The Mindset

A couple of weeks ago, during a casual conversation, a colleague of mine said how much he hates the overuse of the word “Challenging”. He claimed that whenever there’s an unrealistic goal or settings (like an unrealistic deadline, too few resources, etc.) managers use the word “challenging” to describe the task. Doing a two-month task in one month is not challenging, he said — it’s just hard and high-risk work. Is this what challenge is all about?

Challenge drives us forward.

Challenge is one of the cornerstones of motivating people — it provides long-term motivation. When people are challenged they constantly improve themselves. They feel more satisfied at work. They feel better about themselves and about their profession. And when all that happens, people work better — they are more productive, more innovative, and eventually more valuable to your business.

But does every “challenge” have these effects?

The Merriam-Webster dictionary offers at least two different definitions to the word “challenge”:

1 a : a summons that is often threatening, provocative, stimulating, or inciting; specifically : a summons to a duel to answer an affront b : an invitation to compete in a sport

2 : a stimulating task or problem <looking for new challenges>

The motivating challenge is clearly the one described in the second definition: “a stimulating task or problem”. Unfortunately, many people are constantly “challenged” in the spirit of the first definition — they feel threatened, provoked, or even summoned to a duel. In the long run these kind of “challenges” is far from being motivating. They are most likely to accelerate burnout.

The essence of leadership is challenging people in a good sense — causing them to feel they reach new professional heights with every new task.

But there’s another side to challenge. A good leader does not just challenge his people. A good leader is not afraid of being challenged by his people. Challenge is not a one-way street.

Challenge is creative stimulation. As such, it cannot be derived from the hierarchical structure of your organization. It must be mutual. If a leader is never challenged by his people, the organization he leads will fail to improve.

As a leader you must accept it when your people challenge you and your organization. You should encourage it. When your people challenge you, it doesn’t mean that they don’t respect you. On the contrary. It shows that they care and want you and the organization you are all part of to prosper. They want to increase productivity, to improve quality, or to create the setting for creative and innovative work. Doing so often requires questioning customary practice, asking difficult questions, and saying things which are not always easy to say or hear.

Creative people and organizations are driven by challenge. We all need positive and stimulating challenges. But challenge must be mutual. A good challenge is important to the organization as much as it is important to the individual. Don’t reject it — embrace it.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 12th, 2006 at 4:27 pm and is filed under Professionalism, Motivation, Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.