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Collateral Damage Checklist: Where are YOU?
Here are a few examples of common Type A top performer behaviors which create collateral damage. The more often these behaviors occur and the more pronounced they are, the greater the likelihood you are creating or will create collateral damage.
Are you headed for a collateral damage train wreck? Take a look and see.
No one is going to see this but you, so BE HONEST with yourself.
Including time I work at home, I tend to work more than 40 hours per week.
I get impatient quickly.
I have more to do than can be reasonably accomplished by one person.
I have a tendency to set unrealistic expectations for myself and others.
I am frequently in a rush.
I often feel stressed.
I strive to get things done as perfectly as possible.
I prefer to do things by myself.
I don’t like to ask for help.
I prefer to avoid conflict if at all possible.
I find it very irritating when other people make mistakes.
I keep my opinion to myself if I think it will cause problems.
It doesn’t take much to make me angry.
If someone is critical of my work, I get defensive.
I have difficulty admitting my flaws or mistakes.
When there’s a problem, I look for the person who caused it.
I want to make sure I am needed.
I hate to lose.
I find arguing to be an enjoyable sport.
There are some people I treat better than other people.
When things become stressful, I withdraw.
I can’t stand it if I think someone or something is wasting my time.
If things are moving too slowly, I jump in and make things happen.
I often find myself in immersed in office politics.
I can talk people into doing just about anything.
I love the thrill of taking a big risk.
If necessary, I don’t think twice about cutting corners or bending the rules if it’s going to accomplish whatever is desired.
When I feel slighted or disrespected, I like to get even.
It’s important to me to standout at work.
My goals are often more important than other people’s goals.
How did you do? Did you check one or more behaviors?
If so, there is a strong possibility you may be creating internal collateral damage and/or external collateral damage.
Recommendation: Take corrective action to avoid the train wreck.
Collateral Damage 9-1-1: The Solution
In my last blog post, I showed you why traditional fixes like performance counseling, 360 assessments, training sessions and performance coaching are seldom effective in permanently fixing top performer collateral damage. Today, we’re going to look at what does work.
Here’s a snapshot of the process I use with Type A top performers who want to achieve big results without creating collateral damage.
Step 1: Identify your unconscious mindsets that are responsible for your success, as well as, your collateral damage.
By working backwards from your success and your collateral damage, you can identify the mindsets in which both originate and are deeply rooted.
Step 2: Pinpoint the invisible wrinkles in your mental filters that are causing the collateral damage.
Think about this like identifying the hidden potholes in your race track. If you hit a pothole at a high rate of speed, you can careen out of control, crash and burn. If you see the pothole ahead of time, you simply drive around it, hence avoiding the collateral damage.
Step 3: Teach you to think about how you think. This advanced skill is called meta-cognition. The vast majority of our thought processes tend to be automatic. By learning meta-cognition, you no longer operate on auto-pilot. You take the power and controls back so you make the best decisions for each unique situation rather than relying upon your brain’s habitual reactions.
Step 4: Coach you to restructure your thinking to skillfully prune out the collateral damage while simultaneously improving your problem-solving skills, analytical thinking and executive presence.
Collateral damage saps success. By cutting away the collateral damage while also learning to strategically think about how you are thinking, you create a 1+1=3. You achieve even greater levels of success with much less effort.
Stopping collateral damage- once and for all – doesn’t have to be a long and hard process. You just have to go about it the right way.
But, before you can fix collateral damage, you’ve got to see it. As long as collateral damage goes undetected, you are blissfully headed to a date with infamy.
Stay tuned for a checklist to help you identify if you are at risk for creating collateral damage.
Collateral Damage 9-1-1: Why Traditional Fixes Fail
It started out like so many other Collateral Damage 9-1-1 calls.
“I need your help.” A weary voice sighed. “I’ve got an employee who is causing holy hell in our company. I don’t want to fire her because she’s tops in our industry. It would really hurt us to lose her, but I’m fast running out of options. I’m at my wit’s end.”
