Impatience merely wears people out and induces yet more stress

Events in our lives and our businesses are much like rivers. They flow at their own pace, depending on the geography of the circumstances. Sometimes they sweep us along in a torrent and we feel close to drowning; at other times, their progress is agonizingly slow and turgid. Occasionally, like our desert rivers here in Arizona, they go underground or dry up completely.

Yet we humans are impatient creatures. We want events to go at our pace, not at their own. So, if things aren’t happening as we want, we try to push the river along faster.

Companies set themselves goals and raise expectations in their investors. Often they do this with virtually no regard to circumstances. Profits rose by a certain amount last quarter, or last year, so they must rise by more in the year to come. Sales must increase, so let’s find ways to make people buy. And, since you’re a leader, it’s your job to make this happen, on time, every time.

The river isn’t flowing fast enough? Get out there and push it. Push harder.

Expecting the impossible

Of course, you can’t really push a river. It’s flowing already and nothing much will change that rate of flow, save a thunderstorm or days of torrential rain. Can you produce that? I thought not. You can push and push, but all you’ll do is make waves and wear yourself out.

That’s exactly what too many business leaders are doing today — demanding the impossible. To content those who expect them to change geography or generate a thunderstorm on cue, they push and they push, making lots of waves and accomplishing nothing at all — except exhausting both themselves and their staff. “Hey, look how hard I’m pushing. Look at the waves I’m making.” Futile labor indeed.

Instead of waiting on events and allowing results to come naturally, they try to generate more explosive growth. Since no normal means will bring this about, they are forced to resort to artificial sources of stimulus, up to and including direct dishonesty. From the current unraveling of the sub-prime mortgage mess, it’s clear that all commonsense about lending standards and the management of risk was set aside to produce an unnatural growth in loans and accompanying fees. In the same way, pundits in the dot-com boom loudly proclaimed that all previous ideas about how markets behave were wrong, and should be set aside to prevent them limiting the fantastic valuations being placed on unproven companies and products.

The pundits were wrong and reality come back with a bang, just as it has done in the past few months. No amount of pushing at the river made any difference. Bad loans are still bad, however quickly you pile them up and sell them to unsuspecting investors.

The lesson of King Canute

In Britain, there’s a well-known story of a Norse king called Canute. When his courtiers flattered him and claimed he could cause the world to bow to his will, he had them set his throne on the seashore. As the tide came in, Canute ordered it back. The king got wet feet and the courtiers, hopefully, learned something about setting realistic expectations. It’s a shame more CEOs don’t share Canute’s clarity about the limits of human endeavor.

Don’t push the river. Things will happen in their own time. Be wary of artificial means of hastening outcomes, since reality has a habit of reasserting its dominance when you least expect it. Only those who adjust themselves to the natural pace of events are likely to survive, more or less intact, the next correction of mankind’s inflated notion of its power to hasten the future.

[ratings]

Technorati Tags: impatience, wasted effort, stress, exhaustion, burnout