Leadership Viewpoint

Perhaps you’ve heard of learned helplessness. It’s a term that came out of psychology (Martin Seligman, Learned Optimism). Scientists conditioned a dog with electric shocks every time a bell rang. Once the dog was conditioned to expect a shock every time the bell rang, they put the dog into an open box, where it could easily escape. Then they rang the bell, and the dog just laid there, awaiting what it thought was the inevitable shock. Dogs that hadn’t been conditioned with the electric shocks simply jumped out of the box and ran off.

Sometimes it feels as if people around us have received similar conditioning. Often they just sit there, when the very things they want are easily within their reach. Something has squelched their natural drive for success. Great leaders seem to have the opposite conditioning effect on their people. First, they identify and hire ‘go getters’. Then they systematically pump them up, build their confidence and provide them with opportunities for small wins. Later, when a situation puts them in a ‘box’, they instinctively exhibit winning behaviors.

The beauty of being a person, rather than a dog, is that we have intelligence, self awareness and free will. We can actually go out and condition ourselves. Many of us do it in little ways, such as positive self talk, and asking good questions. It doesn’t have to stop there. We can do the same thing for ourselves that great leaders do. We can set ourselves up for small successes and build up to the bigger challenges. It takes a change in focus – from the things we cannot do, to focusing on the things we can do.

Imagine you are learning a new hobby. Would you start out with an advanced project? Of course not, you’d look for ‘Beginner’ on every project you considered. Then you would move up as your experience and confidence improved. Personal power is very similar. Find some ‘beginner’ projects and build yourself up to the ‘advanced’ level. I often recommend volunteer work for newbies. It’s a great way to build yourself up and poise yourself for greater challenges down the road.

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