Schlagwort-Archive: Energy Hijackers

Agility could actually be used since a long time

When the workforce has access to all necessary data regardless of rank and reputation, anytime, anywhere, and can immediately decide on the spot, then at the latest legacy approaches will become obsolete. The enthroned decision-makers who have lost contact with the business, the chains of command, where the actual decisions are diluted and taken too late, as well as the applications for applying an application that generate unnecessary tasks and no longer fulfill their original purpose no longer fit the time. This explains the yearning for new forms of collaboration. The implementation is difficult, because the desired state is characterized by self-organization that must be allowed – which makes a large part of the tasks of the decision makers futile. This autonomy does not need new structures, but a new mindset. And as soon as these basic attitudes would be given to the managers and employees, they could also flourish in a traditional environment. Agility could actually be used since a long time.

The mindset, however, is a personal trait that is shaped primarily during the development in the direction of an opportunistically submissive command scheme. What have always prevented agility are people, the managers and the employees alike, who lacked the corresponding mindset, e.g.

  • the trust that all pull together;
  • team learning that expands the common skills;
  • the feedback that provides appreciative suggestions for improvement;
  • the culture that is based on ethical values, not on paragraphs;
  • the intrinsic commitment that keeps obligatorily the momentum of every team member.

The following traits have always undermined agility.

  • Micromanagement
    This is not a formal requirement of leadership, but the intrinsic pressure of individuals to interfere in every detail. It doesn’t matter whether it’s about wanting the best or whether the involvement in the subtleties is due to a lack of self-confidence.
  • Fault intolerance
    Everyone should be aware that everything can always be done better. For this reason, all results should be celebrated. When one can speak of a mistake, depends on the observer. Particularly disturbing for the team are those people, who deal generously with their own mistakes and who pursue perfectionism to the point of aggression with mistakes of others.
  • Blame- instead of solution-seeking
    At work, the emphasis on shortcomings and persistent reproaches indicates whether it is a question of playing the blame game or searching for a solution. Agility has an impact when solutions are achieved. In the end, the feedback from the customer determines the quality.
  • Indecisiveness
    A prerequisite for agility is the decisive setting of clear goals. The best possible clarity is achieved through the appropriate smartification of the objectives. It becomes difficult when the decision-makers cannot decide and oscillate back and forth between different goals.
  • Double Binding
    The world is not black or white, but infinite shades of grey. It is always possible to do one thing and not let the other in these grey areas. Dangerous are the double-binders, people, who wish for two variants and in the end criticize, when one solution is not as perfect as they expected, regardless of the perfection of the other variant – and of course vice versa.
  • Energy hijackers
    Agility lives from its own momentum and the acquired abilities. Energy hijackers have learned to exploit others for their own interests. That way they burden others with their own tasks by demanding support and keep getting others out of their rhythm.

In the future agility is a must, since reaction times are getting close to zero. It is no longer possible to call for guidance and help with each step. The employee wins the business at the touchpoint with the customer exactly at the moment when he is there.

Bottom line: New wine in old tubes is often regarded as something bad. In the case of agility, however, it is rather an expression of decades of inability to use the skills of the employees in a way employees would favor. The hurdles on the way are individual employees, who have reached leading positions due to the corresponding upswing. They disrupt through their micromanagement, fault intolerance, blame- instead of solution seeking, indecisiveness, double binding and limitless energy appetite. Before any structural changes happen, it is necessary to develop the required agile mindset, e.g. trust, team learning, feedback, culture and intrinsic commitment. Then agility produces its effect – even though it actually could be used since a long time.

Isolating energy hijackers

In business you are repeatedly exposed to energy hijackers, who exploit our zest for action to their own advantage. It’s hard to escape. They impose themselves and thoughtlessly occupy seemingly free capacities and are incapable of noticing when they cross existing borders. Often these are those, who see the glass half-empty, constantly criticize, are in love with themselves and suffer from hubris. They steadily complain, mostly about others, moan about their problems, tell negative stories, spread displeasure and create insecurity. They have perfected their talent to exploit others unsuspectingly and without consideration, and feel confirmed by the apparent successes they achieve. They contaminate groups of all kinds and poison everyday life. But how can one push these energy hijackers to the sidelines so that the momentum for the important tasks remains intact?

The difficulty is that the energy hijackers are noticed, when it is almost too late. It requires attentiveness in order to recognize the attempts to influence and to be able to react appropriately. Potential clues are:

  • Continuous stress generation due to excessive requirements and appointments of blame
  • Lack of appreciation through unbalanced criticism – constant focus on weaknesses
  • Imbalanced win-win due to one-sided exploitation of cooperation
  • Uneven exchange of information through inadequate information sharing
  • Lack of opportunities to prove oneself by consistently favoring other people
  • Wasting time with unplanned and unnecessary meetings
  • Surprising praise through compliments and positive mentioning of earlier successes, but without contributions in the here and now

The following measures protect your own vigor from exploitation.

  • Keeping distance
    The best way to stay away from the corresponding energy hijackers is to avoid occasions in which they are present – informal meetings, working groups, meetings, projects and especially semi-private events.
  • Drawing borders
    It is not always possible to keep the necessary distance. Therefore, setting clear boundaries is the last way to keep energy hijackers off your back by clearly and respectfully saying what you want, what you are ready to do or what others should refrain from doing. As soon as you let them get too close, they take merciless advantage of you.
  • Preventing appropriation
    Often the energy hijackers are not aware of what they are doing. The preparation of an appropriation does not necessarily have anything to do with the actual interest. At the latest, when the attempt becomes clear, restraint is required and, in an emergency case, a decisive “No”.
  • Rejecting responsibility
    The increasing appropriation is the explicit assignment of responsibility. It is the most normal thing in the world to take responsibility for your actions and results. However, not if it is only a matter of prophylactic assignment of guilt.
  • Doubting
    Intuitively we know trust is good. Likewise we have learned that doubt is better. Not because everything we are told is wrong, but because distortions creep into utterances – one time by mistake and another time to exploit our energy reservoirs.
  • Being self-confident
    Knowing one’s own limits and possibilities as well as the willingness to go beyond helps, if you get involved in teams. It’s always your own decision, whether you’re ready to do something or not. And most of the time there are so many things to do that something is left behind in any case – why not the energy hijackers?
  • Politely turning away
    If everything is of no use, the opportunity to escape still remains. If one notices too late the loss of momentum in favor of an energy hijacker, then is still the possibility to retreat. Every agreement is always open for cancellation – modestly, exculpating and politely.

Bottom line: The biggest productivity killers of groups are energy hijackers. These are people, who exploit others for their own advantage and thus harm the whole. They are difficult to identify, but some clues expose them – the stress they create, the lack of appreciation, the lack of win-win, etc. (see above). Depending on their personality, they are noticed sooner or later. However, once you realize that this is a person, who is exploiting you, you can defend yourself appropriately – e.g. by keeping distance, drawing borders, preventing appropriation, rejecting responsibility, etc. (see above). Even if these people give the impression that they increase the productivity of a company, they destroy it in the long run – the overall performance decreases, the motivation crashes and the energy hijackers destroy the cohesion with their manipulations. For these reasons, energy hijackers should be isolated and rendered harmless.