The phone went silent and I could feel the person wrestling with exhaustion and frustration.
“I’ve tried everything I can think of to fix this problem. I’ve talked to her until I’m blue in the face. I’ve reprimanded her. I’ve threatened her with disciplinary action. She’s attended every training class we offer and has done all kind of assessments. Nothing seems to stick.
She’ll do better for awhile and I’ll think we’ve got the problem licked and then – WHAMMO! She goes on a rampage like Rambo.
If I have to fire her, I will, but I’m hoping you may be able to help. You’re our last hope.”
Here was yet another situation where top performer collateral damage had escalated from irritation to emergency all because everyone was looking in the wrong places for answers.
Traditional fixes like performance counseling, 360 assessments, training sessions and coaching are valuable tools for run-of-the-mill performance enhancement, but when it comes to effectively and permanently stopping top performer collateral damage they miss the mark.
Here’s why.
Traditional tools focus on the tip of the iceberg.
Think about it. Traditional tools typically do three basic things:
1) Quantify the individual’s performance.
2) Set goals for improvement.
3) Encourage the individual to change their behavior to achieve the desired goals.
So…why doesn’t this work to permanently stop top performer collateral damage?
Here’s the deal.
If you’ve ever tried to permanently lose weight, stick to an exercise plan or quit smoking, you know that success requires much more than simply changing your behavior. For the first couple of weeks, it’s easy to say no to a few cookies or take the stairs instead of the elevator. However, when things get really stressful, those old behavior patterns call to you like comforting lovers.
“A couple of cookies won’t hurt me.”
“I’m so tired. I’m going to skip my run today. I’ll do an extra ten minutes tomorrow.”
“Who the hell has time to listen to your long-winded explanations!?”
Oops. Before you know it, in spite of your good intentions, you’re right back where you started.
To sustain your new behaviors over the long haul, you have to reconfigure the way you think.
It’s the same thing with top performer collateral damage. To stop top performer collateral damage, the top performer must change the way she thinks.
Let me share a secret with you. Collateral damage comes from the 90% of the iceberg you don’t see – your unconscious mindsets.
To permanently stop collateral damage, you have to look below the surface and recalibrate your internal operating system.
But here’s the kicker.
Your success and your collateral damage grow from the same invisible root like tangled vines.
Your million dollar challenge? Nip the collateral damage without killing the success.
I can hear you now…
“Holy Toledo! How in the world do you do that?”
Don’t sweat it.
With the right help, it’s actually easier and quicker than you would imagine… especially if you don’t wait until Rambo is on a rampage.
In my next blog post, I’ll show you what does fix top performer collateral damage.
Flu, Fava Beans & You
Imagine this.
Your five-year old brings you a big case of snotty nose from day-care. Two days later, you wake up feeling feverish with the flu and coughing like a rattle-trap clunker. Even though you’re feeling like swamp water, you drag into work to attend a big meeting.
“After all,” you say to your warrior self, “no one’s going to call me a wimp!”
Right in the middle of the important pow-wow a coughing attack hits and you feel like you’re going to hack up a lung. Kleenex is flying. Spittle is spraying. And you’re cursing the flu-infested day-care.
Two days later the poor bloke who was sitting next to you in the meeting is now coughing in a feverish fit.
You coughed. He caught it.
Make no mistake. Your coughing caused his flu. Your decision to come to work rather than stay at home sowed the seeds of disease and now he’s paying for it.
His flu is external collateral damage that is directly attributable to what you did.
What other kinds of external collateral damage are your decisions, actions and attitudes causing?
Are you one of the thousands and thousands of Type A titans who are headed for a collateral damage train wreck?
Or… drum roll, please…
Are you a boss who chooses to overlook the warning signs that Hannibal Lector has joined your staff?
You see the fava beans and the splashes of chianti scattered all over the cubicles, but you just can’t bring yourself to see what’s right under your nose.
These are true stories. The names have been changed to protect the guilty.
