Don't Get Too Comfortable
An authentic and slightly irreverent blog on the applied dimensions of leadership & change...
My Crap
Your Crap
Our Crap
Everybody’s Crap.
Photo courtesy of Unsplash @jeshoots
I hear countless employers gruffly tell their employees, “Don’t get too comfortable!” And that, by the way, is intended as a motivational speech! Their intent is to energize and inspire creative thought and enhanced action. They are, however, implying that your job is not secure. So that extra energy and creative thinking is now going into job hunting, not your organization. Amazing! Is the fear that if you are comfortable at work you’ll enjoy being there, put more energy into your work and do a good job? Heaven forbid! But we all know that the fear is that comfortable employees are slackers. Oh, cut the crap!
What’s up with that? Here it is…
Perhaps we project our own feelings of what we think comfort is onto others in the workplace. Comfort is having what you need nearby and accessible so you can be more efficient and effective. It is not sitting in our sweats like a lump on the couch eating a pint of ice cream, a bag of chips, and binge watching Netflix. Some might call that depression…or a snow day.
Think about when you have truly felt comfortable. Has it been when you are avoiding responsibility or when you are on top of your game?
Now let’s cut the crap and help others deliver their best in comfort, not stress.
Stress actually shuts down the rational decision-making part of our brain. At the first ooze of stress-induced adrenaline, you can start to kiss human capacity good-bye. There it goes! And in a whoosh you are on the business end of someone’s fight or flight response. And here’s a little tip: if you think your golden because your people don’t hassle you, you may still be screwed because most folks’ “flight” response is an internal decision to give you their bare minimum to get their paycheck. It’s biology baby.
Cut the crap by asking each employee, “If I could provide you with one thing to make doing your job more comfortable, what would it be?” You will most likely have a paradigm-shifting experience.
Leaders de-motivate their people all the time without knowing it. You truly can’t please everybody, nor should you try. Comfort in an organization is not about agreeing or getting your way. It is about feeling safe sharing your true thoughts and insights on the work at hand. It is about having the information you need, the processes and policies that make your work consistently and reliably able to deliver results; it’s about being able to safely share when something doesn’t work for you so you can improve, innovate, and grow as an organization. It is also about knowing that your organization, your supervisor, understands that your success is a team effort with him or her and with the organization’s infrastructure—failure is a group effort; success is a group effort.
Cut the crap by not getting too comfortable, yourself, that you neglect your responsibility to make your people comfortable giving their best on the job.
In my view, the “don’t get too comfortable” chide is experienced by the organization’s greater community in the form of product life-span. As a customer and as a stakeholder, I have learned that I will be sold a product, service, or ideal; then be taught, or just learn, to love it, only to have it disappear from existence without ever knowing why. I will then be sold something very different, for different reasons, to fill the same need, and expected to buy in, again. And so on.
Discomfort is the motivator being perpetuated. Creating discomfort in you so that they can rescue you with their paycheck or products, or ideals. What does this sound like to you? If you are thinking manipulation and abuse, you are correct.
Cut the crap by inspiring loyalty to your mission and serving it honestly. Sorry Mr. Friedman, the business of business is NOT business. It is service. Sustainable, reliable, compassionate service.
© 2019 Stacie L L Morgan. All rights reserved.