Leading with Character: Conditioned or Complacent?
Lately, I’ve been listening to “The Program Podcast” by Eric Kapitulik, a Marine Corps veteran and founder of The Program, a company with a worthy mission to develop world-class teams through personal and leadership development. I like that Eric interviews successful corporate leaders, athletes, and coaches, with a focus on what it takes to win.
A Formula for Success
One of Eric’s episodes challenges listeners to examine whether they’re “conditioned” or “complacent.”https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theprogrampodcast/episodes/On-the-Attack-Ep–11—Attacking-Complacency-e2cm90e That struck a chord with me. I’ve lived by the motto, “hard work + perseverance = success,” and it has generally served me well. But not always. How does one avoid complacency? Even the most disciplined people can slip slowly into complacency one day, one week, or one month at a time.
Listening to the podcast, I realized sometimes when I’ve fallen short, it’s because I failed to adequately condition myself to overcome complacency. Conditioning means pushing oneself to achieve a specific state (of readiness, capability, etc) to be able to anticipate and perform reflexively at a high level. It takes relentless personal accountability to condition oneself to become physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually fit enough to achieve the level of conditioning it takes to win or succeed. Complacency is just the opposite—it means a feeling of satisfaction with the status quo that prevents a person from trying harder. It’s what holds us back from achieving our full potential.
Choosing a Path
I don’t believe most people consciously choose complacency; it chooses them. It’s just the opposite with conditioning. One must actively choose to be conditioned; it will never choose them! One of the biggest impediments to conditioning oneself is the human propensity to make excuses. We’ve all done it: we’re too busy; it’s not the right time; we aren’t ready. If you find yourself in this position, it may help to ask yourself, “if not now, when?”
It’s All About Accountability
Getting started and building momentum is key. I’ve learned that conditioning requires self-motivation. But I’ve also found that coaches, allies, mentors, and others can be powerful enablers in helping someone achieve his or her top condition. We shouldn’t go it alone. Try these tools:
- Begin each day with your goals in mind and a plan to achieve them.
- Start a journal and log your progress at the end of each day; what obstacles did you encounter and what opportunities did you discover?
- Reach out to ask a colleague, friend, or advisor to serve as an accountability mentor. Set up a schedule where the person checks in periodically to ask how you’re doing, or where you report your progress.
Keep Up or Catch Up
Being conditioned is necessary to keep up in an ever-changing world. It seems to me that sometimes, in the post-Covid workplace, people want more but are willing to do less. They may have become complacent during the Covid chaos and find it challenging to get back into the mode of doing what it takes to succeed. The truth is, complacent people and teams will eventually get far enough behind that they can never catch up—it’s far harder to catch up than to keep up through steady, disciplined conditioning.
Looking Ahead
It’s important to keep up but perversely, doing well can lead to complacency. To maintain conditioning and hence preparedness, I recommend my simple framework, the “Four A’s for Preparation”: Anticipate, Adjust, Adapt, and be Agile.
- Anticipate: Conduct environmental scans and make strategic planning part of the leadership process. What will your customers need in the next few years? What will be the challenges and opportunities?
- Adapt: Be not only willing, but eager to embrace change to meet emerging needs.
- Adjust: Help people understand the need for change and set expectations. Then, hold people accountable for supporting the change.
- Be Agile: Reach high and accept some risk to stay ahead of new developments; push decision-making down to the lowest reasonable level to encourage participation and instill a sense of value and inclusion; encourage innovation by making it clear that failure is part of the process.
To succeed under pressure, leaders must condition themselves through a continuum of anticipating, adapting, adjusting, and acting with agility.
Look in the mirror: Do a self-check: is there an area where you’re falling into complacency? How about your team—are they conditioned?
Please join me again next week for more on Leading with Character.
If you enjoyed this post, please visit my website where you can buy my book, Breaking Ice & Breaking Glass: Leading in Uncharted Waters, and sign up for my mailing list: https://sandrastosz.com/book/breaking-ice-and-breaking-glass/