“When you attempt to discuss things with Jim, he’s always answering emails or messing with papers. He seems so distracted or disinterested. Sometimes he even cuts you off before you can finish your sentence. Jim’s poor communication is frustrating the whole project team.”
“Sally has screamed at so many of the clerks that no one will work with her anymore. Sally’s talented but her behavior is so nasty it’s destroying department morale. I actually cringe when I see her coming.”
“My boss seldom makes any effort to talk to me. I don’t want to be micro-managed, but it would be nice to know that she appreciates my work. Why should I knock myself out to give 110% when no one seems to notice?”
“If Wendy would just make up her mind, my life would be so much easier. First she tells me to do one thing and then she tells me to do something else. I’m so sick of wasting my time because she can’t make a decision.”
“Jeff avoids conflict at all costs. Unfortunately, his inability to have tough conversations creates more problems for the rest of us. I’m always having to drop everything I’m doing to put out fires Jeff could have prevented.”
Sound familiar?
If left unchecked, external collateral damage is like swine flu on steriods. Before you know it, your whole team is going to be suffering from it. Productivity will nose dive. Costs will skyrocket. Profit margins will evaporate and your competitive advantage will fade like dust in the wind.
External collateral damage can be caused by behavior as obvious as screaming fits of rage and as subtle as someone stoically refusing to delegate more.
Watch for these common warning signs of top performer external collateral damage and take action before the spittle sprays and the fava beans sprout.
- Workplace conflict;
- Competing priorities;
- Poor execution;
- Low employee morale, bad attitudes or complaints;
- Unhappy customers;
- Lack of clarity;
- Increased staff turnover;
Type A’s: 3 Business Reasons You Should Stop Trying So Hard
If you are a tough-as-nails, “I-can-take-anything” Type A who pushes yourself and others over the edge, keep reading.
Type A individuals are prone to blowing off the early warning signs of internal collateral damage. That’s a little like ignoring the fire alarm because you think you’re too cool to burn.
Internal collateral damage includes feeling stressed out, frustrated, exhausted, overwhelmed, impatient, anxious and stretched too thin. It also includes insomnia, depression, high blood pressure, weight gain and heart attacks.
Here’s the deal. You have the ability to stop internal collateral damage before it stops you. Internal collateral damage is created when your stress response system is stuck in the ‘on’ position. Learn to turn off your stress response system and you can conquer internal collateral damage.
Unfortunately, too many Type A’s mistakenly wear their internal collateral damage like rusty war medals.
Listen up, Don Quixote, persevering with high levels of stress, frustration and exhaustion does not make you tougher, smarter or more sexy. It just makes you old, tired, cranky, fat, unhealthy and wasteful.
Yep. Internal collateral damage wastes important resources. Not only are you frittering away your happiness and health, you’re flushing critical business resources down the drain.
John Medina, author of Brain Rules, reveals these stressful statistics:
77% of the workforce reports being burned out.
In 1990, worker depression cost businesses an estimated $53 billion with lost productivity representing $33 billion.
Sleep deprivation costs U.S. businesses more than $100 billion a year.
Statistical analyses from many studies indicate that stress causes companies to lose between $200 billion and $300 billion a year generating up to $75 billion of red ink per quarter.
Wow. Businesses lose $200 billion to $300 billion a year because of stress.
If that’s not enough to convince you to toss the rusty medals, try this.
Here are three hard-core business reasons you should put the kibosh on internal collateral damage:
1. Internal collateral damage destroys an employee’s effectiveness.
As internal collateral damage revs up, your brain powers down. Executive reasoning skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, learning, memory and decision-making all decrease. This impacts both the quality and the quantity of the individual’s work.
To make matters worse, when the frustrated, stressed out or exhausted individual is responsible for managing other people or leading important initiates, the company’s risk exposure soars as the employee’s effectiveness drops. An unhappy, stressed out boss can become a weapon of mass destruction quicker than a possum can play dead.
