Restless & Relentless
Aseem was on his way back home after a challenging day at office. There were thousands of thoughts with varied emotions floating in his mind. Moreover, he kept talking to himself while maneuvering the Bangalore traffic. His self called to him “Has he lost the magic touch? Is the brand “Aseem” losing out?”
The question blacked him out and Aseem hit the road divider. All he could remember being put in stretcher and with ambulance siren vailing.
He woke up in the hospital after 2 days with bandages and stiches over couple of broken bones, cuts and bruises. He smiled for a moment murmuring “as If I am coming victorious & alive from a battle field”.
However, for sure he considered office as war zone. He has been restless and relentless in his pursuit of goals in his professional life.
Couple of years back he joined this marketing and technology company and day one Assem is full charged. He is confident and full of energy and determination. His is always racing from one idea to another. He speaks passionately of the initiatives he is spearheading on operational efficiency, maturing the delivery model, enabling and creating better engagement for his team and rethinking his team’s delivery model completely.
I recognize this behavior in Aseem, having seen it many times over the years in different companies since he was first singled out as a high-potential talent. “Restless and Relentless” have been his trademarks as he had risen through the ranks and aced one challenge after another. I had seen him in different roles across many companies where he worked but was always the same “Restless and Relentless”.
Never shy to introspect
I went to meet the warrior in the hospital.
However, this time, I noticed something different. The warrior looks subdued and something else: Low energy no can do attitude and some disorientation with signs of exhaustion.
“It’s like sprinting all you can as if it’s a 400m race and then you realize that you are actually setting out on a marathon,” he remarks at one point. As we speak, this sneaking feeling of not keeping pace turns out to be Aseem’s true concern:
Is he about to lose his magic touch and burn out?
Aseem is not at all alone in the phenomena; there are hundreds of Assem in the Industry.
Aseem is concerned about speed: getting ahead and staying ahead in everything and anything in the war zone. It is the same as “running to stand still” or feeling “caught on a track.” Invariably, for every Aseem the first reaction is to speed up and run faster.
At time, it is also like driving on a highway and a huge truck comes by your side and starts to drive side by side, same speed. Your knee jerk reaction is to speed up as much as you can to get out of the situation.
A problem or friction is meant to naturally create slowness but in this case, the impulse is to simply run faster to escape friction, which is obviously counterproductive in case of long haul of a life-long professional career and leads to burn out.
Be the energizer
“Leaders ignite the flame of passion in others by expressing enthusiasm for the compelling vision of their group.” — Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, The Leadership Challenge
v Aseem needs to be the energizer for his team rather than be energetic always. He not only needs to be expressive of his enthusiasm of the vision but rally the team to achieve the goals. Being energetic is much sought after trait and is contagious. Nevertheless, but a short-term source of the sprint run for the momentum in 400m race that Aseem thought he embarked on.
Aseem like himself would always regard his team members and peers, who, like himself, are high-energy individuals and get things done. These power pods are his so-called star players. However, Aseem needs to broaden his vision, recognize and reward people who are good at energizing others to the finish line. Energizing behavior is philanthropic, liberal, and generates admiration for the progress and combined success.
Move to Eco Drive
Change to Eco-Drive from Self-drive. Eco-drive is the concept of driving without burning. Sustainable speed does not come from self-drive, that is, your own personal performance or energy level, but rather from a different approach to engaging the eco system and people around you.
Rather than running faster, Aseem needs to make different moves altogether. First, he must let go of his obsession with his own development, his own needs, his own performance, and his own pace. Second, he must start obsessing with other actors in the eco system.
It may seem illogical, but the leap to a new growth curve begins by realizing that the recipe is not to take on more and speed up, but to slow down and let go of some of the issues that have been your driving forces: authority, repute, recognition, growth or face-time.
The talent phase in our careers tends to be profoundly self-centered. If you need to move on from the first growth curve in your career, and want to take on more challenges, you need to exchange self-drive for eco-drive.
Eco-drive requires that you shortly forget yourself — and instead focus on others. The shift involves an understanding that you have already proven yourself. At this stage, the point is to help those around you perform. The change to eco-drive involves moving from driving yourself to a stage characterized by letting go of command and control.
I call this change of perspective from self-drive to eco-drive “professional adulthood.”
What is the mature leader’s provocative question? How to enable others perform to their peak?
Turn the right way and Break Free
After couple of days of rest, Aseem was released from the hospital. He stepped out of the hospital in a blue sunny day, cool Westerlies were blowing and a cuckoo was singing on the nearby mango tree. Aseem felt as if breaking free from the shackles of so-called self-created principles of the war zone.
The good thing is that Aseem was able to introspect the situation. However, he still needs to become the energizer and transition his drive to Eco Drive.
It requires a certain character and confidence to act in this way. The ability to put your self-worth on hold may require a great deal of effort and discipline.
“It is incredible what you can achieve, if you don’t care who gets the credit.” If you succeed in making this shift, thereby improving the skills of the people around you and enabling the team achieve there goals then you will also experience a greater degree of success.
Success, which is shared, is peaceful and is to be cherished for lifelong.
