Germany, Stop Complaining.

Be the change you want to see in the world. – Mahatma Gandhi?

Germany stop complaining and start leading. How? Focus on the things you can actually influence instead of wishing things would be different.

The Wishful Thinking Fallacy

It's easy to fall into the fallacy of wishing things would be different.

I was working with a team that was deeply concerned about changes they agreed on at the last offsite not happening. They cared for the changes they had proposed and were frustrated about the "lack of progress" that was being made and how they received "management was doing nothing about it". That's very understandable, isn't it?

What the team failed to see: as leaders they were responsible for driving change. They were responsible for becoming a team that could be trusted.

After a long discussion, one participant summarized nicely: "Of course, we can lament here, how everything should change around us. But we also have to ask what we should do to make these changes happen."

Leading means finding and paving the way.

Leading means not: wishing the situation would be different.

Germany, Where is Your Focus?

Some may hate me for this but I'll say it anyway: to me, it seems that Germany has built a culture of lamenting and complaining instead of focusing on doing.

I see a huge potential here. If, and only if, leaders can shift their people's mindset away from concerns and complaints toward solutions. Then, the ingenuity, hard work, the sense of quality, punctuality, and all the other German strengths can be harnessed into world-class products and services. Progress instead of standstill.

I say this from an outside perspective: having lived almost a quarter of my life outside of my home country Germany and having worked in Switzerland, the US, Austria, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai I have witnessed more hunger for success, more drive, more of a "just do it attitude".

Has Germany become too satisfied from past success which ironically leads to less satisfaction right now? Happy to hear your comments!

The Alpinist Does not Complain

If you are climbing a difficult route, you can wish that the holds would be bigger, that the protection would be better, and that the rock would be dryer.

Wishing does not change your reality. It increases your suffering and lowers your chance of getting on top of the mountain. In business as outdoors.

The Alpinist Acts. The Alpinist does not complain. Shift your focus to an internal locus of control. Here's a simple tool to do it.

The Circle of Control

The Circle of Control is such a simple, yet powerful tool to step up your game in self-leadership and leading others. It's quite old, Stephen Covey made it popular in 1989, 34 years ago, but has lost nothing of its effectiveness.

In short, if faced with any challenge, identify:

• What can you control?
• What can you influence?
• What's outside of your control or influence, i.e. simply a concern?

Then find solutions for what you can control and influence.

Concern: We cannot control things like the weather, what's in stock in your supermarket, or the latest strike at the airport. Yet, some people tend to spend much time in this circle complaining about things they cannot change. Frankly, this does not help. Quite the contrary: the more time you spend here, the less resourceful and in control you feel, and the more energy goes into wishful thinking instead of creating solutions.

Influence: these are the things you can influence but have no control over. The job interview is a classic. You and the company will both decide whether you'll work together but it's a decision that involves two people. However, you can greatly influence the outcome by proper prep, the right mindset, and showing up right on the day. Over time, increase your circle of influence. The more things you can influence the more options you will have to shape the things around you.

Control: In this circle, you find all the things you have control over. The difficult conversation with a peer that you you have been shying away from. Asking for help. Blocking your calendar for a long-weekend Paris trip with your spouse. When working with leaders, I make sure that most of the time spent in a conversation is in this circle and that the outcomes are actionable: "I will" instead of "one should" and "talk to XYZ" instead of "improve trust".

The Verdict

By focusing on what you can control and increasing your influence, you will increase your effectiveness, feeling of control, and ultimately, success.

By helping others to do the same, you will lead more confidently and create more leaders. You will see a change in your team's dynamics – less complaining more doing. Less consumer mindset, more leadership.

Because leaders demand and support leadership in others.

Because leaders create leaders.

Germany, I wish you focus!

Climb your Peaks,

Oliver

PS: if you like support in shaping your leadership team – I and the ONEDAY team are one conversation away. Be it with short inputs, live enacting, purposeful hikes, or even innovative sessions like finding the beer crate at night with a map and compass. All these provide ample learning, reflection, and growth opportunities for your leadership team. It's not hard to focus in the night – if you have a headlamp.

It's not team building. It's leadership building. The team builds automatically when the leaders develop and the hard but important topics are brought onto the table.?

Sources:

Covey, Steve (2020), 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, 30th-anniversary edition.

Kerr, James (2015), Legacy – 15 Lessons in Leadership.