Everyone knows they need to keep better boundaries at work.
Most people recognize that a large percentage of their work each day isn’t spent on the most effective thing they could have worked on.
Most people I work with want to work less.
Most are attending meetings they know they don’t need to attend.
Rushing to get back to unclear email requests that disrupt their workflow.
I’m talking about intelligent, professional, hard-working professionals at every level of the organization.
The impact of this isn’t missed on them either.
They’re missing daily life events by constantly prioritizing work.
Happiness and satisfaction are always on the other side of the next promotion or the next deal.
Not getting all your work completed creates consistent low-grade anxiety.
Prioritizing emails over critical thinking to solve real problems creates work backlogs.
Doing work that doesn’t need to be done impairs you and your team’s productivity.
And once again, they know this.
But when I ask why they continue, I often receive answers like,
- “This is just the way it is.”
- “The culture here is all about firefighting.”
- “We don’t prioritize. Everything is a priority.”
- “Hard work is what gets you ahead.”
And while all of these might be true, there is a deeper cause for all of the behavior.
At Whole Leadership Systems, we call it Corporate Codependency.
We define Corporate Codependency in four ways:
- I need you to be okay for me to be okay.
- I need you to be okay with me for me to be okay.
- I need this situation/circumstance to be okay for me to be okay.
- I need you not to be okay so I can be okay. (Because I am really not okay.)
When these are underlying a situation, relationship, or dynamic, the resulting behavior is codependence.
We rarely operate from our intelligence, intuition, or expertise when we exhibit codependent behavior.
Instead, we engage in behavior that placates the circumstance or relationship but compromises us, our integrity, or the excellence of our work.
Corporate Codependency is at the root of every barrier to productivity.
Can’t set better boundaries at work?
You’re probably afraid that someone will judge you or not be okay with you.
Not spending your time on the most influential work, but are getting the more menial tasks done instead?
You likely don’t feel okay unless certain things are done, or done by you, or done your way.
Want to work fewer nights and weekends?
Maybe you’re used to being the one anyone can call on at any time and feel they won’t be okay with you if you stop, or you won’t be okay with yourself because your value will drop.
Attending meetings that you know aren’t necessary for you?
There may be someone who won’t be ok with you if you say no.
Rushing to get back to email requests that disrupt their workflow?
You fear the project won’t be okay until you respond, and you are not okay with letting people wait.
The tension that this ‘not okayness’ creates is a primal and unconscious pull for most people to stay in patterns of behavior that interrupt *actual* productivity.
So when we say productivity is a mindset, this is precisely what we’re talking about.
When you are okay no matter who and what isn’t okay with you, your mental energy is freed up to work on what matters and when it matters.
Every Monday over the next 8 weeks, we will break down the 8 biggest productivity myths live on our Leveraged Lunch Hour on Instagram.
We’re showing you the foundational crack in the myth and what strategies to use to repair it.
If you want to understand how to manage your Productivity mindset, hit reply to this email with “I’M IN!” When we hear from you, we will send you personal alerts to let you know we’re going LIVE so you don’t miss any of it.
We’re also offering a game-changing course on January 19th called Get Sh*t Done that will take you deep into Corporate Codependency and the situational strategies to overcome it so that you can …Get Sh*t Done.
$97. See you there.
With love,
Mari Carmen
