Most individuals and organizations don’t recognize that kind of plateauing as a problem, at least not for them. It hasn’t commanded much attention until now, and the concepts and the facts are not widely known, so it’s hard for people to begin to talk about it. Instead of being a clear problem, it tends to manifest itself as a vague but pervasive feeling that things are not okay. In itself, this vagueness makes it harder for people to identify the problem, much less deal with it. But as soon as the words, ideas, and facts are on the table, there is a near-universal response of aha! People say, “Yes, that’s what’s been going on. I didn’t want to talk about it before but since you brought the subject up, I can begin to think about dealing with it.” Transforming a vague anxiety into a specific problem is always the first step to solving the problem.

The vagueness also stems from peoples’ reaction to the word itself; they say that it makes them uncomfortable. But plateauing is a neutral word; it describes a status. There is nothing intrinsically bad about that. Plateauing is one phase of the process of change that characterizes everyone’s life. In one form or another, everyone plateaus, and over the course of a lifetime, almost every¬one plateaus more than once. When you recognize that you are plateaued, that awareness can make being plateaued the platform upon which to build the next phase of life.

Plateauing is thus an essentially simple phenomenon, but it becomes complicated when organizations and individuals find their most central values challenged by its occurrence. When people are plateaued, their growth ambitions, which formed the central themes of their being, are no longer assets because they cannot be achieved. Then the frustrations spill out over everything that is most important—peoples’ identity, their sense of self-esteem, their relationships, their performance, and their future . . . in short, everything that counts.

Three Kinds of Plateauing
We gain a necessary perspective on what we can do to solve the problems created by plateauing when we look at the different forms that it takes. There are three kinds: structural, content, and life plateauing. While they are different from one another, they are interrelated.

Structural plateauing refers to the end of promotions. It is caused by an organization’s hierarchy or structure. All of us know that as we climb up the familiar pyramid shape of organizations, the number of positions decreases dramatically and the opportunities to move upward decrease proportionately. But even though we know that, we hope we’ll beat the odds and be one of those few who get the brass ring.

Structural plateauing is not new. What is new is that today and into the future, people will be structurally plateaued much earlier in their careers than they are prepared for. The phenomenon of structural plateauing is going to generate enormous problems in organizations for the next 15 to 25 years.

Managers, executives, and professionals who work in complex organizations are stimulated to climb the mountain because it is there and because of the intense competition among them. The visibility of the hierarchy and of the competition makes the failure to be promoted painfully obvious. Some people have great difficulty in coming to terms with structural plateauing and getting on with the rest of their lives.

People are content plateaued when they know their jobs too well. There’s not enough to learn. They have become expert in their work, and they are likely to feel profoundly bored. Most of us need to feel the challenge of having something unfamiliar in the task and the satisfaction that we are learning something new. We need at least a small amount of risk, which is the essence of what we call challenge.

People who are structurally plateaued frequently become con¬tent plateaued. In large organizations, structural plateauing is essentially inescapable, but content plateauing is not. The sheer size of the organization creates the possibility for job changes that do not involve promotion, but do involve new tasks and new challenges. In contrast, promotion may be insignificant to people who work in small organizations, those who are self-employed, and professionals who don’t want to become managers. For them, structural plateauing is irrelevant, but content plateauing is an ever-constant danger.

People are particularly vulnerable to plateauing in life when work becomes the most significant sector in their lives. Work becomes the basis of their identity and self-esteem—which is fine as long as they continue to be successful. But promotions do eventually end, sometimes provoking a terrible sense of failure, and frequently mastery of the work brings feelings of tedium. When that happens, there is a good chance that they will feel plateaued in life.

Being plateaued in life is more profound, more total, and consequently more serious than the other forms of plateauing. From middle age on, many of us are plateaued in life. It takes courage to break out of this most difficult plateau. But unless we do, our lives will remain a faint approximation of what they might have been.

