I came across a ground breaking research piece from Harvard Business Review (HBR) which really hit home for me and evoked a lot of introspection around ‘werk, werk, werk, wellbeing and life’ titled ‘If you are so successful, then why are you working 70 hours a week? Soundbite was its due to ‘insecurity’. Analogous to the problems we solve in investment consulting, there are new and profoundly complex leadership challenges that professional firms (e.g. accounting firms, law firms, consulting firms) and other white-collar jobs are facing. We hear like this over and over again from people in noted white-collar jobs – that chronic overwork is bad for our mental and physical health and can seriously jeopardize the quality of our work (operational/business risk). We wish we could change the way we work, but we don’t really know how?? The new research on professional organizations, shows that our tendency to overwork and burn out is framed by a complex combination of factors involving our profession, our organization, and ourselves. At the heart of it is ‘insecurity’.
Professional Insecurity:
A professional’s insecurity is rooted in the inherent intangibility of knowledge. How do you convince your clients that you know something they do not and justify the high fees you charge for it? The insecurity caused by this intangibility is exacerbated by the rigorous “up or out” promotion system perpetuated by elite professional organizations, which turns your colleagues into your competitors/more to sends you into a protectionism (feeding into personal insecurity).
Organisational Insecurity:
Elite professional organizations deliberately set out to identify and recruit “insecure overachievers” — where some leading professional organizations explicitly use this terminology, though not in public.
Insecure overachievers are exceptionally capable and fiercely ambitious individuals, who are primarily driven by the profound sense of their own inadequacy. This typically stems from childhood, and may result from various factors, such as experience of emotional maps, financial or physical deprivation, or a belief that their parents’ love was contingent/conditional upon them behaving and performing well (basis for relationships = benefits received and provided).
Taken to extremes, the insecure overachiever’s sense of commitment can lead to extreme conformity and the normalization of unhealthy behaviours. If they suffer burnout, they think it is their fault. The organizations and its leadership are absolved of the responsibility, so nothing fundamentally changes. As a result, by the time insecure overachievers become leaders of their organizations, they unconsciously replicate the systems of social control, unhealthy behaviours and overwork that created them.
Personal Insecurity:
Punchline: Back in the day the ultimate reward for grinding day in and day out was ‘Partnership’. The competition was relentless but once you got there, you had the freedom and ability to do whatever you want to do as they had already paid their dues to the organization. This is no longer true. As a director of HR in a leading accounting firm told me, “The head of audit is in the office regularly from 5:30 AM until 10 PM, on weekends, too. So is our managing partner. This is not exceptional. The rest of the firm sees the senior people working these hours and emulates them.
A great read touching perplexing new ages leadership challenges faced by businesses and a guide for leaders to become more self-aware and formulate effective strategies to stay ahead of the game. There is anecdotal/pathological studies and evidence based cross-sectional research that ‘Leadership’ reduces workplace stress/burnout more than any other researched technique/measure, but more around the same later (Fate permitting).
Solution: Work exceptionally long hours when you need to or want to, but do so consciously, for specified time periods, and to achieve specific goals. Don’t let it become a habit because you have forgotten how to work or live any other way. And notice how you judge colleagues who are working less hard than you — they may have discovered something you need to learn. More importantly, If you are a leader, you have a responsibility not just to your firm but to the people who work within it. Help your colleagues to achieve their full potential, but do not allow yourself to exacerbate and exploit their insecurities. And remember that your ultimate “duty of care” is to yourself - Adnan
