Successful Leaders, Don’t Get Caught in a Rut

ARTICLE BY MARC-OLIVIER DESPARTS
Director of operations, Proaction International
In collaboration with Michel Coupal, R&D director, Proaction International

Warning! Reading this article will cause a chain reaction of awareness that you will not be able to undo. Once you have read it, there will be no going back…

Do you recognize yourself?

As we become more experienced and successful, it is easy to get sucked into the daily grind and take certain behaviors or situations for granted. We fall into a management routine that makes it more and more likely that we will take the easy route and maintain the status quo.

Repeating the same activities, participating in the same meetings, performing the same follow-ups, day in and day out, does this sound familiar to you? Do you sometimes feel like you're living the same day over and over again? If so, you may have the impression that you're on autopilot. And that's dangerous.

Of course, we all have days like these. However, making it your daily routine could lead first to a lack of creativity and innovation, and then to a lack of mobilization for you and your team, putting your results at risk! When this happens, we have the sensation of losing control when something unexpected occurs, thus causing anxiety during critical moments. Ultimately, this state could limit your progress in the organization and your career, so it is essential to focus on it in order to remain a relevant manager.

Take a leaf out of Bill Murray’s book

Have you ever seen Groundhog Day? In this film, Bill Murray, the lead actor, lives the same day over and over again. When he realizes what is happening, he becomes more creative and takes steps to improve things, day after day. He takes advantage of the situations he knows in advance and adopts a positive mindset. He even sets the table several times, distributing one activity over two or three days, rather than being afraid of its scale and postponing it. So he finds himself innovating and playing with the fact that he’ll relive this situation the following day, which causes him less anxiety.

Isn't this weird time loop a reflection of our reality? In fact, if you think about it carefully, regardless of our field of activity or area of expertise, every day is made up of several repetitive elements that can be exploited to our advantage to change things, innovate and reinvent ourselves, as Bill Murray did.

The importance of a trigger

As a manager, what triggers you to challenge the status quo and reassess your way of doing things? Are you letting the opportunity pass you by? Are you aware of it? How would your teams respond to these questions?

Are you waiting for your boss to challenge you, to have bad performance results, bad news or a problem before you react?