Dialogic #333
Leadership, learning, innovation
Your Snapshot
A summary of the key insights from this issue
⬩ We tend to underestimate our full potential when setting goals for ourselves or our teams, failing to acknowledge the upper limits of our capabilities.
⬩ The cognitive bias of “illusory inferiority” leads high-achievers to set their sights too low, establishing goals below their actual potential.
⬩ Reframing our self-imposed limitations with fresh perspective can help us set and achieve more ambitious goals beyond our comfort zones.
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#333 | September 15, 2023 | Tom x Midjourney |
How a 50km Run Pushed Me to Rethink My Limits
Last Saturday, I ran 50km, the longest distance I’ve ever covered in a single day. I followed it up with a 14km run on Sunday, bringing my weekly total to over 100km.
For a long time, I’ve had my sights set on surpassing 50km, so it’s exhilarating to be in this post-goal period, reflecting on what’s next.
This week’s issue is about reframing, adjusting your goals and understanding your true limits.
We’re gonna need a bigger goal
At some point in a long distance run you switch into a ‘just get it done’ disposition. Perhaps it occurs when you have already achieved the majority of the running distance, and I experienced the same switch when I ran my first marathon a few months ago.
As soon as I knew I could reach my 50km goal last weekend, I was thinking about the next goal. Which caused me to reflect on ‘what am I truly capable of?”
When setting goals for our personal growth or professional projects, we tend to underestimate what we are capable of. You might hear this referred to as the “glass ceiling” effect or even ‘setting the bar too low”.
A critical cognitive bias is at play here that is worth considering, as it will likely change how you write goals in the future.
It is common for highly competent people to underrate their abilities and establish goals below their potential. This is called illusory inferiority. You might have read about the Dunning-Kruger effect, which explains how unskilled people often rate their abilities higher than they actually are and do not have the metacognitive ability to realise they have done so.
Illusory inferiority is the flip side of that coin. It is tied up in levels of accurate internal and external self-awareness and is critical for establishing appropriately challenging goals.
Where are your limits?
We often set our goals based on our current abilities and past experiences without fully realising our true potential. If you think about it, how can anyone set a goal independently without precisely assessing their potential?
But the potential is much harder to assess. When you base your goals on past experiences, there will always be limits to what you aim for. A plan stretching your or your team’s capabilities beyond experience is much harder to imagine.
The concept of potential is deeply rooted in psychology. One of the fundamental theories in this area is the ‘Self-efficacy theory’ proposed by psychologist Albert Bandura.
Self-efficacy refers to an individual’s belief in their capacity to execute behaviours necessary to produce specific performance attainments. I didn’t know what running 42-50km felt like, but I believed I could do it.
This belief reflects confidence in the ability to exert control over one’s own motivation, behaviour, and social environment. Perhaps this also loops back to the flipping of a mental switch, as I mentioned earlier.
It is also worth noting the arbitrary nature of the goals we establish and the structures we put up to scaffold our progress. Why a neatly rounded 50km? Why not 57km or 61km? I notice this ceiling, which paradoxically acts as something to aim for and a limit to what we can achieve.
Smile on perils past
Let’s finish this exploration by surfacing a process I have shared in this newsletter. Reframing or shifting our perspective is a powerful learning experience, which is true of endurance running as it is in educational growth.
And it starts by shifting the sands of time, from deep in the past to your present, and then onto an imagined future state.
Retrospective ➜ look back
“Look back and smile on perils past”. Every step you have taken has led you to this moment. Your experiences do not need to be disconnected. Accept and build on the lessons from the past.
Every challenging run was an opportunity for me to learn and grow stronger for what’s to come.
Introspective ➜ look inward
Look inside yourself to notice what is happening with your disposition. Increase your self-awareness of the ups, downs and spirals.
When I was running I experienced periods of doubt and discomfort, but I stuck at it, and achieved my goal.
Prospective ➜ look ahead
We scan the horizon and look ahead. Transform your insights into options and actions. Explore the limits of what is achievable.
I like to think of the question, “who is the person running at their potential?”
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The journey I am on, running beyond what I previously believed to be my limits, has been a vivid metaphor for goal setting and personal growth.
The key takeaway is that our perceived limitations are often self-imposed, stemming from underestimating our true capabilities.
I encourage you to challenge these self-inflicted boundaries, whether in a professional environment, personal growth, or while lacing up your running shoes.
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Let’s finish with some next steps, talking points and curated readings to take you further.
⏭🎯 Your Next Steps
Commit to action and turn words into works
⬩ Identify any invisible “glass ceilings” or assumptions that are limiting the goals you set for yourself and your team to what you have achieved before.
⬩ Get an outside perspective from a mentor or coach to realistically assess your full potential and capabilities beyond your own biased self-perception.
⬩ Set stretch goals for yourself that purposefully go beyond your comfort zone, aiming higher than before to tap into your latent potential.
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🗣💬 Your Talking Points
Lead a team dialogue with these provocations
⬩ What biases or thought patterns might be causing us to unconsciously underachieve as individuals and as an organisation?
⬩ How can we foster a culture that motivates ambition, embraces challenges, and believes in each person’s potential?
⬩ What examples or role models inspire you to envision your own capabilities beyond what you previously thought possible?
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🕳🐇 Down the Rabbit Hole
Still curious? Explore some further readings from my archive
⟶ The Shape of the Lens (Tom Barrett) Inspired by an optics metaphor used in ethnography, this mental model explores our perception and understanding of behaviour. Use it as part of your team’s developmental dialogue and process.
⟶ Forget About Setting Goals. Focus on This Instead (James Clear) I set goals for the grades I wanted to get in school, for the weights I wanted to lift in the gym, for the profits I wanted to earn in business. I succeeded at a few, but I failed at a lot of them. Eventually, I began to realize that my results had very little to do with the goals I set and nearly everything to do with the systems I followed.
⟶ 10 Shifts in Perspective To Unlock Insight and Embrace Change (Tom Barrett) The skills, dispositions and routines of shifting perspectives are potent catalysts to better thinking and dialogue. Here is a selection of perspectives to explore.
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Thanks for reading. Drop me a note with any Kind, Specific and Helpful feedback about this issue. I always enjoy hearing from readers.
~ Tom Barrett
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