Have you ever driven home for a long day at work and as you park in the driveway this sickening feeling comes over you? As you gather your belongings to go into the house you realize at that moment that you don’t even remember the drive home. You think about all the cars you passed and the tail lights twenty feet in front of you that were oblivious too. How did you get in and out of traffic without even thinking about it?
Psychologist call this a dissociative state. This is effectively having your brain go on auto-pilot and can happen in task that are over-learned or extremely repetitive. Jobs such as assembly line workers will allow their mind to wander while working. In the professional work environment, leaders need to be aware that a subtler version of auto-pilot can be creeping into your organization.
In developing emerging leaders, I encounter individuals that feel like they have lost 2, 3 or 5 years or more in what they call coasting. I see the look in their faces and the regret as they realize the potential they lost in coasting through their careers. Time they can’t get back. Their stories usually start out with something to the effect of there was a fast rise in their careers and then the progress stopped. Being able to recognize this and push yourself outside your comfort zone is crucial to getting out of this rut. One effective way is to take a hard look at the difference between what is defined as excellence and a true evaluation of where you really are.
Recently, my son turned 15 and now he could get his driving permit. The requirement during this time frame is for the parent to log 30 hours of driving time with them before they can get their official license at 16. This is an eye-opening experience for any parent on various levels.
When you are in the process of training your child to drive, teaching them forces you to think back on the fundamentals and the importance of what creates a great driver. As you are training your child, you find yourself saying, “do as I say, not as I do”. We may even try to explain our perception of real world driving versus how they are supposed to handle the day of the driving test. At that point, you realize there has been a difference between what is legally defined as a responsible driver versus your definition.
Because of our perceived success at performing our skills, we feel like we have earned the right to not follow the fundamental rules of what got us there. What got us to pass the test is somehow thought of as not be applicable anymore, therefore we never build on the strong fundamentals it took to obtain our license.
The success that has come with our last promotion, much like obtaining the license, can get in our way as well. When you don’t have a plan to develop the fundamental skills that got you there and develop new ones, you just begin to follow the traffic flow and no paying attention. In time, you loose sight of your real definition of success.
As a leader of our own development and those your direct reports, you must take a perspective of teaching a child to drive a car. Take time to look at the things that you are on autopilot with and ask yourself if there is room for growth. Are there areas that you might be coasting and take time to give them some attention. Bring in outside perspectives to help build on your strong fundamentals and find diverse ways to do the same thing. Pick up a book or scribe to a podcast or blog that will help give you a unique perspective. As I wrote in my previous blog on 4 ways to get out of a professional rut, pushing yourself outside your comfort zone is the fastest way to keep you in the fast lane.