2. Internal collateral damage sabotages employee satisfaction and engagement.
Think about it. When you’re feeling exhausted, frustrated and impatient, you are rarely feeling happy and satisfied. Why should a business care if their employees are feeling happy and satisfied? One reason: satisfied employees are much more likely to be engaged employees. They get more done and tend to stay in their jobs longer.
Prolonged internal collateral damage creates burnout. The last thing you want is for your most talented people to walk out the door in a flame of frustration.
3. Internal collateral damage metastasizes into external collateral damage.
The natural tendency for a Type A top performer is to react to internal collateral damage by trying harder. They take their strengths to a toxic extreme in order to overcome the resistance caused by internal collateral damage. Sadly, this usually results in bulldozing, blaming, micromanaging and crappy communication.
What this all boils down to is this. Internal collateral damage destroys people, productivity and profits.
What would happen to your bottom line if all of your employees learned how to stop internal collateral damage?
Flying with a Leak in Your Fuel Tank?
You know how it goes. While everyone is buckling seat belts, cramming their carry-ons into the overhead compartment and fighting over the arm rest, the dreaded announcement is made.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got a maintenance issue that we’ve asked the crew to check out. Our take-off is going to be delayed until we get this fixed. Your safety and comfort is our top priority. Hopefully, it won’t be too long before we can be on our way.”
Drat!
During the pre-flight check, some thing-a-ma-jig begins flashing a yellow light. Not wanting to risk a crash, the pilot calls maintenance to fix it. Everyone sits and waits for the glitch to be patched up.
Isn’t it amazing how everything comes to screeching halt at the hint there might be a problem – even a small problem – in the plane’s sophisticated operating system? Why is that?
“Duh!” you say. “Only an imbecile would want to be 30,000 feet in the air in a plane that’s functioning at anything less than 100%!”
Too bad we don’t pay as much attention to our own internal warning systems. If we did, a whole lot of costly top performer crash and burns could be avoided.
Here’s the deal.
One of the most destructive kinds of collateral damage is internal collateral damage.
Internal collateral damage is the kind that occurs inside your own operating system. Early warning signs of internal collateral damage include feeling stressed, frustrated, overwhelmed, impatient, angry and exhausted. These are signs that you are operating poorly.
“I’m so tired, I can barely think.”
“I’m so angry heads are going to roll!”
“I never have enough time to get everything done. I feel so overwhelmed and stressed out.”
“I’ll show them who’s boss!”
Sound familiar?
Here’s the naked truth about internal collateral damage.
Most top performers are Type A individuals who are so driven to achieve that they ignore, deny or tolerate the early warning signs of internal collateral damage. They work 50, 60, 70 or even 80 hours a week without giving a second thought to how they feel physically and emotionally.
They take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’…. Or so they think.
In reality, ignoring internal collateral damage is like flying a plane with a leak in the fuel tank. It’s just plain stupid – pun intended.
As your internal collateral damage increases, your executive reasoning skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, learning, memory and decision-making all diminish.
In the presence of internal collateral damage, your work performance, health and quality of life begin a subtle downward slide.
Internal collateral damage continues to build up until…BOOM! You implode, go nuts or do something stupid.
I bet you can guess what happens next.
Tempers flare. Heads roll. Balls are dropped. Heart attacks happen. Divorces pile up. Companies sputter.
What began as internal collateral damage now ignites external collateral. Pretty soon, you’ve got a raging inferno of problems that could have been avoided if only you had seen the writing on the wall.
What warning signs of internal collateral damage are you ignoring?
Lisa Dee: Power Off the Scale
“We had to dig the chickens out of three feet of snow yesterday.”
I chuckle at the surprising vision of this Type A power player shoveling snow while the chickens crow.
“I built my first company with a $5000 loan from my parents. I built it up to a $24 million dollar company.”
With Lisa Dee surprises are the name of the game. But Lisa’s story is not the typical Type A tale of big bank accounts and big egos. It’s about much more than tarnished trophies.
From Singapore to Johannesburg to New York, this Type A serial entrepreneur has called many places home. Today, Lisa is snuggled in Vista Caballo, her remote Colorado ranch.
