Educational articles

Associative photo / J. Suslavičiūtė

Rasa Baltė Balčiūnienė
Founder of HAI Institute, author of leadership programmes

Why do some companies fail to achieve the desired result? Because not every leader dares to see and act differently than most. Unconsciously, they choose not to. Then the company goes round and round like a squirrel - applying the same measures over and over again, which no longer bring results, because the berries in the forest have already been picked.

Why does the manager want to maintain the status quo? Because it is important for him to preserve the recognition of the environment. He is constrained by childhood fixations: at a deep level, any change risks losing what is most precious - the parental approval he received as a child. The leader identifies himself as the way his parents wanted to see him as a child.

What to do?

First of all, to see one's own fixations and dysfunctional behaviours, to understand which actions stem from childhood scripts, unconscious behaviours, emotional reactions. Secondly, to change habits. And for this it is necessary to use constant SELF-awareness.

Changing a habit is not the same as replacing a cigarette with a sweet. It would mean the same fixation - replacing one harmful habit with another. It is necessary to "break" the habit.

Let's say a manager is used to attacking and blaming team members for the company's failures or mistakes without having fully investigated the situation. Every evening, when he gets home, he needs to reflect on the day - his behaviour, his reactions - and see the fixations. This is how a new skill is formed. After a while, when the urge to attack arises, the manager will recognise his automatic reaction in time and pause instead of giving in to the impulse.

If a leader wants to become a subject (a leader), he or she needs to observe what is happening around and inside him or her. Not to run away from reality, but to be able to be present in it - to see clearly all the challenges that arise and to deal with them adequately. Self-care must become a permanent state of mind, a way of acting and living.

When a Buddhist monk once asked his teacher how much time a day he devoted to meditation, the teacher replied: "I don't go out of it".