Autopilot Leadership

locked. It had only taken me 30 seconds to forget what I was supposed to do and put my brain on “autopilot,” locking the gate like I do every other day. This autopilot function of our brain is powerful and useful. It enables us to make lots of simple decisions in a split second without slowing down to analyze. I’m thankful that I don’t have to stop and consciously think about the many steps involved in driving my car or getting ready each morning. Autopilot saves me lots of time that I can devote to other more important matters. As valuable as it is, there is a cost associated with using autopilot. In my simple example, staying on autopilot almost caused problems for our contractor. I would have discovered later that day that I had made a mistake. What is the cost for leaders or organizations that stay on autopilot? Sometimes it’s obvious and immediate – lack of attention to an important decision may lead to poor results. But in organizational life, the real consequence of operating on autopilot is found in the hidden cost of missed opportunities. For example, an important annual event has been running well, so each year the leaders make only a few minor tweaks to improve it. After all, it would take a lot of time and energy, not to mention the potential for conflict, to overhaul the event. But what ultimate outcome might be achieved if you started with a blank sheet of paper rather than turning on the autopilot? I don’t think the pilots need to fly the plane manually for the entire trip, but I sure want their hands on the controls at the critical moments. In the same way, we don’t need to constantly rethink everything in our leadership orbits. We’ll never have time to do that. But it is worth asking, “Are there one or two area of leadership this week where I turn off the autopilot?” It’s easy to receive my blogs by email. Just sign-up on Feedburner by clicking here.]]>