Getting From Begun to Done
Brett Jordan @ Unsplash
How people work and what makes them tick is something of constant interest to me. Over time I have learned that most of us fall into one of two categories (and likely both during a career): those who look for solutions, and those who focus on the obstacles. In this piece, I write about my experience with Learned Helplessness at work which leads to giving up before even beginning, authentic leadership, empathetic accountability and just simple career mismatches.
Most work has two kinds of players/participants: those who look for solutions (let’s call them solution seekers) and those who only see obstacles (obstacle finders). It is easy to chalk up the latter to a person’s inherent work personality, and more often than not the two groups run up against each other, a frustrating and non-productive state to be in. The solution seekers cannot understand the obstacle finders’ pessimism, while the obstacle finders are not convinced that doing anything differently will lead to a different outcome.
I know I’ve been in both categories at some point in my career, and I imagine you have been as well. What pushes into the solution seeker category, in addition to inherent internal drive, is often the leadership and direction we have in the formative years of our careers. I’ve been lucky to have leaders who are realistic and yet refuse to accept that nothing can change or be done for a challenge we face. In the beginning you get creative because you have been told that no is not an option. But over time hopefully you realize that ‘this is impossible’ usually isn’t the only option available to you.
There are key commonalities that prevent people from getting from Begun to Done in their work. These include:
Learned Helplessness: The concept of Learned Helplessness comes from the field of psychology within the context of our well-being and mental health. When extended to the workplace, it often translates into expecting and accepting mediocre solutions (or even none) even when better ones are within reach if sought after. Learned Helplessness at the workplace is likely a function of a toxic culture, poor management, burnout and more. This piece on Overcoming Learned Helplessness at the Workplace by InspireHR is an insightful read, and should be recommended reading for any performance and evaluation training done for employees. The way out of Learned Helplessness is to recognize its root causes and address them.
Lack of Authentic Leadership: Strong leaders recognize and address when their teams are operating within the helplessness framework. Often this means spending significant time with people to understand what beliefs and values they have around their work and guiding them to a different mindset - the work of making a change still has to be done by the employees, there isn’t a way around this This is not easy, it often involves difficult conversations and challenging the values, biases and approaches people bring to work. Not everyone demonstrates authentic leadership, and not everyone receives it well.
Missing Empathetic Performance Accountability: we have all worked with people who perform poorly at work - sometimes it is a skill inability, at others disinterest or lack of performance feedback. Some of the ways managers and leaders address this is by tasking other high performers with picking up the slack or throwing more resources instead of addressing the root cause of the problem. These are obviously demoralizing solutions for other employees because the poor performance is rewarded instead of being addressed. It is difficult to give and receive negative feedback but when managers and leaders do not do this and hold people accountable till they improve, they are doing a disservice both to the employee, others on the team and the organization overall.
Career Choice Mismatch: this one is a relatively simple one to me. If you are doing work that you don’t want to do, you likely don’t care about finding solutions. I don’t think all of us feel passionately about our work all the time, nor do I think that work is the only way to find meaning in life and there isn’t a value judgment there. Sometimes all it is a paycheck, and sometimes it is what your life’s purpose is. More often than not, it is a combination of both. But if someone is not particularly driven from within, they are most likely to look for the bare minimum. I don’t know that there is a clear solve for this but I think this circles back to performance and accountability.
While these are the themes I have encountered, this is by no way an exhaustive list, rather a starting point borne out of some time to reflect on a gloomy day when my migraine just started to wind down. I’d love to hear more from you about your experience in the workplace with learned helplessness and any solutions you have encountered.