“Vista Caballo is company number three. I ask myself, ‘How do I want to do this one differently?’ I did a pretty good number on myself with the first two.”
Surrounded by the beauty left by the recent blizzard, Lisa begins to tell me how she traded her $24 million trophy for digging out chickens, mucking stalls and unlocking other lives trapped in success.
Lisa Dee cut her entrepreneurial teeth in the highly competitive advertising industry. Along the way she and her team weathered 9/11, ran offices in New York, Dallas and San Francisco and developed a highly successful business model that was emulated by others across the industry.
There’s no doubt she’s a Type A top gun.
I ask Lisa about her own personal experience as a Type A. She pauses and I can feel her diving deep into herself – probing, weighing and considering her answer. This is not a woman who answers quickly or casually.
When the answer arrives, it is punctuated with power and passion. As she speaks, it is easy to see Lisa running that $24M company with ease.
“The first part was just acknowledging that I was a Type A. In reflection, that was the first insight I had into the fact that maybe not everyone was wired like me. I was an A+++ personality. It was such a natural way of being that I wondered to myself, ‘What other types of people are there?’”
You can hear the sincere puzzlement in her voice as she remembers first encountering the novel idea that not everyone was like her.
I hear that so often. Type A’s rarely realize they are Type A’s. They are too busy, too driven and too focused to see who they really are.
“Honestly, the results I got were so positive, I never considered the fact that I was Type A one way or another. It was just a label that didn’t have any meaning to me.”
It’s easy to overlook the Type A warning signs when your eyes are locked on the positive results. We’ve all been down that road a time or two.
“As the stakes got higher, that’s when I started really feeling there was something happening. I didn’t recognize the collateral damage. There started to be schisms, conflicts and also…” her voice trails off, “a wonderful progression. It was confusing. I brought in consultants to help me understand what was happening with my executive team.”
I’m reminded of how hard it is to see the collateral damage when you’re the one creating it. You can’t read the label if you’re inside the bottle.
“The consultants told me – in front of my entire executive team – that I worked at mach speed with my hair on fire. Now, I was very comfortable working that way. It wasn’t a problem for me. On a Friday afternoon, I’d list 17 initiatives I wanted in motion and then wonder, on Monday morning, ‘Where are the results?’. My sense of time was different. I didn’t have weekends. I loved my work. I loved multi-tasking.”
Mix Type A power and passion with a compressed sense of time and high expectations and you’re stirring the fire with a stick of dynamite. It’s just a matter of time before it goes boom.
True to her courageous Type A self, Lisa decided to go the extra step. Little did she realize the doors that would swing open.
“I decided to put myself up for anonymous review by my entire team. I got wonderful feedback like, ‘you’re amazing, incredible, we love your vision, we love your inspiration’. I also got this… ‘But what do we do now? How do we make it happen?’ I realized then that if I was going to write in the sky, I had to build ladders to get there.”
There’s silence on the phone now. Something’s cooking.
“It was a very painful experience. It was heart breaking.”
The pain creates wrinkles in Lisa’s voice as she explains.
“After I sold my companies, I discovered there was much more collateral damage than I realized. If I had known, I would have changed it! My team and my company were my heart and soul. It was excruciating to learn the extent of it. I’m dedicated to being my best. I want to hear what’s not working.”
Isn’t it interesting that we can’t hear the message until it rips the door off the hinges?
Lisa shifts back to the present with conviction.
“I will build this company differently!”
This company is Vista Caballo. It’s Lisa’s third company and a playground for passion and power.
Vista Caballo, an experiential learning center located on a ranch in Dove Creek, Colorado, is where you find your true sense of self. It is where highly accomplished Type A’s unplug, reflect, re-calibrate and re-boot. Lisa’s horses are your teachers. The gorgeous Colorado countryside is your muse and your soul is a blank canvas.
Be warned. It’s not for the faint-hearted or the partially-committed. This isn’t where you sit poolside sipping margaritas while you fiddle with your iPhone. Nope. You’re going to be working in the dirt – both literally and figuratively.