People who feel plateaued in life usually feel trapped; they don’t know how to break out of the cycle of despair, and they are afraid to try. If they can accept the fact that they are plateaued and at the end of a phase, they are in a position to begin. They have the opportunity to do what they have never done, to experience what they have never felt, to become people they have not yet been. What they stand to gain is the rest of their lives.

Escaping the Trap
The fact is that everyone plateaus. The only difference among people is in how they handle it. The first task is always the same; it is true for individuals and it is true for organizations: The phenomenon of plateauing must be acknowledged and the problems that it causes must be addressed.

In itself, plateauing is not necessarily bad. In fact, since plateauing in certain aspects of our lives is inevitable, being satisfied with life while being plateaued in some parts of it is necessary for our mental well-being. But plateauing is emotionally depleting when the plateau results in the sense that work or relationships or life has no momentum. People cope and act responsibly, but there is no vitality in what they do.

While being plateaued is a fact, feeling plateaued is a psycho¬logical state. Obviously, people who feel plateaued want to experience their work and their lives differently. But how? The first step in creating psychological change is to gain insight. Thus the first purpose of this book is to explain the phenomenon of plateauing.

When we think about plateauing, we usually focus on structural plateauing, the end of promotions. The reality that promotions will end, and that they will end earlier in our careers, is a wedge that will force us to change our definition of success. Of course we will continue to esteem those who are so exceptional that they rise to the highest levels of responsibility and leadership. But the definition of success has to be broadened to include those who continue to learn and be productive at work and those who continue to mature and change in their lives. Our ideas about success have to alter so that people can feel “successful” during the whole of their lives.

But insight about a problem is only the first step. There has to be real change in how people live and in how organizations respond. Those changes can take place only when the phenomenon of plateauing is addressed and success is redefined.

The organization must change its culture so that people who are structurally plateaued can continue to earn respect and experience success through mastering new challenges. The manager must be honest and supportive so that plateaued employees know where they stand and can continue to feel motivated and valued. The individual must face the issues, give up frustrating old ambitions, and take the initiative in creating new ones.

People who are plateaued have to create new opportunities by which they can gain self-esteem. Since people feel plateaued when a major commitment no longer provides satisfaction and excitement, they have to redefine what they want from the commitment, or they must take on new commitments. People need to create that feeling of movement in their inner lives, which is the only way to have a sense of future.

Source: Explorehr

• Clearly identified passions
• Exciting vision
• Relevant task purposes
• Whole tasks

Clearly Identifying Passions

The team needs to identify its shared passions for a number of reasons. Identifying passions moves them to the foreground in the team’s thinking about motivation. Without the clarity created by identifying and naming passions, a sense of meaningfulness is a mysterious, hit-or-miss experience at work. Once the team understands the contents of its passions, it can pursue meaningfulness in a more systematic way: “Aha, that’s what we care about. Now let’s go after it.” Finally, understanding its shared passions is a powerful unifying force for a team. Teammates are likely to think more highly of each other and to treat each other as allies in pursuit of a common purpose.

Providing an Exciting Vision

A vision is a big purpose for the team?a macro image of a future that the team wants to create. It crystallizes the team’s passions into an audacious and exciting possibility that captures the team’s imagination. It is a shared, realizable dream that team members can harness their efforts to achieve. Without this shared vision, the team’s passions lack a focus or target and can be dissipated in different, uncoordinated directions.

Ensuring Relevant Task Purposes

While a vision is a big purpose for the team, team members’ day-to-day work is made up of smaller, more concrete tasks?making things, ordering supplies, filling out reports, attending meetings, and so on. It isn’t enough to lave an exciting vision if many of these micro work tasks remain mundane or pointless. To energize one’s work, it is important that these day-to-day tasks clearly contribute to the vision. Otherwise the drag of the mundane tasks saps the energy provided by the relevant ones.

Providing Whole Tasks

Finally, it is important that work tasks be designed or allocated so that individual workers are given whole projects where possible, or at least major, identifiable portions of a project. This established principle of job design allows workers to make a larger, more identifiable contribution. It also provides workers a larger potential source of pride.

