Date: 2025-06-20
Theme: Crisis and Resilience
"Be like the rock that the waves keep crashing over. It stands, unmoved, and the raging of the sea falls still around it." - Marcus Aurelius
I had a very messy week.
Imagine walking into a room where everything is scattered. Every single item is shouting at you to be cleaned, sorted, put in place. That’s how my week felt. Chaos in every direction.
I caught myself thinking, “Next week will be better.” But will it?
Russell L. Ackoff once said, “The job of a manager is not to solve problems, but to manage messes.” And honestly, that sounds about right.
Maybe my job isn’t to eliminate mess, but to constantly declutter just enough so people can move, breathe, and focus. Maybe leadership is about helping others find their way through the room.
While I’ve come to accept that managing mess is part of the role, I still struggle with this:
How can I help clean up someone else’s house if I can’t keep my own house in order?
The mess outside often mirrors the mess inside. And if I don’t take time to center myself, I become part of the chaos instead of the calm.
This week reminded me that leadership starts with internal order. A quiet mind. A clear intention.
If I don’t take time to reset and reflect, I’ll carry the chaos into every meeting, every conversation, every decision.
So my first duty as a manager is to clean my own mental room each day - to declutter, to organize, to breathe. Only then can I help others with theirs.
- What tomorrow will bring
- How others react to the mess
- The number of fires, pings, and surprises
- Expecting and anticipating mess as part of the job
- Not reacting emotionally when things feel out of control
- Finding clarity in small, daily resets
Daily rituals:
- Start the day by asking: What is one thing I can declutter today - mentally or structurally?
- Write down the top three messy items without trying to fix them immediately
- End the day with a short reflection: Did I bring calm or more chaos today?
Mindset framing:
- View mess as a natural part of systems, not a failure of planning
- Lead by modeling order, not by demanding it from others
I didn’t finish the week with an empty room. But I did feel a bit more grounded.
Instead of waiting for a mythical “calm week,” I started embracing mess as part of the rhythm.
As long as I take care of my inner space, I can be useful to others - not by fixing everything, but by staying steady while we sort through it together.