Have you ever heard that saying, “Don’t get caught on your heels?” It is a general saying that not only applies to sports (where we believe it originated from), where a tennis player is sitting back on their heels and not in a ready position to return a Serena Williams or Pete Sampras type serve from their opponent. Same could be said from a baseball infielder not in a ready position when hard line drive is hit.
That phrase also became a cliche in life as well, where it means, do not be caught unawares. It is an interesting phrase, and it could be interpreted in many ways. It’s also been written about many times with other meanings. When we think about that phrase at Creator of Culture, “don’t get caught on your heels,” it means to us that there may be a defect in the culture where that individual is operating within.
There must be a explanation why people are working on their heels. Do you think there a reason? If so, can be tied back to the environment? Is the reason due to the people themselves and their internal makeups? It is not quite clear until some investigation takes place.
When one suspects that there is an organizational reason where people need to say to each other, “don’t get caught on your heels” all the time, that likely means people are living, working, or existing in a defensive posture and without autonomy. They are living, working, and existing wound up tightly. There probably is not a sense of freedom to express and operate.
Often cultures of extreme compliance combined with individual’s fear of failure creates the environment of avoiding all chance of even the slightest risk. Even educated, low risk chances are not being taken. No one is experimenting or innovating. In other words, people are always “working on their heels”, looking to protect themselves and play defense at all costs.
Forms of defensive living, working, or existing could look like:
- Consistently over justification of every action
- Frequently covering themselves with every action
- Not standing up to making even the smallest decision
- Not speaking up
- No internal “call to action”
- Lack of motivation
This sort of looks like the “trust tax” in a way right? Have you heard of that concept? A “trust tax” is discussed heavily by Franklin Covey some of their training materials. According to Stephen Covey, it’s a “counterfeit behavior that levies a tax on organizations which lowers trust and the costs are devastating”. In our opinion “counterfeit behavior” as he states, is a symptom of a defect in the culture. We speak about this type of example in Can One Person Change Culture where verbal statements are completely different than actions leading to loss of trust.
Another thought to consider is the bullet above regarding not speaking up. An interesting post by Judith E. Glaser in Psychology Today says that not speaking up is because of fear of rejection. She states that, “rejection piggybacks on physical pain pathways in the brain. Also, the same pathways are activated when we are rejected as when we experience physical pain. This is why rejection hurts so much”. It is evolutionary from millions of years ago where being an outcast from a group would spell the demise of one person.
In our opinion, fear of rejection for not speaking up is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s one symptom, or “red flag” , for a defect in the culture and its probably tied to other symptoms from other defects. It is not only the people are afraid of rejection, but it’s the others who aren’t afraid, yet are not speaking up either. There are more reasons, and the topic goes much deeper. It can be intertwined in many ways.
Let us look at it from the converse standpoint. Cultures that encourage working freely with direction, getting “caught on your toes” / balls of one’s feet (whereas one would be able to react appropriately and efficiently and effectively), and autonomy to create one’s own destiny / ownership in results that affects one’s future. The mental relief one gets from being able to work in a culture that promotes freedom to take wise chances is one like no other.
Working free with autonomy creates a sense of ownership, peace of mind and enjoyment knowing that everyone has the capability to shape their own results from their labor. Cultures that promote an approach like this are more innovative, have happy employees, retention rates are likely better, and personal growth is flourishing! The symptoms of lack of trust and fear of rejection are thrown out the window into the dumpster. Alleviating those symptoms comes from a culture assessment and then adjustment (from the top down and bottom up)!
Granted, there are times where a check-in or a step-in is required these cultures of autonomy and experimentation, but usually only to course correct. It usually only takes reminders to the person or group of people of the culture, expectations, and why they operate the way they do. The message about making some end result the best it can be, and creating that healthy environment to get there, is everything.
To sum up, look out for the red flag of “sitting on your heels”. With a little digging and assessment, there likely are some defects in culture stemming from one or many places. At Creator Of Culture, we believe in playing free, working free, and always working towards the betterment of the team, organization, or community.
What are your thoughts? Tell us a story and share your experience if this clicked with you! Share this read with others and see what they say!