Vista Caballo unlocks your full power and passion so you courageously step into who you are really meant to be. The transformation is positive, profound and, most importantly, permanent. Just the kind of challenging adventure that Type A’s love.
I ask Lisa what advice she has for her Type A brethren. Her answer slices through my question like a Ginsu knife.
“You’ve done it! Acknowledge you’ve done it. You can keep on the linear path. Achieve more. Make bigger creations. But… at some point… you have to recognize you’ve done it.”
The last words are hammered hard.
“I strongly encourage you to take a side-step on your life’s journey. A non-linear path reveals gifts. You can always go back to the linear way of doing things, but a non-linear life will enrich and expand your comfort zone. The linear life is where Type A burnout occurs.”
She stops and I feel her heart and head weaving words together.
“Once we Type A’s can do something with ease, we ask ourselves, ‘Now what?’ When that happens it’s time for us to expand our life. When you find power and passion on a non-linear path, you learn what life is really about.”
It’s clear that this woman who traded her $24 million trophy for digging chickens out of the snow is comfortable free-falling into life.
“The non-linear path is very humbling. The linear experience prepares us for the non-linear experience. The non-linear path is where real power emerges. The linear experience is like practicing piano scales. At some point you have to get off the scales and just play.”
I think about the thousands of Type A’s who are playing a monotonous tune day-after-day as their power and passion fade away.
“Take a chance! If there’s little inkling that there might be a different way to do something, take a chance. You can always go back. You can always say, ‘oops’. I can guarantee that you’ll be richer for that try. You’re going to open a doorway in your life that you’ll never want to close. Open the door. Take one step. It’s time to get messy.”
Lisa’s lesson is clear. Once you take your Type A power off the scale, life changing possibilities appear.
A note to my Type A tribe: Lisa Dee and I are joining forces to rock your Type A world. Stay tuned for an exciting announcement.
Collateral Damage Risk Factor 7: Giving the Benefit of the Doubt
The seventh and final risk factor is as common as coffee.
Risk Factor 7: Giving the ‘benefit of the doubt’ encourages collateral damage.
Organizations place a high value on individuals who deliver results. Consequently, even when supervisors see the collateral damage, they often give top performers the benefit of the doubt instead of promptly confronting and correcting collateral damage.
That’s the managerial equivalent of sticking your head in the sand.
Delaying action allows the collateral damage to grow, spread throughout the organization and increase the odds of a major meltdown.
“I’m sure Jack didn’t mean to be rude. I’m just going to give him the benefit of the doubt.”
“I’m surprised Carolyn didn’t copy me on that email, but I don’t have time to deal with nitpicky things. I’m just going to give her the benefit of the doubt.”
“Ian’s report is late, but he’s our top salesperson and I’m sure he’s busy with clients. I’ll just give him the benefit of the doubt.”
Sound familiar?
We like to tell ourselves that we’re being practical or kind or efficient by giving the benefit of the doubt. But the truth is giving the benefit of the doubt when it comes to collateral damage is like watering and fertilizing weeds.
Pretty soon, you’re going to have a team full of thistles.
Other common reasons supervisors give top performers the benefit of the doubt include:
o Uncertainty about how to approach the top performer to discuss collateral damage.
o Discomfort confronting a top performer who is exceeding identified objectives.
o Concern the top performer will become angry, quit and go to a competitor.
o It’s easier to overlook the top performer’s collateral damage than deal with it.
o The damage is not perceived as costly enough to justify intervening.
Do you have sand in your ears and thistles in your cubicles?
Collateral Damage Risk Factor 6: Complexity Creates Red Herrings
Today’s blog post takes a look at top performer collateral damage risk factor six.
Now that we’ve identified five of the seven risk factors are you beginning to see why it can be so easy to overlook collateral damage until the stuff hits the fan?
The sixth risk factor comes with the territory of top performers.
