Isn’t it wonderful when the obvious becomes apparent? Bored is OK! Examples are everywhere. The child that invents her own game (or her own best friend) when no one else is around; the million-dollar patent born when least expected; heck, even Newton’s “discovery” of gravity just sitting under a tree! So many of us have executed specific leadership responsibilities so many times, in so many different organizations, perhaps with so many subordinates on so many projects that we can’t help but become bored, regardless of how much we might love what we do! I’m pretty sure it will happen to just about anyone that has a significant history and track record in organizational leadership. What’s a leader to do? Quit the job?
But then you would miss the magic. Bored is OK. Allowing for boredom, even embracing and encouraging it makes this a better world. But sometimes we don’t let it. Think about it. Our kids get bored easily; they start making noise, and what do we do? We put video screens in every car’s seatback. A movie grabs their attention for 120 minutes – and we get two hours of peace and quiet in the front seat. Another example would be the explosion of organized sports for those same children. We program, organize and dictate every one of our sons’ and daughters’ training sessions, practices, games and tournaments. They’re safe, protected, and programmed to a predictable path. But they own nothing for themselves. They create nothing, in fact – they might even really dislike that very sport that you and they are dedicating so much time to. I’ve been guilty, we all have. But bored is OK.
And, what about you? Do you embrace boredom for yourself? I’m always discussing what I call our time/technology paradox. What we admittedly need to be competitive today – iPhones, laptops and the internet – and it is killing our creativity and enthusiasm. My middle daughter calls it “watching cat videos.” We are never without an electronic companion. We always have important, or at least urgent notifications coming in from our electronics. It keeps us in our conscious, focused, deliberate brains – and rarely allows the unconscious to take over. Every ding and buzz is an electronic interruption. A manufactured distraction that doesn’t allow getting stuck.
Yet, it is the unconscious that remains such fertile ground for creativity and collaboration, and even just everyday performance. I’m asking you to anticipate getting stuck, getting bored. And then let your unconscious take over to get you unstuck. Let boredom bring back the magic.
Let’s do something different – we can’t help but get better:
- Get stuck – turn off the tech and confine yourself to quarters. Wait long enough for boredom to set it … let the conscious ‘you’ turn off.
- Pick a problem – once you’re bored to tears, select a leadership problem to work on. Make it one you’ve been stymied by – and then turn yourself loose. Chances are, you’ll see solutions you’d never before considered.
-Don Brown
don@donbrown.org
Don Brown dedicates his career to ‘helping people with people’ in leadership, sales and customer service. Bilingual and experienced at the executive and line-level alike, you see the results of his work across dozens of industries, including brewing, automotive, airline, banking and medical equipment.
Speaking, writing, coaching and selling to the best – Ford Motor Company, Anheuser-Busch, United Airlines, Harley-Davidson, Jaguar Cars, Hilton Hotels and many, many more – Don takes great pride in long-standing customer relationships (some running well over twenty years).
