Know Your Enemy: Unmask Your Career Saboteurs
Ever feel like you're constantly holding yourself back? Like there's this annoying voice in your head that just keeps bringing you down? Or you feel like you know that your path, but you just can’t get yourself to do it. That's your inner "saboteur" messing with you.
In this blog post, we'll delve into these inner saboteurs, drawing insights from Positive Intelligence. We'll explore what these saboteurs are, how to begin identifying the ones that might be secretly running the show in your career, and how coaching can help you through the journey.
What are "Saboteurs"?
Saboteurs are the negative voices in your head, those internal critics that undermine your career success. Positive Intelligence defines them as internal critics generating negative thoughts and emotions – automatic, unconscious patterns working against you. Though they may seem to protect or motivate, saboteurs are destructive, causing stress, anxiety, self-doubt, and frustration.
Meet Your Saboteurs
The Judge is the primary saboteur, a master critic fueling all negative inner voices. It constantly finds fault in yourself and everything around you, activating other accomplice saboteurs.
Positive Intelligence outlines 9 key saboteurs that undermine us. While types like the Avoider (who shies away from conflict and tough tasks) and the Controller (who micromanages out of anxiety) are clearly detrimental, some saboteurs even seem positive, masking their destructive nature. Consider these "good trait" deceivers:
The Hyper-Rational: Logic taken too far. While rationality is good, hyper-rationality dismisses emotions, hindering empathy and connection in the workplace.
The Hyper-Achiever: Achievement becomes an addiction. Driven by insecurity, they relentlessly seek validation through success, leading to burnout and emptiness despite their accomplishments
The Restless: Craving novelty, they are never content. While adaptability is useful, restlessness prevents focus and lasting fulfillment, leading to job-hopping and lack of commitment.
These "good trait" saboteurs, along with others like the Avoider and Controller, might feel like helpful allies at times. However, it's crucial to recognize that beneath their seemingly positive surface lies a pattern of self-sabotage. Understanding how these deceptive inner critics operate is the first step to mitigating their negative impact on your career, which we'll explore in the next section.
Identify your saboteurs
The first step to overcoming saboteurs is simple: identify them. Become aware of these once-hidden inner critics through honest self-reflection. Awareness is key to change.
Here's how to start:
Self-Reflect: Think about stressful career situations. What negative thoughts appear? Note recurring themes in your self-talk. Journaling can be a particularly helpful tool for this process.
Consider Feedback: Think about past feedback and criticisms from others. Have people mentioned that you can be overly critical, controlling, or a perfectionist? Sometimes, other people can see things about ourselves that we can't.
Try a Saboteur Assessment: Positive Intelligence offers a free Saboteur Assessment. This assessment helps you pinpoint your primary saboteurs and provides deeper insights and a more concrete understanding of your inner critics.
How coaching can help?
Identifying saboteurs is insightful but challenging alone. A career coach offers invaluable support to accelerate self-discovery.
Here's how coaching helps:
Objective Viewpoint: Coaches can provide unbiased perspectives, revealing blind spots and patterns you might miss yourself.
Guided Reflection: Coaches use powerful questions and exercises to help you uncover saboteur triggers and root causes in a supportive space.
Pattern Recognition & Naming: Coaches identify saboteur patterns, helping you name and concretely understand your inner critics.
Moving Forwards
Unmasking your saboteurs is the crucial first step to career success and well-being. By recognizing these hidden critics, you gain self-awareness and begin to break free from negative patterns. Identification is the start of your journey to positive change.
Ready to understand your saboteurs? Schedule a chat with me today, and let's explore how to unlock your potential and build a more successful, fulfilling career.