Risk Factor 6: The complexity of the work environment creates red herrings that hide the top performer as the root source of the collateral damage.
The higher you rise in an organization, the more complex your work environment becomes. You interact with more people, juggle multiple priorities and balance varying agendas against fluctuating risks and budgetary concerns.
As you might guess, with all of these red herrings, it’s easy for a supervisor to mistakenly attribute collateral damage to something other than the top performer.
Let’s take a look at an example.
“I’m not surprised Ginny’s department is experiencing such a high turnover rate. Given our financial constraints and the fact we didn’t give cost of living raises, it just makes sense.”
In business, we tend to look for the most obvious and logical answers.
If money is tight and salaries are stagnant, then… bingo! The light bulb pops on. Turnover will be higher because the employees are unhappy they didn’t get more money. Of, course. That must be it. Case closed.
Fast forward….
“I should have seen this discrimination lawsuit coming! I can’t believe I didn’t see the writing on the wall when Ginny had three people quit within a matter of weeks. How could I have missed it?!”
With the evidence mounting the supervisor finally connects the collateral damage dots back to the top performer. Unfortunately, this usually occurs long after the collateral damage has become quite costly.
In the complex environments where executives and senior leaders play, the top performer is rarely identified as the source of the collateral damage until indisputable evidence surfaces.
Red herrings, anyone?
Collateral Damage Risk Factor 5: They Don’t Know They Are Doing It.
In previous blog posts, we’ve taken a look at four risk factors which increase the odds of top performer collateral damage. The fifth risk factor may shock you down to your socks.
Risk Factor 5: The top performer is unaware she is creating collateral damage.
The vast majority of top performers do not intentionally create collateral damage. Frankly, they may not even be aware they are creating collateral damage until the fur starts flying.
Surprising, isn’t it? Why can’t these super successful, well-intentioned and smart individuals see their collateral damage? After all, we put the well being of hundreds – even thousands – of people in their hands. We trust them to run mega-billion dollar companies.
Why can’t they see their own collateral damage?
Simple. You can’t see the label if you’re inside the bottle.
Let’s take it one step further.
If you don’t see your collateral damage, you can’t fix it. You can’t self-correct.
When you don’t self correct, the odds of collateral damage shoot up astronomically.
Now, you would think that someone – perhaps, a coworker or your boss – would kindly bring the collateral damage to your attention so you could fix it. You would be wrong.
The truth is that people are usually reluctant to tell you things about yourself that may be embarrassing or uncomfortable. They may hint around, but few people will actually come right out and tell you…especially if you are the boss.
Seriously, put some thought into this. People don’t always tell you what you need to know.
Don’t believe me? Has this ever happened to you?
After a business luncheon, you glance in the mirror only to discover – in horror – a big green glop wedged between your two front teeth. Obviously, your business associates must have seen the green intruder. Why didn’t they give you a heads up?
People don’t always tell you what you need to know.
Here’s another common example that falls into the “it would be really nice if someone told me” category.
You parade around the office all afternoon only to discover when you get home that your fly was unzipped the whole time. Again, why didn’t someone tell you?
Top performer collateral damage very often falls into the same category as green glop and unzipped flies. Talking about it makes other people uncomfortable so they pretend it’s not there.
When co-workers and bosses are uncomfortable bringing your collateral damage to your attention, you can’t self-correct.
You just keep walking around blindly creating collateral damage without a clue. Your collateral damage is like the ever present dust cloud that follows Pig-Pen wherever he goes. Everyone around you is coughing, but no one has the nerve to tell you that you are the reason.
What are your coworkers afraid to tell you?
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It’s time to wake up and smell the truth. Like gas guzzling relics, traditional Type A’s are becoming passé. In the good ole’ days, with their steely-eyed focus and turbo-charged tactics, Type A’s could dominate the game by slicing, dicing and sacrificing. That pricey party is over. Award-winning executive coach Kay Cannon offers a funny insider’s look into the secret world of top performing Type A individuals and redefines how these talented and smart superstars can get great results without collateral damage.