Three Key Concepts from 2022

As another year riddled with uncertainty wraps up, I had the rare opportunity of winding down with some time of personal reflection. This year a friend and I started listening to audio books. While I used to struggle to finish just two (physical) books a year, having a shared account where we both picked (audio) books to read and share helped propel me to finishing over 16 books this year.

The most important lessons I learnt and put to practice this year could be summed up with three important concepts I gleaned from three of my favourite books.

First Who... Then What

Early in the year I struggled with a passive-aggressive, manipulative teammate whom I had started coaching for performance and culture improvement. While I knew it all along, it became irrefutable when a manager outside my team shared that he believed this person is uncoachable. It was one of the toughest brutal facts I have had to face - I made a bad hire and I had allowed it to fester long enough. I needed to take more drastic action before more teammates became demoralised.?

Jim Collins wrote, in his book Good To Great, that leaders must first get the right people onto the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people into the right seats — before figuring out where to drive it. A simple but effective analogy for building a team. The old adage “People are your most important asset” is wrong, he insisted. People are not a leader's most important asset, the right people are.

Toxic emotions are extremely stressful. Having the wrong person in the bus gave the high performers chronic frustration, which often morphed into fear and anger. These destructive emotions cause our bodies to go into high alert, releasing adrenaline and cortisol, which cause our muscles to tighten, and our breathing and heart rates speed up. We are hyper alert and that wears us out. We do not thrive physically, become disengaged and unhappy at work.

The Circle Of Safety

One of my favourite anecdotes is one shared by Simon Sinek in his book Leaders Eat Last. The power of the Spartan army did not come from their spears or ability to wield it, rather from their shields. Losing his shield in battle was considered the greatest crime a Spartan could commit and is punishable by the loss of citizenship rights. This may seem odd, but the reason was simple - the helmet and breastplate provides the warrior personal protection, but the shield is for the protection of the whole group (click link to see illustration).

The world around us is filled with danger and things that make our lives miserable. At any time and from anywhere, there are forces that are working to hinder our success or even kill us. In primitive days the people of the tribe constantly looked out for danger (usually in the form of a wild animal) and guard the tribe against such threats.?

Today the ‘dangers’ that threatens business are in the form of disruptive models that could render previously successful business models obsolete overnight, the competitors who frustrate our success or steal our customers, government decisions (to go to war) or regulations, and the macroeconomic landscape. Employees need to dedicate all their time, energy and resources to protect the company from the constant dangers outside and seize the big opportunities when they present themselves.

The job of a leader is to create a Circle of Safety because internal threats like the urgency to meet unrealistic expectations, the strain of capacity, office politics, and psychological dangers (intimidation, humiliation, isolation, feeling useless and rejected) force employees to spend too much time and energy protecting themselves from each other.

When employees are under such chronic stress their judgement is impaired and the ability to process and use information are compromised. Complex thinking, reasoning, and social skills all suffer. It is extremely difficulty to be flexible and open to new ideas. In this state, they overreact to minor irritants and are more likely to cause problems than solve them so relationships with teammates strain and trust becomes a blurry concept.

The more we trust our teammates to have our backs, the better equipped we are to face the constant threats from the outside together. When we feel that we are in a Circle of Safety will we pull together and be better able to survive and thrive regardless of the threats. Ideas will naturally be shared, as will the burdens of stress. The team’s skills and strength is amplified to advance the organisation’s interests more effectively.

The Power of 1%

A healthy dose of frustration can be good, leading to determination and creativity. Unfortunately, instead of the occasional obstacle at work, we are often buried in an avalanche of problems - not having the resources we need to do our job, goalposts keep shifting, and a relentless do-more-with-less nature in a more short-term, quarterly-results-driven business climate.

We forget that goals are about the results we want to achieve, while systems are about the processes that lead to those results. The purpose of setting goals is to win the game while the purpose of building systems is to keep playing an infinite game.

As James Clear puts it in his book Atomic Habits, true long-term thinking is goal-less thinking - taking our eyes off single accomplishments and turning our sights to a cycle of endless refinement and continuous improvement because success is a product of daily habits—not once-in-a-lifetime transformations. Breakthrough moments are often the result of many previous actions, or an atomic habit, which build up the potential required to unleash a major change.

An atomic habit is a regular practice or routine that is not only small and easy to do but is also the source of incredible power; a component of the system of compound growth. The most powerful outcomes of any compounding process are delayed so patience is key. Getting 1% better every day counts for a lot in the long-run (click link to see illustration).

However if one finds themselves struggling to build a good habit or break a bad one, it is not because they do not have the ability to improve, rather they have yet to cross what James calls, the “Valley of Disappointment.” In simple terms, the delay between expectations and results (click link to see illustration). Small changes often appear to make no difference until you cross a critical threshold.

An atomic habit is a little habit that is part of a larger system like the way atoms are the building blocks of molecules. Atomic habits are the building blocks of remarkable results, so if we are after better results, we should not just set goals but focus on the system instead. We do not rise to the level of our goals, we fall to the level of our systems.

“You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realise this, and you will find strength.” ~ Marcus Aurelius

Marcus could not have summed it better - Much of what happens to us are beyond our control, but nothing happens by accident. Our response to what happened is, and the true flex of our ability and character.

Thank you for being a part of my 2022, and here is wishing you a fantastic 2023 filled with more learning, and new reflections. To my nearest and dearest, thank you for your love and support in getting me through 2022. I love you ?? too.