever waves and and you think, Oh my goodness, you know, and if you start panicking, swimming and starting having water, it’s unhelpful, let’s put it that way. So being able to keep calm. But then actually what I’ve done is, is
21:43
look for training opportunities that are gonna push me beyond what I would expect to see in the race, whether it’s colder temperature, slightly bigger waves, not ridiculously strong because I don’t want to drown in training. But, and I think you can apply that to life about actually going out, seeking challenges, putting yourself out of your comfort zone, but in an environment where it doesn’t matter or not, not so much. And so for instance, public speaking is something which I know can
22:14
get a lot of people very nervous. There’s an organisation called Toastmasters International. I’ve been a member for a long time there and that’s, I see that as my learning laboratory for speaking because you can try things out there if it goes horribly wrong.
22:28
It doesn’t, you know, it’s all feedback and learning and there’s not vast sums of money at stake or my career or whatever. So I think whatever areas you feel you want to develop or struggling with, find ways that you can practise that in a safe environment where you can just get used to pushing the boundaries a bit.
22:48
Lovely, thank you so much. And it’s fascinating to hear that these techniques can be used whether you’re on the production line, making cars, as a paralegal, working in practise or your own business, or even if you’re doing a triathlon. Techniques seem to work across the board, which is fantastic. Which means it doesn’t really matter what life throws at us. There’s, there’s a technique there to use in order to overcome it, which is fantastic. Absolutely, yes. And I think something, again, I’ve done is consciously look at areas of my life where I’ve done something and think, ohh,
23:19
well, if I can do that there, that could probably help somewhere else. So the broader range, it doesn’t matter whether it’s crocheting, playing tiddlywinks or whatever. I bet there are things that you could transfer into your professional and other areas of your life.
23:34
Brilliant. Well, thank you so much. That’s Hillary Briggs, who has gone from a rank amateur to actually being a world championship medal winner in triathlons, which I feel unworthy. So thank you so much for joining us and telling us about how you’ve overcome those moments of overwhelm throughout your career, working in the corporate sector, working with smaller businesses, and of course, going through that triathlon journey as well. There’ll be a slide coming up in a second which will show you Hillary’s details. If you would
24:05
like to get in touch with her, I’m sure she’d love to hear from you. And thank you so much to everybody for joining us today for today’s NALP webinar. And we look forward to seeing you in the next one. Thank you very much.
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