Is Success the origin of Complacency?

The evolution of living beings ( I hate to use the word ‘living things’) on earth is a never ending process with Charles Darwin’s theory of “Survival of the Fittest” stating that the superior species on earth would survive unless natural calamities think the other way. We, the so called superior breed Homo Sapiens, would love to win wherever we go and attain whatever we tend to achieve. The Herzberg’s and Maslow’s theories of motivation are very good pointers with Maslow explaining the  hierarchy of needs and explains his motivation theory using the same. The human urge for success at the basic stage is meant just to satisfy his basic needs of hunger, clothing and shelter and strive to provide for providence. We find that a majority of the Indians are below the poverty line living on a mean income of less than Rs 30  a day. What does success mean to them? Success to them lies in getting the next meal. They are in a stage where they cannot dream of the next decade nor even the next day. Most of them are wage workers who are not sure if they would get some work the next day  A man whose has his basic and security needs met would love for recognition. Such a person would want to be praised and regarded as a person skilled in something by the others. Once that happens, he considers that he is a successful man. 

An interesting aspect to ponder here is “ Do we have the plans or atleast the dreams to progress to the next level”. Many of us would agree that we have the dreams but when asked about the implementation of those dreams, we would find it tough to answer. So, the question that arises from this discussion is ” Are we human beings short sighted?”. We have a desire- the desire could be getting the next meal for a poor man and to continue  being  recognised for an affluent man. Once the desire is achieved, we stay at that level with no major plans on how we reach the next level. Once we get a fat pay, we are satisfied with that without bothering about whether the path treaded now would take us to what we desire us to be. We do not take the plunge to move to the next level. A majority of human beings strive to be in their comfort zone. Let us assume that we get recruited for a new job and are given two choices- to work in an area where we worked earlier or to learn something new. A majority of us would choose the first option. Among the few who choose the second option, a majority would select it for the sake of projecting themselves as an ideal man in a learning Organization. When given a choice of locations to work, we would definitely prefer our home town though at the same time we would be ready to go on an overseas assignment any time. All these pointers show that we all love to be in our Comfort Zone. Why do we prefer to stay so? It is because of past experience. The success attained while working in that area of work forces us to stay in that role. The feeling that being in a home town and working has translated to a superior performance at work (which more HR managers agree too) forces us to try all ends to be posted in our home town.

 What do we do after getting a chance to work in an area that we worked previously while enjoying the comforts of home. A sense of complacency creeps in because we are the masters of that particular technology and we have the flexibility of coming to work from home. Learning drops tremendously and we realize this only when the project demands a new skill set which we are not equipped with. Thus, the past experience of Success could lead to lethargy at work. That is why Organizations are keen to shuffle employees and make them handle different tasks. One other way Organizations achieve the same is to make employees work in different shifts or under different supervisors. The change in shift timings would make the employee feel as if he has less time at work since his routines would happen at a different time altogether and he does not feel comfortable in handling this change. The motivation to please the new supervisor would lead to superior performance at work even though the employee does the same work.

Let us not confuse between shedding complacency and leaving our existing expertise. Once we are skilled in something, it would be better to explore ways in which we can improve on that skill. Once we achieve the same, we can think of areas in which the skill can be applied. This is “Continuous Improvement” while leveraging our existing skills. Getting rid of Complacency does not mean trying to excel in areas which do not suit us or leaving our existing skills accumulated over the years on one fine day and looking to unexplored pastures. It is all about striving to constantly improve in whatever we are doing.

 Success is after all not a bad thing, the confidence it generates should be used constructively to strive to achieve greater deeds. It is only when we don’t have the inclination to learn or when we do not want to explore new avenues just for the sake of it that the staleness or to coin it in a phrase that we are often exposed to (thanks to Indian Cricket) “Complacency” creeps in, it is a dangerous sign. If we get carried away by Success, it would spell the Origin of complacency and even the origin of our downfall

How to get rid of complacency while doing the same routine? The best way would be to continuously find newer ways to complete the task. Another way would be to keep learning things that would be useful to us whenever we have time. That would prepare us at least mentally in handling tasks of greater difficulty in the future. Another way to tackle the issue is to meet with our superiors and request for a more challenging role highlighting the capabilities that we have to fit the role. Even if we do not have the capabilities, we could stress that we could cope up with the task if some training is provided.

To cap it all, Success is the motivator but it is up to us to constructively use it and let us not allow smugness to slow the progress of humanity.