The Downfalls Of Hierarchical Perceptions In Business

Hierarchies are prevalent in common day society in almost all types of collectives, could be a workplace environment, the needs and wants you crave, or even the magnitude of where you or your business sits in the grand scheme of it all. We buy into hierarchies all the time for several reasons, one of which is its simple and comprehendible to our brains to ultimately rationalize our power in reference to what’s around in said environment.

The point I wanted to make in that quick introductory paragraph is that there are many benefits and consequences to understanding hierarchies, especially when it comes down to how it effects a business and its ability to scale.

There are 2 major vulnerabilities when it comes down to a business perspective that can truly become the crutch of a business to the point where results begin to plateau or even plummet. Lets go through them now.

The first major vulnerability that comes with hierarchies as a business is that what most companies do as a collective of individuals is they won’t look low enough within their own respective perception. So if we view the hierarchy with levels to it, we often perceive the lowest level representing the least importance and the highest level representing the most importance, the problem lives in that most of the time businesses find themselves in the middle according to their own understanding and fail to seek depth in the lower levels that if assessed appropriately would be the fortitude that would allow the building process to flourish.

So, lets say that you’re a business and you’re genuinely trying everything you know how to and the results that you desire just simply aren’t coming your way and the direct cause of this seemingly is out of your control. Great, got it! Extremely common, especially coming from an owners point of view. Well, what normally is the root of this entire whirlpool is that you didn’t give the proper attention to those ‘less important’ factors that would redirect the business infrastructure to accommodate more results that parallel to what your ambitions, desires, and claims say. The question should genuinely be pondered why almost every business has felt this before?

The reality to that question is built around whether or not you allowed that to live in the ecosystem you have created as the business. See, what many often forget if not in totality but at least the truest and purest meaning behind it is that ownership is the ultimate test of accountability and all of the outcomes that present themselves are by nature because of you and your team if you have one. So, with the deepest level of accountability used as our lens here to this massive vulnerability we have to recommit constantly that our perception of where we sit on a hierarchy is as invalid to others as it is valid to us. Its only as meaningful as you are going to make it in the grand scheme of business, so instead of allowing that rhythm to guide your business down a path that is riddled with confusion, heart ache, and lack… the solution is to with a deep sense of accountability become self aware of where you’ve placed yourself and your business and then deploy your resources to factors that are below that in order to fortify the missing pieces and add back in the missing links to this massive ambition you’re building out. Its imperative the building process isn’t being constructed on shaky ground!

Okay, onto the second most common vulnerability…

Almost equally as often, we develop a very interestingly clouded understanding of hierarchies through the act of admiration. So, think about all of the different times you’ve seen on Instagram, YouTube, Google, or any other platform an outcome you just sat there and thought “damn I wish I had that” or even better “ That really resonates, I want that too!” Happens all the time right? Its so fueling and motivates us sometimes to the point of finally pulling the trigger on something that will change the course of the business forever, and that’s amazing! However, we would be remiss if we just accepted that as the full picture without realizing what you just experienced was just the tip of the iceberg.

What we should delve into is we just openly experienced what its like to feel something that we perceived as above our placement of our own hierarchy. The thoughts roaming around of “I can’t wait until I have something like that” or “ That’s really great, I should be doing something like that for my business” is exploiting the idea that its above your placement and you admire what that is because its more valuable or more important than what you believe your business encapsulates.

Here’s the major downfall of this, and by the way, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with admiring or feeling inspired or motivated by someone or something, its just there is more to the story of what’s going on behind the scenes internally that we often are unconscious of while that motivation takes place!

Through these emotional roller coasters of admiration and motivation we eventually will hopefully begin to understand that there is a duality to this, meaning there’s another side of the coin here if we’re admiring someone or something else to the point that we can feel it. That other side of the coin is being consciously aware of the gratitude of being above on the hierarchy compared to other facets that you have accomplished or surpassed.

Just by simple logic we can all come to the conclusion that if we’re capable of admiring that of another that we determine to be of more value than its also the case that we can do the opposite and be grateful and accepting of that we have accomplished… the issue is that the latter is not equally as deployed in every day life of running a business. Its not a 50/50 direct relationship between the 2, in other words its not balanced, and we see that in several different real business examples as leaders because of how freeing it feels when something happens ‘to’ us or the company that finally makes us stop for just 1 millisecond, breathe, and relish in how far you’ve come. It feels amazing and well deserved because it’s depleted as a constant and requires some outside event or influence to remind us that the other side of the coin is and has always been there the entire time!

This by nature is the issue, this is the contradiction that businesses and owners operate in as a normalized state of momentum. The realization that the duality itself is the problem is key. The realization that your desire to be above another based on yours and yours alone perception of where your business is and where you want it to be is the exact foundation by which plateaus are developed in a business. Even further, there is a complete lack of empathy for your environment and competitors in that the belief that everyone else has their own internal perception as well to battle yours. The innate comedic reality is the battle is taken place on two completely different battle grounds and very often the battle is different for everyone yet we’re convinced that our reality of our placement is correct and the other alternatives are blatantly wrong.

Ultimately, every moment spent in this mindset will feed into the feedback loop that you’re in the whirlpool you don’t want your business to be in because it results in negative outcomes that slay your claims. How do we course correct this much deeper problem? Recommit to the oneness that your hierarchical perception is a vulnerability when married to constant duality between admiration and lack of gratitude and accomplishment. Deploy more empathy to your environment as a whole, understanding that your business is not the only one having these thoughts and placements based on poor context at best.

This is a recommitment game we’re playing, there are a total of zero businesses that are in every way perfect and there are always missing links. Begin with the deeper awareness of where these business decisions stem from and have empathy for the environment your business is in, and enjoy the journey of constantly fortifying every level of what you’re building even when it seems like its not important enough to pour your resources into at the time, because that all too often is the exact indicator that you should explore that idea or ones of similar nature.

Website: www.aspfsolutions.com

Instagram: @anthonysabatinoaspf

LinkedIn: @Anthony Sabatino

YouTube: @Anthony Sabatino