Source: explorehr

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- Providing Knowledge
- Giving Positive feedback
- Skill Recognition
- Challenge
- High, non comparative standards

Providing Knowledge

Over time, workers gain a great deal of knowledge through their own experience with a task through experimentation and feedback. Some of this knowledge is implicit or tacit, difficult to express, like how to perform a physical skill gracefully. The rest is explicit knowledge that can be expressed and shared. This explicit knowledge includes learnings about techniques, best practices, and rules of thumb that contribute to competent performance. Adding to this knowledge can be a relatively quick way of increasing competence?allowing workers to jump ahead of where they would otherwise be on their own learning curve.

Providing Appreciative Feedback

Workers must be able to monitor the competence of their ongoing activities in order to make adjustments in their performance. Much of this feedback is available to workers as they interact with a product or customer, but some needs to be measured more elaborately. Under self-management, workers need to be given the tools and data needed to assess the quality of their performance and to make adjustments themselves whenever possible.

Recognizing Skill

When you give team members recognition for the competence of their work, you are doing a number of important things. For example, you are strengthening the message that good work is important, valued, and noticed. You are appreciating the effort and accomplishment involved ? providing a kind of “thank you” for a team member’s contribution on behalf of the team and the organization. But perhaps most important, you are also validating and amplifying that team member’s sense of competence. For a moment, the two of you step back from the task activity, view the work in perspective, and together appreciate how well it was done.

Managing Challenge

People perform best when there is a fit between their ability and the task difficulty, or challenge. If the task is too easy, their attention wanders and they become bored. If it’s too difficult, they get anxious and do less than their best work. An ideally challenging task is just manageable and requires full concentration. Because the task is challenging, it inspires even more satisfaction when it is performed well.

Fostering High, Non-comparative Standards

In the self-management of the new work, standards of competence have to be internalized by workers. Standards have to matter to workers?to be important to them?if workers are to strive for standards and feel rewarded by meeting them. This caring about competence, of course, won’t be independent of the other things they care about. So, as leader, it will be useful to think about helping to create a culture of competence in a team. This means making sure that team members see the connection between competence standards and the other things that the team cares about?specifically its vision, its values, and its understanding of customer needs.

More people fail not because they lack knowledge or talent but because they quit. The total secret of success lies in two words, persistence and resistance. Persist in what must be done and resist what ought not be done.

Lack of conviction
People who lack conviction take the middle of the road; and guess what happens in the middle of the road? You get run over. People without conviction do not take a stand. They go along to get along because they lack confidence and courage. They conform in order to get accepted even when they know that what they are doing is wrong. They behave like part of a herd.

Rationalizing
Winners may analyze but never rationalize?that is a loser’s game. Losers always have a book full of excuses to tell you why they could not. We hear excuses like:

- I’m unlucky.
- I’m born under the wrong stars.
- I’m too young.
- I’m too old.
- I’m handicapped.
- I’m not smart enough.
- I’m not educated.
- I’m not good looking.
- I don’t have contacts.
- I don’t have enough money.
- The economy is bad.
- If only I had the opportunity.
- If only I didn’t have a family.
The list can go on and on.

Not learning from past mistakes
People who do not learn lessons from history are doomed. Failure is a teacher if we have the right attitude. Failure is a detour, not a dead end. It is a delay, not a defeat. Experience is the name we give to our mistakes.

Some people live and learn, and some only live. Wise people learn from their mistakes?wiser people learn from other people’s mistakes. Our lives are not long enough to learn only from our own mistakes. Some people not only never learn from their mistakes but keep practicing them till they master them. They become experts in making mistakes.

Lack of discipline
Have you ever wondered why some people never reach their goals? Why they are always frustrated with reversals and crises? Why is it some people have continued success, while others have endless failures? Anyone who has accomplished anything worthwhile has never done so without discipline, whether in sports, athletics, academia or business.

