Saboteur Spotlight: The Avoider – the productivity killer

Do you find yourself procrastinating over draining, yet important tasks like forecasting?

How does it make you feel when you put off doing these tasks until the very last minute? Does it make you feel shame or guilt?

If you are regularly afflicted with these feelings, then there is a strong possibility that you have a prominent Avoider Saboteur. 

The Avoider is my personal top Saboteur and one which I realise that I’ve battled at every turn throughout my life.  In this article I want to provide some insight into how the Avoider Saboteur can impact your performance at work and what you can do to fight its harmful influence.

What is the Avoider Saboteur?

As identified from the research conducted by Positive Intelligence™ there are 10 Saboteurs.  These Saboteurs are responsible for hijacking our minds and generating the negative emotions we feel like shame, guilt, disappointment and stress.

It is important to note, that each of the Saboteurs correspond to a person’s greatest strengths.  These strengths turn into Saboteurs when they are over-used or taken too far.

In the case of those who have a prominent Avoider Saboteur, they are naturally adept at promoting harmony within social groups due to their tendency to be flexible and adaptable.  However, they self-sabotage by going to great lengths to avoid conflict or unpleasant situations.  Out of all the Saboteurs, the Avoider is the one which drives its recipient to procrastinate.

How does the Avoider negatively impact your performance?

Unlike some of the other Saboteurs I’ve shone a spotlight on so far (like the Hyper-Achiever or Hyper-Rational Saboteurs), there are no obvious upsides to possessing a strong Avoider Saboteur.

It should be apparent that procrastinating over important tasks negatively impacts productivity.  Important tasks like SKU forecasting, finance reviews, demand planning meetings and 121s with your direct reports are part of the weekly and monthly business cadence and won’t go away just because you don’t feel like doing them.  They will continue to remain unticked on your To Do list.

The Avoider Saboteur also rears its ugly head when it causes Account Managers to evade difficult conversations with Buyers.  Unfortunately, FMCG Salespeople must communicate bad news to customers all the time.  Perhaps you need to tell your Buyer that you no longer have the stock to run a market-leading promotion? Or maybe you need to let them know that they can’t have the exclusive SKU in which they expressed a keen interest at the Brand Kick-Off meeting?

Whatever the bad news, Account Managers with the Avoider Saboteur, will often communicate the news but omit the whole truth.  They can often leave their Buyers hanging onto a thread of hope that they might be able to get an exclusive later in the year, when in truth this is an impossibility.

Phrases like “I can’t commit for this Range Review, but I’ll discuss it internally so that you’ll have options in a few months’ time” become commonplace.  Buyers actually prefer it if you’re honest and up front with them as early as possible and consequently these non-committal responses erode trust with your customers in the long term.

Ignoring the unpleasant issue or task won’t lead to resolution.

As already alluded to, the biggest lie the Avoider Saboteur tells you is that if you simply ignore unpleasant tasks, they will eventually resolve themselves. 

However, it is rare that positive outcomes manifest from your inactivity.  In reality, the longer you put off completing crucial tasks, the more your stress levels will rise.  The uncomfortable nagging feeling that you still have uncompleted jobs to do induces a state of constant anxiety.

And delaying the critical jobs until the very last minute also massively exposes you when problems inevitably arise, since you won’t have enough time to fix them.

Tackling the most significant tasks first is the best strategy.

So how can you overcome the lies and destructive influence of the Avoider Saboteur?

Having a strategy to charge up what Positive Intelligence refers to as your “Sage Brain” before tackling these tasks is key.  The Sage Brain is the region of your brain where the middle prefrontal cortex is located and is responsible for generating positive feelings like curiosity, empathy, creativity and laser-focus.

You can stimulate this region of the brain by performing “PQ reps” which involves intensely focusing on certain physical sensations like touch and breath.  Dedicating a few minutes towards this practice before embarking on your most daunting jobs can make them feel less arduous!

In his book “Eat That Frog”, Brian Tracy refers to these important tasks as big, ugly frogs, which if eaten first make the rest of the day easier and more productive.

How building Mental Fitness allow you to harness the strengths of the Avoider Saboteur.

Hopefully you’ve gained some insight from this article on how your Avoider Saboteur hijacks your mind and adversely influences your performance.  However, to create lasting habit change, only 20% of the necessary work is attributed to insight.

The other 80% of work is attributed to mental muscle building to construct new neural pathways.  This takes at least 6-weeks of intense work.  If you are interested in intercepting your Saboteurs and shifting to a more positive mindset then take the Positive Intelligence Saboteur Assessment https://www.positiveintelligence.com/saboteurs/ and then book a free 30-minute coaching call with me at https://www.expcoaching.co.uk/ to find out more!