Weakened Elephants, Crippled Fleas, and Leadership Lids. Oh My!

While the adult elephant looks magnificent and big and strong, its ability to break free is stopped by the worst hindrance of all – its lack of a growth mindset.

So it is with us. Many times, negative experiences from our past condition us to not have a growth mindset for the future. We become conditioned to not try new things, to not lead, to follow the status quo. Because status quo is safe. You don’t get a lot of headaches when you stay status quo.

This is a lesson that even the lowly flea learns quickly. Adult fleas placed in a glass jar will easily jump out to freedom. Place a lid on the jar and they will initially jump almost as frantically as before. But, over time, they learn that when they jump to their full potential, they end up with a horrendous headache. Over time, they learn to apply just the right force to no longer bash their head against the lid of the jar.

And here is where it gets interesting.

Once conditioned, you can take the lid off the jar and the fleas inside will continue to only jump to the height of where the lid had previously been. They no longer try their hardest. They settle for their conditioned comfort.

As leaders, we can fall prey to these same concepts. Once you’ve tried and failed a number of times, it may get easier to not even try. Once you’ve gotten a few bad headaches, you may want to take the easier path in the future. However, just as the adult elephant trades its freedom for its passivity, and the flea trades its strength for a hurt-free life, the leader’s easy path comes with the greatest cost of all. Freedom, creativity, and growth.

As leaders in your individual districts, you may have tried something new and gotten painful complaints. You may feel tethered to tradition. You might be stuck in a jar, or tied to a stake.

The good news is, you don’t have to be.

You can try new things. You can do great things. There is one important word we all need to remember. It is the greatest cure for defeatism.

Yet, instead of ‘We’ve never done that’, just add that one little word to the end. ‘We’ve never done that yet’. Doesn’t mean it can’t be done. We just haven’t done it yet. Instead of ‘I can’t do that’, or ‘I don’t know how to do that’, try saying, ‘I can’t do that…..yet’, or, ‘I don’t know how to do that……yet’. It’s quite empowering.

Look at your district. What is working really well? What could be improved? Is there anything that is not working that just keeps being repeated out of tradition? Is there something that really needs to be implemented, but has not been?

As District Leaders, we are limited by our Leadership Lid. The good news is that we can continually raise our lid. We can be enthusiastic about positive things in our district. We can help others grow. We can be purposeful and intentional about developing our own leadership. We can provide meetings that members WANT to come to. We can coach and mentor and develop those around us so that they too want to get more involved.

What self-imposed limitations do you see in your own life, in your company, and in your local PCOC District? What can be done to move forward?

What great things are you doing in your district that can be shared with other districts? Collectively learning from each other and sharing great ideas can be one of the quickest paths to enhanced growth available.

Let’s embrace a growth mindset, increase our Leadership Lids, and do great things!

If you have leadership ideas you’d like to share, or a topic you’d like to see explored in a future PCOC Leadership Lens, I’d love to hear from you

All the best!
Travis Mickel
Regional Manager
Clark Pest Control
(831) 262-8025
tmickel@clarkpest.com