Complacency

“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.” ~ Bill Gates

Complacency is defined as smug satisfaction with oneself or with an existing situation, often while unaware of some potential threat.

Success usually comes after great effort. You know there is a challenge and you work hard towards it. In the initial days of struggle, you give all of yourself in spirit, body and mind. You can never get too comfortable because your antennae are tuned to potential setbacks.

However, it is very easy to be infatuated with past glories. It is often seen that great achievements are followed by great complacency. It causes you to become too comfortable with your way of thinking and of doing things. You ignore the rapidly changing environment around even when facts clearly point to a shifting order of things. This is when you are riding for a fall.

Aesop’s fable – ‘The hare and the tortoise’ - is a classic example of complacency.

The hare and the tortoise were in a race, and the hare dashed off to an amazing start. Turning back some distance ahead, he did not see the tortoise anywhere in sight. He became so filled with pride about his prowess and became so complacent, that he decided to take a nap. He was sure that he could beat the tortoise hands-down even after he woke up. 

When the hare woke up, he sprinted to the finish line as fast as he could, only to find the tortoise already there and victorious.

Good leadership skills demand that you do not fall prey to this ‘head-in-the-sand’ attitude. There are two key factors that can help in keeping complacency at bay:

• Keeping your environmental knowledge up-to-date: The environments you operate in generally are economic, political, business, market, technological and organisational (people & processes). You must have your finger on the pulse of each of these environments at all times.

• Keeping company of people who are capable of thinking differently from you: These people must be competent and empowered to challenge your ideas.

The path to success is a mix of ambition, hard work and environmental sensitivity. But once achieved, success can make you complacent over time. You tend to lose the humbleness and flexibility with which you commenced your journey, and, that, can become the beginning of your downfall.

© Sujata Khanna. All rights reserved.