Are you up for a bit of self-reflection this week?
There are big beliefs like religion, patriotism, how to raise your kids, and the like that we don’t have the space to discuss in depth here. Some of those beliefs were ingrained when we were too young to know better by well-intentioned people. Hopefully somewhere along the line we began to think for ourselves and decided if those beliefs still pass muster.
I’d like to spend some time on the smaller, day-to-day beliefs that guide our leadership actions and sometimes turn into rules. See A New Rule – Really?
Of course, these smaller beliefs are fueled by the bigger ones. My main question though in this message is: Are you aware of your beliefs and how they guide your approach?
A belief is a shortcut. It guides us. It allows us to operate without thinking. At least, it allows us to lean in a direction initially. But, the not thinking part is why it could be dangerous. We can always go to extremes. We can lean on our belief system so heavily that we do things we might not even think are right if we stopped to think about them.
A belief shouldn’t be considered knowledge, no matter how sincere the belief.
Examples of belief systems that no longer make much sense are obvious. Some people believed that races and categories of people were inferior. Some believed that exploiting workers in 24 hour, dangerous shifts in a steel mill was OK. Some people believed that the earth was flat.
We evolve and change, even snickering at the things we firmly believed in the past.
What are you believing today that you will snicker at (or perhaps be ashamed of) in the future?
Are some of your current beliefs blocking progress for you and your organization? Here’s another example.
When we first started the process for the Saturday Morning email we create for leaders like you each week, I asked a number of people I trust to check out the concept and provide some feedback. We received some great ideas. I’m very grateful for people who take the time to provide advice with both positive and negative feedback.
Some people just don’t get the Saturday Morning email concept, thinking they have to show up somewhere, etc. This is expected as many people read things quickly and don’t focus well given the onslaught of data coming at them.
I was surprised and intrigued by one piece of feedback though. This person shared that I was sending the wrong message into the world. You see, his strongly stated belief is that because of the lack of life balance, leaders must not open emails after business hours or on the weekends for any reason. This belief is so strong that he would not read the email (even on Monday or Tuesday) and would not recommend it to anyone no matter how useful the content is.
His belief in a particular definition of life balance (do less), while very different than mine, is admirable in a loyalty to a dogma sort of way. But is it also exclusionary? Is it a good idea to exclude information because of the day of the week it arrives?
A lot of psychology buried in there of course. The most valuable insight of the reaction though was to remind us to evaluate our beliefs and how they manifest themselves in our lives.
While, I’ve remained true to my high level beliefs, I have changed many day-to-day guiding beliefs. I’m sure you have too. We need the belief in place in order to be able to react quickly. However, these beliefs must be constantly revisited to make sure that they aren’t blocking progress.
To do this week: Look at all the rules you operate by at work. What belief fuels the rule? Does the belief still make sense? Why is a rule necessary? Are their conflicts between your beliefs and others which make the rule necessary? If so, what should you do about that?
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