The One Habit You Should Break to Be Successful in Your Career
Much has been made in recent years about the powerful force of habit. As these theories often go, if you’re able to master a certain set of behaviors and turn those behaviors into sustainable, repeatable action, then you’ll be in a better position to run that race, or play that instrument, or enjoy the experience of crawling into the taut sheets of a freshly – and routinely – made bed.
Coupled with these theories of habit is the notion that by mastering some trick or by perfecting a particular “life-hack,” you are somehow better positioned to find success. And while this may be true for the aspiring PGA Tour professional, perfecting the habit of a flawless golf swing over many hours of practice, it can be trickier to assess the relationship between habits and success within the confines of a professional office environment.
Truth be told, cultivating even small habits at work can indeed be helpful. This is partly because of a concept from behavioral psychology known as discriminative stimulus. A discriminative stimulus is something that, when present, encourages a person to follow a certain set of behaviors. It can prompt how your day is going to go.
For example, suppose you loathe reading emails first thing in the morning, but doing so is an essential function of your role. Suppose too that you find calm serenity in a warm cup of coffee, freshly brewed from your local café. And suppose nursing that warm cup of coffee at your desk is the only way that you can tolerate the morning email charade.
Stopping at your local café to buy this particular coffee could therefore be defined as a discriminative stimulus because it modifies your behavior. It’s a kind of habit that you form to enjoy continued success in your role as it enables you to get through those morning emails.
Some habits, however, are counterproductive and there is one in particular we all should adjust if we want to find success in our careers.
As human beings, we have an innate habit of jumping into problem solving mode whenever we’re presented with a challenge. That, in itself, is a good thing. We’re problem solvers, it’s something humans do very well. But it’s not the habit of solving problems that needs to change, the issue comes with how we respond when first presented with a challenge.
Imagine a colleague asks you out lunch because they need your advice. When you sit down, they start telling you about a problem they are having with a toxic boss. Chances are your first instinct will be to offer solutions.
Finding a resolution to your colleague’s challenge is a great outcome. After all, it’s why they asked you out to lunch. But, instead of immediately diving in with statements like, “here’s what you should do…” pivot instead to active inquiry
Try asking open-ended questions – questions that do not have simple “yes” or “no” answers – like: “What do you think is driving this behavior?” and “How has it been affecting you at work?”
By asking open-ended questions first, instead of jumping right in with solutions, you’re not only building trust with your colleague, you’re also allowing them to elaborate on the problem at hand. Active inquiry enables you to gather more data and learn many of the additional details that may have gone undiscovered. It’s an important tactic we discuss in our upcoming book.
So, the next time you’re presented with a problem by a friend or colleague, try forming the habit of asking open-ended questions first instead of telling them right away what they should or shouldn’t do. You’ll build empathy, trust, problem-solving skills, and intellectual curiosity – all things recently identified by global CEOs as integral for professional success in the 21st century economy.
Let active inquiry be a discriminative stimulus that fuels your rise to the top.
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Co-authored by David Brendel and Ryan Stelzer, Think Talk Create: Building Workplaces Fit for Humans will be published by the Hachette Book Group under the PublicAffairs imprint on September 21, 2021.
Now available for pre-order!
