by Peter A. Arthur-Smith, Leadership Solutions, Inc.®

“Second-guessing our people is a management habit that’s likely costing our economy $billions per year.” 

 A recent event brought into focus the tremendous demotivational effect of second-guessing. The person concerned shouldn’t be blamed in any way because it’s a habit passed down from generation to generation. Having observed prior generations along life’s way, they were populated with even more severe second-guessers.

Those prior generations had their second-guessing habits strongly reinforced in their workplace, too; where the cult of management since the Great Depression and before, was to scrutinize and supervise everything that was going on. For our prior generations, the consequences could be dire if the second-guessing revealed worker negligence or incompetence.

We still haven’t thrown off this yoke of conventional management activity, associated with the command and control era, and it’s therefore costing organizations a fortune in terms of resentments and reluctance to act.

Just imagine yourself completing an important organizational task. You do it to the best of your ability and everything seems to be working just fine. But your supervisor arrives while you are taking care of something else and reorganizes your prior assignment without consulting you. It’s highly likely you would feel indignant, disempowered, frustrated and lots more. For long enough it was supervisory behavior that was perfectly acceptable, although less so today.

What’s more: it’s more than likely your supervisor will bring-up your shortfall later and why you missed the mark; or, worse still, bring it up at your next performance appraisal. Not only would you feel miserable, but you would feel humiliated and childlike. Moreover, you may well vow not to take any new initiatives and promise yourself to defer to your supervisor before making any future moves. Just think how unproductive that’s likely to be.

Having taken that subconscious vow, it’s likely your supervisor will then scold you at a future performance review for not taking sufficient initiative; without the slightest inkling of what caused your changed behavior in the first place. Does this all sound familiar?

Most self-respecting people hate to be second-guessed and yet we’re all guilty of it: it’s a societal habit. And yet, if organizations are sincere in their intent to encourage empowerment and therefore benefit from real gains in personal initiative, then they have to break such second-guessing habits.

But like alcoholics, we have to acknowledge our second-guessing issue in the first place. Are we chronic second-guessers, regular second-guessers, or infrequent ones? An honest answer on this one will go a long way toward determining how empowered our workforce, team members or family members feel about our leadership or parental style. There’s no doubt that if we can minimize our second-guessing, we will move ourselves much closer toward the enlightened leader column.

Talking about family members; brings forward the point that we have to break the habit as parents, since the next generation learns this bad habit from their parents. It’s in-bred into society and its holding us back in so many ways. It will take tremendous self-discipline to break the habit, even though it can be done and will change the environment back at home and between partners. This writer is taking a renewed pledge himself as he makes these points.

Once we’ve come to terms with our level of addiction to second-guessing, then we can recognize some of the different modes of this disenfranchising habit and focus on required changes. These include:

• Re-doing others efforts – This reflects our earlier example: intruding, either announced or unannounced, to redo what a team member has already done. Instead, enlightened leaders (ELs) would ask: “What’s working particularly well with what you’ve just done?” If the team member responds with a positive and confident explanation, then that leader compliments and encourages them. This will encourage that person to take more similar initiatives.
• Questioning someone’s conclusions – Where a team member has already proposed a solution, you may respond with: “I have a better idea.” ELs, on the other hand, are more likely to ask: “What do you see as the particular advantages in your approach?” Again, if the person retorts with some strong positives, this leader will compliment their thinking and encourage them to proceed. The person’s confidence climbs and their respect for their leader grows.
• Significantly revising or editing someone’s document – By doing this, the paper’s author will hardly write another document without heavy input from their supervisor or teacher. An EL takes a different tack: “I really found your paper interesting. If you’re ever open to additional input, I will certainly be happy to contribute.” Such open invitations will encourage authors to seek input, not only this time, but at other times, too…with one caveat. Having received this invitation; if you now weigh in overly much, you will likely be back to square one.

   Any critiques you’re invited to give should gradually be increased over time to allow a person’s confidence to build, to the point where they possibly beg you for input. Then you know you have reached the right point; although this moment will come that much quicker if you make a habit of sharing the positive aspects observed in their work, too: especially at the end before you break off the conversation. That way the dialog finishes on a positive note.

Other forms of second-guessing include: questioning how someone played in their sports event; nitpicking an already acceptable job done; reordering a project when 80% success will do; and so on. Let’s face it, second-guessing, beyond being a cultural habit, is also a means of asserting control over others and showing what it means to be a  perfectionist. Except with critical tasks: you have to weigh is critiquing this person’s handiwork more important than a positive relationship? Recall how you felt when you were last second-guessed.

Let’s all declare that, if we could somehow suppress our second guessing habit: the ingenuity, productivity and initiative level around us would simply multiply. Across the US and other nations that will be worth $billions over the next year. By making a critique more the exception than the rule, because we are trying to be reasonable critics rather than obsessive ones, it’s possible that perfection would be that much more possible as people strive for due recognition – for positive reasons rather than negative ones. We have to be thankful for our founding Puritans, although also note they are responsible for much of today’s societal “agitta” due to our constant second-guessing. Are we among the generations to break this unfortunate demotivational habit?

To find out more about a more People Engaging approach, talk with: