Bubble Bath and a Hammer

Is this about you or the system?

On Sunday morning when my granddaughter Ruby and I returned to my house, the water pressure was fading. My partner said it had just happened. I turned the handle on the kitchen faucet and the water trickled out at about half speed. I went into the bathroom and the same thing happened. My partner went outside to check the outside faucets to make sure nothing was running outside, and Ruby happily trailed after him, returning to tell me that nothing was on outside.  

My house was built in the 1940s, and I’ve lived here long enough to know that previous owners were slapdash when it came to renovations. An electrician fixing outdoor lights found that the electricity for the outside lights was coming from an extension cord hidden in the basement ceiling. When the bathroom was remodeled, they found another ancient extension cord, in the wall, powering the bathroom. So, whenever I get work done around the house, I have to factor in the shoddy work the previous owner did - the Bad DIY Differential.

As I watched the water coming out of the faucet thin to a trickle, I felt a stab of panic. What if there’s a major plumbing issue? Who knows what the Bad DIY Differential would be for plumbing?

My partner and Ruby saw some people from the water district outside, and found out that a water main had broken a block away, and our water was shortly going to go away. But then would return.

In other words, it wasn’t an individual problem with my house, it was a systemic problem that impacted everyone who lived on my street.

Because I love analogies, I realized this, too, was applicable to business.

Leaders must decide if a challenge is a systemic problem or an individual one, theirs or inherited. And we often get it wrong.

Seattle, where I live, has been impacted by the tech layoffs. Many people are on edge, talking about an impending recession or correction. Companies that rely on Amazon, Microsoft, or Meta for their work are concerned that the layoffs signal a corporate belt-tightening in areas that impact their revenue – the consultants, staff aug companies, and all the other businesses who rely on those tech companies.

When the recession hit in 2008, I was working in a business development job. And all my sales and leads dried up in a very short period of time. I was working as effectively as ever, the products I was selling were just as good as they had been before the recession, only now it was harder to sell them. I doubled down, worked harder, tried to be more creative about prospecting, but it was impossible to make a revenue goal that had been set before the recession.

Fortunately, my boss took the systemic view and saw a recession as the economic equivalent of a broken water main. We still worked hard, but I didn’t feel like it was a personal failing that I wasn’t making my goal. We both saw the writing on the wall and left before we were laid off, so we did have consequences from the economic situation. But I knew what the problem was, and it wasn’t me.

Some leaders are not so skillful. They blame individuals for systemic issues, haranguing strong sales performers for not being able to increase revenue during a downturn, or shaming leaders who are forced by financial reality to lay people off because the business climate has changed since they were hired.

Often, we can do this to ourselves, blaming ourselves for business issues that are not of our making. The pandemic cratered some businesses and swelled others. As people return to living life outside their homes again, the swings are reversing themselves. Of course, it is useful to make sure you’re not confusing the systemic and the individual. But it doesn’t help to wallow in self condemnation because of economic shifts beyond your control.

Martin Seligman, the pioneer of the positive psychology movement, posits that an ability to externalize challenges is a sign of an optimistic mindset, which leads to positive outcomes in life and in work. If I think I’m a bad salesperson because I can’t make my revenue goal, I’m internalizing. That could become a foundational belief and harm my career. If I think I’m not making my goal because there is a recession, then it’s not about me. Circumstances can change and more positive outcomes are possible later. That is externalization. Seligman says we can learn some of the traits of optimists, even if we are more pessimistic by nature.

Sometimes it’s not a systemic problem, but an inherited one, the corporate version of my home’s Bad DIY Differential. If you are following a leader or leaders who were unskillful or took dangerous short cuts, it’s going to be that much harder to turn things around. It is always important to understand what problem you are trying to solve, and knowing the difference between a problem you inherited versus one you made yourself can be helpful.

Coming back from these reversals can be a slow difficult process. Even after the water main was fixed, our water came out of the taps as brown as strong tea. We ran all the faucets, hoping to clear out the residue which had been kicked up. Still brown. Grains of dirt peppered the bathtub. Ruby suggested an intricate solution involving bubble bath and a hammer. She’s three. Her next suggestion was to flush the toilets repeatedly, which seemed like a good idea, so we ran upstairs and downstairs, flushing both toilets.

Try things. Involve others in coming up with solutions. Keep trying. Know your limits. I ran a bath but realized there was no way I was soaking in a tub of pale brown water, even one decorated with bubbles. But, when day two dawned with more brown water, I wanted a shower, so I washed as quickly as I could.

In the beginning of the pandemic, many of my corporate clients cancelled all executive coaching and consulting. I was fortunate enough to get a position as what would be called a fractional CMO. I could keep the clients that I still had, keep my business afloat, and get a stable income stream. It wasn’t the ideal job for me, but I was grateful for it while I had it. I externalized my situation, intentionally reminding myself that this was a product of the system – global pandemic – and not my “fault” as an individual.

If you find yourself in a situation where your business or career is struggling, be mindful about the stories you tell yourself. Is this about you and your skills as a leader, or is this a by-product of a larger societal, cultural, or economic issue? Racism, sexism, all the “isms” impact careers long term and short term. Could that be at play for you? Are you struggling with a culture, product or process built badly by a predecessor?

A positive attitude won’t take the sting out of being laid off or having to lay people off. Businesses may still close or founder. And you may need to wallow and feel all the feelings for a while. But getting to clarity about what is yours and what is a product of your place in a larger system, could plant the seeds of a new more optimistic narrative.

Be sure to check out my new podcast The Bad Boss Brief - a strategic guide on how not to be an asshole at work. An executive - Eugene S Robinson and an executive coach - me - talk about bad bosses and what to do not to be one.