I was reading the Times yesterday and a small line caught my attention. It was a quote by Mr. Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus of Tata Group where he was talking about complacency. I found that it was part of a commentary that he had written for a publication for a global consultancy firm, McKinsey. In it he said, "One of the big dangers for any business is complacency. The challenge for leaders is how to keep injecting urgency. I think much depends on how good a CEO is at motivating his/her team and generating the sort of excitement that leads people to do things in different ways," Tata said while cautioning, "that doesn't mean taking cavalier risks." But he went on to bemoan the fact that there are many major corporations disappearing from the scene because someone has cashed out, because the managers have been unable to escape their comfort zones, or because boards have not been sufficiently nimble to change with the times.
I came in this morning and began to look at complacency to see for myself how this can challenge us. Complacency is insidious in that it almost blind-sides us. It sneaks up on us; we are not really confronted by it head-on, but sometimes comes in from within us. As Mark Twain once said, "Even if you are on the right track, sit still and someone else will pass you by." We need to be careful about complacency in our lines of work, in the companies that we are with.
As the late Warren Bennis said in his book, 'On Becoming A Leader' and also quoted in his obituary: "Complacent leaders get companies stuck in outmoded ways of doing things while the world changed around them." While everything is changing around them, they get stuck in doing things the way that they have always done and realize too late that the world has moved on. He went on to say, "The manager does things right and has their eye on the bottom line. The leader does the right thing and has their eye on the horizon." Leaders watch; they keep their eyes on the horizon. They're looking at things that are happening all around them and are aware of those things. They never put their heads back in like a turtle does and just stays where it is.
The Greeks have a good word for what precedes complacency. I had the opportunity to study Greek a little bit and came to appreciate the language because it has the right word for the right meanings that we look for. The word is 'hubris'. Hubris is a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one's own competence or capabilities. This is the precursor to complacency.
So, as we look at ourselves and the companies that we are in, are we connected in with reality? Are we sure that we are aware of changing dynamics all around us? Are we clear that we are in no way overestimating our own competence or capabilities?
Glen Llopis, in his article, "The Dangers of Complacent Leadership" said that there are five warning signs:
1. Fear settles in in complacency. We are fearful of doing new things, of making new headway, of new initiatives.
2. The attention to detail fades. We forget to start looking at the small things.
3. Tension unknowingly begins to mount. In a state of complacency, tension begins to creep in.
4. We begin to be reactive in our thinking rather than proactive. We are always after the ball; after something has happened, we try to handle a situation.
5. We stop leading and rather, we manage. We become followers rather than leaders.
Remember what Warren Bennis said! "The manager does things right; the leader does the right thing. The manager has his/her eye on the bottom line; the leader always has their eye on the horizon."
There have been many instances in the history of the corporate world where companies grew complacent and then were just knocked out. George Eastman with Kodak is a classic example. For 131 years, they did a phenomenal job. And yet, when they finally got moved out, they had reached the point where they hadn't been able to see the changes that had come around them. Kodak itself had invented digital photography in 1975, but were so caught up with the film they were creating that was going into studios and making films, that they just sidelined digital photography. And digital photography overtook them. A senior Kodak executive, Robert Shanebrook, said when he heard that Kodak had filed for bankruptcy, "We had this self-imposed opinion of ourselves that we could do anything; that we were unbeatable." David Olive, in that article said, "They enjoyed a charmed existence for so long that they could not help becoming complacent to the point of arrogance and insularity. Enduring success comes only with constant reinvention. It is adversity, more than anything, which spurs renaissance." We need to keep looking at ourselves and saying, "What do I need to do? The work that I am doing, how can I do it better?"
My dad used to always say, "The reason that the English language has survived all these years is that it continues to reinvent itself. They continue to add and make themselves relevant unlike languages like Latin and even Sanskrit that didn't add words and so got sidelined. I was just looking at the Oxford dictionary and found that in September 2014, another 600 words, phrases or senses have been added to the English language. How wonderful! Another 600 just to keep it alive! Complacency is an enemy. "Successful companies are restless," says Joseph Fuller, the co-founder of Monitor Group and a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School. He says, "Organizations that are successful are never convinced that they are doing things as well as they could. There's always the sense of restlessness that must be part of their life."
All businesses go through four phases. William Young says this in an article. "The first is the initial start-up phase. Motivation is high, and the business fragile, but growth occurs from the onset. The second phase is the accumulation of customers and market share, dictated by substantial growth. The third phase is the maturity phase, but can become the 'Complacency Trap' because success comes. Either you will go into the fourth phase, which can be incredibly continued success, or it can lead to decline. It's up to you." It's up to you how you look at it, whether there's this sense of restlessness that has begun to be a part of you, that you're never satisfied with what's going on.
How do you combat complacency? I like this article that I read. The author says:
1. Practice a healthy paranoia. Complacency always leads to taking people for granted.
2. Get some new and bigger goals. Jim Collins used to call it the BHAG. Get a Big Hairy Audacious Goal.
3. Benchmark. Look around and see what's going on around you.
4. Ask yourself – Are you having fun? Are you enjoying what you are doing?
Complacency always takes away the edge in what you are doing. It's that place that leads us downward. In our Scriptures, there's a warning that comes from God to us, "What sorrow awaits you who lounge in luxury, or who feel secure when you ought not to."
At a macro level, we are talking about our companies. But here's what I'd like to point out to you. At a micro level, are you and I falling in the trap of complacency? Are we getting to a point where we are saying, "I'm good. I'm the cat's whiskers. I'm really on top of my game." That might be the place to take a good hard look at yourself and say, "Am I getting complacent? Do I need to do something to spur myself on and not get caught in a rut?" Let's think about that through this day.
Can I pray with you? Almighty God, bless everyone on this call. Help us to be ones who never get into complacent situations but are constantly looking to see how we can better ourselves. And as we do that, we better the firms and the places that we serve in. show us what we need to do. Show us what we need to see today. Help us to do what needs to be done. I pray a blessing on each one on this call, in Jesus' name. Amen.
• Ratan Tata quote: http://journeyline.in/newsdet.aspx?q=64830
• Glen Llopis, "The Dangers of Complacent Leadership," http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2014/08/05/the-dangers-of-complacent-leadership/
• "Hubris," http://blog.leansystems.org/2012/02/corporate-complacency-and-arrogance.html
• David Olive, "The Last Picture Show." http://www.thestar.com/business/2012/01/07/the_last_picture_show.html
• Joseph Fuller, "Complacency is an Enemy; successful companies are restless," http://www.business-standard.com/article/management/complacency-is-an-enemy-successful-companies-are-restless-joseph-fuller-114020900716_1.html
• William Young, "Fighting the Complacency Trap: 5 Steps to keep your Franchise growing." http://www.canadaone.com/ezine/july04/complacency_trap.html
• "What's New?" Oxford English Dictionary. http://public.oed.com/whats-new/
• Bible quote: Amos 6:1 NLT
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