[Article & Audio] They Call it "Herding Cats" for a Reason

They Call It "Herding Cats" For a Reason...

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If you’re one of the nearly 32 million people in the USA who’s owned by at least one cat, you probably know how much fun it can be trying to keep tabs on where your cats are and what they’re up to.

They say every cat has its day (or is that every dog?), and December 15th is National Cat Herders’ Day... but as The Princess Bride’s Inigo Montoya might say, I do not think it means what you think it means.

 Home, home on the range.

Kittens in a basket.
Actually, this particular national day is all about celebrating the people who are so adept at managing seemingly out-of-control jobs, teams, and situations that if you stuck them in a room full of cats, they’d have them rounded up and in good order for inspection in no time.
 
Every leader has days where dealing with colleagues and the occasional—if unavoidable—chaos at work feels like a day out on the prairie herding cats,* but here’s one key to helping you make it look easy: step back and stay calm.

 Keep calm and carry on.

You’ve heard this before (and no doubt seen it on social media memes ad infinitum), but you see it everywhere because it works.
 
No matter how randomly your “cats” are racing around, and no matter how impossible it seems at the minute that you’re ever going to get them all where they need to be, you need to remain calm and confident.
 
Why?
 
Because your calm, confident energy will have the same calming effect on them, and before you know it, everything’s back under control.

(And if you have pets of any kind at home, you’ve almost certainly seen this phenomenon in action: animals respond much better to people who stay calm.)
 
So to all of you leaders and pet owners who keep calm no matter what's going on, let's hear it for National Cat Herders’ Day!


*If you need a laugh, check out the Cat Herders commercial that inspired the day.

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