Lack of consistency is poor discipline. Discipline takes self-control, sacrifice, and avoiding distractions and temptations. It means staying focused. Steam does not move the engine unless it is confined. Niagara Falls would not generate power unless it were harnessed.

Poor self-esteem
Poor self-esteem is a lack of self-respect and self-worth. It leads to abuse of one’s self and others. Ego takes the driver’s seat. Decisions are taken more to satisfy the ego than to accomplish anything worthwhile. People with low self-esteem are constantly looking for identity. They are trying to find themselves. One’s self is not to be found but to be created. Idleness and laziness are consequences of poor self-esteem and so is making excuses. Idleness is like rust that eats into the most brilliant metal.

Fatalistic attitude
A fatalistic attitude prevents people from accepting responsibility for their position in life. They attribute success and failure to luck. They resign themselves to their fate. They believe and accept the predestined future written in their horoscope or stars, that regardless of their effort whatever has to happen will happen. Hence they never put in any effort and complacency becomes a way of life. They wait for things to happen rather than make them happen. Success is a matter of luck, ask any failure.

Lack of courage
Successful people are not looking for miracles or easy tasks. They seek courage and strength to overcome obstacles. They look at what is left rather than what is lost. Wishes don’t come true; beliefs and expectations supported by conviction do. Prayers are only answered when they are supported with courageous action. It is courage and character that is the deadly combination for success. This is the difference between the ordinary and the extraordinary.

Developing Effective Delegating Skills

A number of steps should be taken to ensure that the delegation process is handled effectively.

Clarify the Assignment

The place to begin is to determine what is to be delegated and to whom. You need to identify the person who’s most capable of doing the task and then determine whether he or she has the time and motivation to do the job.

Assuming that you have a willing and able subordinate, it’s your responsibility to provide clear information on what is being delegated, the results you expect, and any time or performance expectations you hold.

Unless there’s an overriding need to adhere to specific methods, you should delegate only the results. That is, get agreement on what is to be done and the results expected, but let the subordinate decide the means. By focusing on goals and allowing the employee the freedom to use his or her own judgment as to how those goals / are to be achieved, you increase trust between you and the employee, improve the I employee’s motivation, and enhance accountability for results.

Specify the Subordinate’s Range of Discretion

Every act of delegation comes with constraints. You’re delegating authority to act, but not unlimited authority. What you are delegating is authority to act on certain issues within certain parameters. You need to specify what those parameters are so that subordinates know, in no uncertain terms, the range of their discretion. When this has been successfully communicated, both you and the subordinate will have the same idea of the limits to the latter’s authority and how far he or she can go without further approval.

Allow the Subordinate to Participate

One of the best ways to decide how much authority will be necessary to accomplish a task is to allow the subordinate who will be held accountable for that task to participate in that decision.

Inform Others That Delegation Has Occurred

Delegation shouldn’t take place in a vacuum. Not only do the manager and subordinate need to know specifically what has been delegated and how much authority has been granted, but anyone else who’s likely to be affected by the delegation act also needs to be informed. This includes people outside the organization as well as inside it. Essentially, you need to convey what has been delegated (the task and amount of authority) and to whom. Failure to inform others makes conflict likely and decreases the chances that your subordinate will be able to accomplish the delegated task efficiently.

Establish Feedback Channels

To delegate without instituting feedback controls is inviting problems. There’s always the possibility that a subordinate will misuse the discretion that he or she has been delegated. The establishment of controls to monitor the subordinate’s progress increases the likelihood that important problems will be identified early and that the task will be completed on time and to the desired specifications.

Dominance Style

People of the Dominance Style like to control their environment by overcoming opposition to accomplish desired results. They enjoy moving people around in their favor.

They are direct, forceful, impatient, and opinionated. They enjoy being in charge, making decisions, solving problems, and getting things done. They tend to thrive on power, prestige, and authority, and they can be extremely demanding. They also fear being taken advantage of by losing control of a situation.

