HABITUATION
But on the other side of this coin of ‘perpetual growth’ is habituation. Cass Sunstein, legal scholar at Harvard Law School, describes habituation as “a killer of creativity and innovation. It’s a guarantee of steady dullness.”
As humans, we get desensitised to things, people, experiences over time. Strong emotions, good or bad, gradually lose their colour and their hold over us, as our brain stops registering. It happens in all aspects of our lives and relationships. This can happen with success as well.
For any leader, success can be a double edged-sword in the following ways:
- After achieving a successful track record, complacency can set in. The habituation that Mr Sunstein talks about
- But additionally, success breeds confidence in leaders when it comes to their own judgement; boosting their ego, and making it difficult to dispassionately dismantle the things that ‘have worked so far’.
I feel Colin Powell, former US Secretary of State, expressed it very well when he said:
“ ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ is the slogan of the complacent, the arrogant or the scared. It’s an excuse for inaction, a call to non-arms”
THE FOUR STRATEGIES
Here are the four behaviours of CEOs that McKinsey’s research identifies as being potential game-changers for high performers, enabling them to further their impact in a lasting way:
1. Enhancing your learning agenda
A successful track record often puts leaders in a position where sharing how they got there overshadows how to stay ahead. The best CEOs do not get distracted and continue honing their learning by interacting with key stakeholders, especially those external to the organisation, to keep their finger on the pulse.
2. Taking an outsider’s perspective
The fresh eyes of an outsider help to ensure that leaders do not adopt a blinkered approach, get stuck in internal bureaucracies / loyalties, or get too attached to a certain way of doing things. The CEOs who do this consistently are able to expand their network outside of their industry, and this helps them adapt fresh ideas that are working elsewhere, to their organisations.
3. Collaboratively defining the next S-curve
The consistently high performing CEOs know that the idea of change management comes alive when they are able to create a “rhythm of change” in their organisation, making their teams and operations more agile. A collaborative approach in designing the future of their organisations, also ensures that stakeholders are invested in any changes that are rolled out.
4. Future-proofing the organisation
Future proofing is not only about crisis management, but also about extending the timelines of various strategies and building the relationships that are going to support this. The CEOs that excel in this area actively invest time and energy not only in regularly stress-testing their organisations, but also factor in talent, retention, coaching and succession planning as part of their long-term initiatives.
If you are not sure what applying these might look like for you, this is precisely the sort of conversation you can be having with a coach.
FINDING YOUR BLIND-SPOTS
In the meantime, it might be useful to explore what specific behaviours each of these potentially translates into.
If you are a leader with a degree of success already, use the following checklist to help you assess what your blind spots might be by answering the following with a yes or no. Every ‘yes’ is a point in your favour!
- I have conversations with important thought-leaders, stakeholders, clients, and employees to keep honing the strategy for my organisation.
- I use client conversations to pick up new product /service development ideas.
- I spend time outside of my organisation exploring new concepts and how they could apply to my organisation.
- I mindfully build my network to be diverse to enable connections between seemingly unconnected things to emerge.
- I periodically analyse the business in a holistic manner, looking at all aspects with fresh eyes, as opposed to simply continuing to build on what has worked so far and relying on what I am familiar with.
- I embrace radical change whenever it is needed as opposed to adhering to conventional time markers.
- I regularly practice seeing the needs of the organisation through the eyes of a new owner rather than allowing myself to be committed to a single vision and slowing down the pace of change.
- I regularly solicit 360 feedback on my performance and leadership style from a broad range of stakeholders.
- I am able to change my leadership style based on the needs of the organisation.
- I consciously create a ‘rhythm of change’ within the organisation that supports embracing evolving practices.
- I pay attention to the key moments when the new jolt of change has to be applied to maintain the ‘rhythm of change’.
- I have a collaborative approach that includes all relevant stakeholders in helping to define the actions that will become the S-curve. I do not decide alone and delegate.
- I adopt longer term thinking when implementing new initiatives, allowing the cumulation of knowledge to come to fruition after a slower, more tentative start – the defining premise of an S-curve.
- I regularly stress-test the organisation for problematic scenarios and emphasise on the required time and resources for preparation.
When future-proofing, I also look out for threats that don’t immediately seem like a crisis (E.g; a determined start-up that could overtake us, or rapidly advancing technological shift that will threaten my current business model, as opposed to a pandemic or security threat). - I invest in relationships with external stakeholders as much as in the resilience of operations.
- I invest in internal performance management, retention, coaching and succession planning as much as in the resilience of operations.
THE EMOTION OF IT ALL
So how did we do?
If you have gone through this list with a slight sinking feeling, you are not alone! Because here is the thing with change, and changing our behaviour. It is a far more emotional thing than we give it credit for.
We logically understand as a theoretical concept that being complacent is bad…that change is necessary..but to even get to a point where we can meaningfully level up, we have to have the detachment and self awareness to acknowledge when complacency is looming in the first place! That requires overcoming ego, denial, and inflexibility, to make room for action.
The good news is that these strategies can all be engineered for you to consolidate your leadership in a meaningful and lasting way.
After all, being successful is hard, but staying successful is even harder!
Send this to someone who needs to step outside of their comfort zone!
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