The knotted throat, the wobbly legs and a veil behind the eyes. Stress pushed to the limit of discomfort. A pulse that must curl that of a runner of 3,000 meters steeplechase and a breathing increasingly cut. No oxygen mask in sight as this physical symptom mutates into panic fear, total anguish. The moment before, it was his cousin the doubt who implemented his sinister undermining work. In doubt there is “soft”? False lead, because this feeling is psychological, sneaky, infernal and nestles everywhere in the brain to arise when it wants. Sometimes it’s about a file where we may have forgotten the key detail. Sometimes it’s insomnia, about his private or professional future, as Les Clash sang: “Should I stay or should I go…”. The ice dancing champion Nathalie Péchalat made him her hero, Monsieur Doute, “like the clumsy friend on my sofa, a pot of glue that destabilized me for everything, and in everything” (The benefits of the doubt Marabout, 2020). No one escapes it. “In France, there persists a belief:” the manager must be strong “. He does not show his doubts and all that can be perceived as a weakness”, analyzes Clotilde Croixmarie, director of QuinteSens Paris.
Accept the discomfort
However, there is rarely a single right answer to a situation, in a constantly changing world: “this doubt is inherent in the position of manager”. You have to accept that the doubt is there and that it is not a weakness, she continues. But doubt gives a feeling of “discomfort” with two risks: rushing in, finding an apparently obvious solution and making a decision hastily or, conversely, taking too long to consult and going around in circles without deciding. “The consequence is a disengagement of the teams due to the lack of direction, of vision. These two postures are unhealthy and a manager who feels neither one nor the other could be confronted with a third risk: that of personal stress which can lead to burnout. For Clotilde Croixmarie, one of the keys is to accept this discomfort and to share this doubt with others. Tame this humility, talk with experts, your team. “How to deploy the strategy?” “What do you think ?” “What do you need ?” Move from individual doubt to a process of common reflection, to participation. “This collective intelligence makes it possible to co-construct an action plan. It is a virtuous circle of team commitment with a sense of belonging”. Last advice: make sure that a decision is made in the face of doubt. With, however, a warning about the causal link that torments us all: “a manager must accept that he is responsible for the decision, that is to say that he assumes the consequences. But he cannot control all actions and results thereof”.
Reproduce a success mechanism
“I don’t like the idea of fighting against doubt,” announces Sylvaine Pascual, founder of the firm Ithaque. If several types of doubts exist, that on his own ability to carry out a task, for example his ability to lead his team, is frequent among the manager. Often a temporary doubt. Check one point: fatigue. “It creates difficulties which lead to doubt and which are accompanied by emotions. These are revealed for a good reason: to draw our attention to the actions to be put in place”. Cognitive or physical overload? This feeling dissipates when the manager grants himself rest, dares to disconnect and regains confidence in his own abilities. This doubt may also not be fatigue and persist. So, you have to draw from your own experience for examples of accomplishments, big and small, even if they have nothing to do with the anguish of the moment. “Mechanisms of success manifest themselves all the time and in everything we undertake and succeed”. How ? “Apart from his professional life” and especially in his leisure time: concoct a dish, read a book without dropping out, indulge in a sport or a musical instrument. Draw. You have to find the resources you used. Rigor or, on the contrary, creativity? Discover their preferences in their methodologies and reproduce them. “We think his skills are natural, but no! They are unique to us, they work and they are transferable”. Motivating your troops or making a success of your pie is ultimately the same mechanism with, as a causal link, its own functioning.