When people of this style are negatively motivated, they can become defiant. They don’t like being told what to do, and win lose challenges can be dangerous. They would quickly become bored with a routine that was basically the same from day to day, particularly if it didn’t allow them to make decisions that would hinder their desire to be in control. For example, giving them work that involves dealing with lots of detail would be tedious and demotivating for High D’s.

To create the right motivational environment for such people:

- Be clear, direct, and to the point when you interact.
- Avoid being too personal or talking too much about non-work items.
- Let them know what you expect of them. If you must direct them, provide choices that give them the opportunity to make decisions to satisfy their need to be “in control.
- Accept their need for variety and change. When possible, provide new challenges, as well as opportunities to direct the efforts of others.
- The High D person is motivated by personal control through direct communication. Compliment them for results they achieve.
- They are “bottom line” oriented. Ask them about their career plans and timetables for achieving success. Show how they can get results by helping you get results.

Influence Style

People with this style try to shape the environment by influencing or persuading others to see things their way. They really enjoy being involved with people and getting recognition for their accomplishments. They fear rejection or loss of social approval. They may have a dislike for handling complex details or working as “lone rangers”. They prefer to deal with people rather than things.

This highly social individual loves opportunities to verbalize thoughts, feelings, and ideas. So provide opportunities for them to do this when possible. When it’s deserved, praise their work enthusiastically and publicly.

When you negatively motivate people of this style, they can be indiscriminately impulsive. When this happens, they may speak first and think later with little regard for what they say and who might hear it. This can be in the form of complaining to no one in particular while hanging around the coffee pot. Because they want to be liked, being silent or tight-lipped with them will make them afraid you’re rejecting them.

Such people run well with new ideas. Take advantage of the strong communication skills that this style possesses by allowing them to be the liaison with other departments when there’s a companywide initiative that suits their talents.

They can also be among your best promoters for new ideas or for creating excitement for company social functions such as holiday parties. Because of their desire to be involved with other people and in different projects simultaneously, this style could benefit by receiving time and priority support from you as their coach.

You’ll need to communicate more with people of this style, and it’ll often involve social interaction. To that end:

- Give them lots of your time.
- Compliment them.
- Ask about things going on in their lives outside of work.
- Let them share with you their goals at work and elsewhere.
- Link your objectives to their dreams and goals.

Steadiness Style

The Steadiness behavioral type focuses on cooperating with others to carry out the task. These people are very much team players and cooperative group workers. They take pride in being reliable and trustworthy employees.

They tend to be patient, loyal, and resistant to sudden changes in their environment. They respond positively to group achievement recognition, sincere appreciation and predictable situations. When they get negatively motivated ? which is often caused by sudden, unplanned changes that they see as high risk ? they can become stubborn or stern, moods usually expressed in the form of passive resistance.

This type of behavioral style responds very well to an atmosphere of cooperation rather than competition. Show sincere appreciation when it’s earned. Communicate in an indirect, casual style. Recognize and praise contributions to the team. Schedule regular performance reviews.

To create a positive climate for people using the Steadiness Style:

- Acknowledge that their efforts help others.
- Provide opportunities for them to cooperate with others on the team to achieve desired results.
- Provide specific direction and offer assurances when necessary.
- When implementing change, be sure to lay out a systematic, step-by-step procedure and draw out their concerns and worries about the situation. They need to feel secure.
- Assure them that you’ve thought things through before initiating changes. Give them a plan to deal with problems when they occur.

Conscientiousness Style

This style emphasizes working conscientiously within existing circumstances to ensure quality and accuracy. People of this behavioral style appreciate opportunities for thorough, careful planning. They are critical thinkers who are sticklers for detail, They prefer to spend time analyzing a situation and, like the steadiness style, are slow to accept sudden changes. They like following procedures and standards- preferably their own.

When they are negatively motivated they may become cynical or overly critical. They will normally respond well to logical, well-thought-out, planned options. Be realistic and avoid exaggeration in discussion with them. They respond favorably to exact descriptions and performance objectives, scheduled performance appraisals, and specific feedback on their performance.

