Laziness

The uncomfortable reality facing leaders

Laziness is usually associated with slobbery. A lackadaisical and careless approach to work. Associated imagery or personification of this is probably easy for us to all do. But there is a new laziness emerging. Now I can see it, I cannot un-see it - even when looking at things in my personal life.

Recently, I was diagnosed with 'hip impingement' due to build up of inflammation on my left hip from years of wear and tear from sport. After approximately three months of physiotherapy I can honestly say my day-to-day pain is pretty much the same. However, during this same time I have learnt a significant amount about my body, I have been diligently working through targeted exercises to improve and prevent injuries and I am achieving miniature wins along the way. It is tough as I feel like giving up almost all the time and often find myself low on motivation. Oh, and it continues to be expensive and takes a good chunk of time every day. Alternatively I could do what I have done in the past - turn a blind eye and grin-and-bare it as it gets gradually worse. 

It is something I am faced with every day when I train, coach, and mentor leaders and professionals of all kinds. They constantly speak to 'not having enough time' at work. They aspire to do wonderful things with culture, leadership, and engagement but never get around to it. They are constantly snowed under with tasks, metaphoric firefighting, and grappling with systems that never seems to work as well as they should. The response is generally to suck-it-up and plow through it as best they can. Or in other words, to be lazy.

It is a tough pill to swallow - being called lazy when you're working as hard as you can. Possibly even offensive. But hang in there and hear me out. 

The hardest thing for us to do as humans is to change. It is confronting to realise the effort we are putting in at work is not effective or in some cases possibly detrimental. It is also very difficult to change deeply embedded habits. Just try to stop biting your nails or say 'umms' and 'ahrrs' when you've been doing it your whole life. The same goes with communication patterns at work or how we deal with under performing staff. If we continue to deny it is happening or avoid keeping people accountable then what do we expect to happen? A lot of good hard working people are putting up with a lot of stuff that doesn't work very well meaning they simply work harder (and longer). They work harder because it is more difficult to change their approach to slowly and gently influence the people, processes, and products around them. Working harder without changing one's approach is in fact the lazy option.

The smarter (and more difficult) option is to take time to reflect, discuss, engage, and analyse the problem and one's response to it. To then experiment and refine new approaches. To make mistakes and cause more work or more problems in the process. This is the path of real work. Of real transformation. Of real effort. 

In The Rhythm Effect I speak of rhythm and synchronisation where things come easy and groups of people are relaxed and calm. This can sound a little whimsical and fluffy. But I can assure you it is a game of true hard work and practicing tirelessly on oneself to the point of mastery. It is a process that may take weeks, months, years, or even decades to find rhythm in your field of expertise. But like my hip, there is only one guarantee - if I don't engage with the underlying problem and put the work in, the problem will only get worse. 

What does laziness look like in your work? In your team? In your mind? Maybe a little different to the obvious.