Your conversations with them will take longer because they’ll probably have several questions. They’ll also want to verify the quality and reliability of information you give them. Even when given all the facts, they are inclined to analyze an issue and decide for themselves. Compliment them for the quality work they do, as well as he logical approach they take to doing it.

One of their greatest fears is criticism of their work or efforts, provide them with:

- Opportunities to demonstrate their expertise.
- Plenty of details.
- Enough time to prepare for meetings properly? Especially if they have an item on the agenda to present.
- Situations where their systematic approach will contribute to long-term success.

2. Commitment
Integrity and wisdom are the two pillars on which to build and keep commitments. This point is best illustrated by the manager who told one of his staff members, “Integrity is keeping your commitment even if you lose money and wisdom is not to make such foolish commitments.”

3. Responsibility
People with character accept responsibilities. They make decisions and determine their own destiny in life. Accepting responsibilities involves taking risks and being accountable which is sometimes uncomfortable. Most people would rather slay in their comfort zone and live passive lives without accepting responsibilities. They drill through life waiting for things to happen rather than making them happen. Accepting responsibilities involves taking calculated, not foolish, risks. It means evaluating all the pros and cons, then taking the most appropriate decision or action. Responsible people don’t think that the world owes them a living.

4. Hard work
Success is not something that you run into by accident. It takes a lot of preparation and character. Everyone likes to win but how many are willing to put in the effort and lime to prepare to win? It takes sacrifice and self-discipline. There is no substitute for hard work. One cannot develop a capacity to do anything without hard work, just as a person cannot learn how to spell by sitting on a dictionary. Professionals make things look easy because they have mastered the fundamentals of whatever they do.

5. Character
Character is the sum total of a person’s values, beliefs and personality. It is reflected in our behavior, in our actions. It needs to be preserved more than the richest jewel in the world. To be a winner takes character. George Washington said, “I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most valuable of all titles, the character of an honest man.”

It is not the polls or public opinions but the character of the leader that determines the course of history. There is no twilight zone in integrity. The road to success has many pitfalls. It takes a lot of character and effort not to fall into them. It also takes character not to be disheartened by critics.

6. Positive believing
What is the difference between positive thinking and positive believing? What if you could actually listen to your thoughts? Are they positive or negative? How are you programming your mind, for success or failure? How you think has a profound effect on your performance.

Positive believing is a lot more than positive thinking. It is having a reason to believe that positive thinking will work. Positive believing is an attitude of confidence that comes with preparation. Having a positive attitude without making the effort is nothing more than having a wishful dream. The following illustrates positive believing.

7. The Power of persistence
The journey to being your best is not easy. It is full of setbacks. Winners have the ability to overcome .mil bounce back with even greater resolve. Persistence means commitment and determination. There is pleasure in endurance. Commitment and persistence is a decision. Athletes put in years of practice for a few seconds or minutes of performance.

Persistence is a decision. It is a commitment to finish what you start. When we are exhausted, quitting, looks good. But winners endure. Ask a winning athlete. He endures pain and finishes what he started. Lots of failures have begun well but have not concluded anything. Persistence comes from purpose. Life without purpose is drifting. A person who has no purpose will never persevere and will never be fulfilled.

8. Pride of performance
In today’s world, pride in performance has fallen by the wayside because it requires effort and hard work. However, nothing happens unless it is made to happen. When one is discouraged, it is easy to look for shortcuts. However these should be avoided no matter how great the temptation. Pride comes from within, which is what gives the winning edge.

Pride of performance does not represent ego. It represents pleasure with humility. The quality of the work and the quality and the worker are inseparable. Half-hearted effort does not produce half results; it produces no results.

Excellence comes when the performer takes pride in doing his best. Every job is a self-portrait of the person who does it, regardless of what the job is, whether washing cars, sweeping the floor or painting a house.