Always in motion, women in leadership roles are usually tackling endless agenda items on a very long to do list. In our extremely fast paced lives, most of us operate on autopilot mode. Our days fly by. Our lives are so busy that we totally forget to check in with ourselves. It’s easy to slip into autopilot mode, but is that truly how we want to lead ourselves and others?

Have you ever stopped to wonder how you got here?

I have thought a lot about autopilot mode and the negative impact of operating this way exclusively. It can come at a very high cost especially for women in leadership roles. Learning why, when and how to turn it off, has a huge payoff.

Understanding Autopilot Mode

Autopilot mode is our brain’s default system—it is a built in tool that allows us to do things automatically and efficiently, without the need for constant conscious effort to function. When you walk, there’s no need to consciously instruct yourself to move one foot in front of the other. This helps us to make snap decisions in everyday life.

Some of those mindless decisions are insignificant. But others have a significant impact over time, on our professional, and personal, lives.

It is extraordinary how much of the day we spend in this way.

Our brain’s autopilot mode is meant to give us more time and energy to devote to more important tasks and to prevent overload. How’s that working out for most of us? Not so well. We aren’t taking advantage of it, if we never look up.

The cost to us is that autopilot mode completely bypasses conscious choice and decision making.

SIMPLE STEPS TO SHUT DOWN YOUR AUTOPILOT AND SWITCH GEARS

“Autopilot is a growing problem,” says Dr. Mark Williamson, Director of Action for Happiness. “It has gone from being an evolutionary protection mechanism that stopped our brains overloading, to our default mode of operating whereby we sleep-walk into our choices. It has seeped into more and more areas of our lives and relationships making us feel out of control.”

So, how can we stop sleep-walking through our choices? Here are three easy steps you can take to shut your autopilot mode off and shift gears into conscious decision-making:

1. Pause and Notice. Dr.Williamson says when people are running on autopilot, they feel trapped by their obligations and routines as if they are living somebody else’s life.

Sound familiar?

“The simple step of encouraging people to notice their autopilot behaviors is crucial,” says Dr. Williamson, “because then you’ve begun the journey towards changing your habits and making more conscious choices.”

Yes, the brain is lazy—it prefers the autopilot setting. No problem! We can train our minds to pause and notice we are operating this way and then switch it off.

2. Ask yourself the right questions. Why am I doing this? Is this what I want to be doing?

In asking these simple questions we step out of autopilot and shift into the present moment. We can see our own autonomy. This is incredibly powerful—these questions connect us to our values and allow us to see, and intentionally make, choices. WOOHOO! We don’t actually have to stay stuck on a treadmill of repetitive behavior any longer. This is leadership from the inside out!

3. Switch on your intentional thinking mode. Thank goodness, our beautiful brains have another operating system. WHEW! Think of it as a more rational and intentional thinking system that is there to help us manage more complex things like critical thinking, problem solving and learning.

It’s not that our intentional thinking mode is better than autopilot.

Your power lies in choosing when to leave autopilot on and when to deliberately turn it off.

THE BIG PAYOFF

Turning off the autopilot mode has SO MANY tangible benefits for women leaders, including:

Boosted Creativity and Innovation: Turning off autopilot encourages fresh ideas, new possibilities and innovative solutions.

Sharper Decision-Making Skills: Women leaders develop stronger decision-making abilities by making conscious choices.

Improved Adaptability: Leaders become more flexible and resilient in navigating challenges and changes.

Power, Purpose and Results: Taking control of actions aligns leaders with their values and goals, driving real progress to desired outcomes.

I CAN – AND WANT TO – HELP!

We each have our own unique autopilot mode that impacts our decisions, and us, in different ways. The key takeaway is to pause, notice what mode you are in and make a conscious choice. That is your power and there is nothing better than that!

So many of my clients are doing this work with me and seeing the ginormous benefits of it.

If you’d like to talk more about how coaching teaches you how to leave autopilot mode behind so that you start leading yourself, and others, more consciously, I’m always here to help.

2024 is well underway. We’ve all made our resolutions. We’ve all made our ambitious declarations. We have big plans for the New Year. Bring it on, we say!

A fresh calendar marks a demarcation line for a fresh start. Opportunity abounds. It’s natural for you to feel the urge to set goals—for yourself, for your business, for your relationship with the world around you.

News flash! In this annual rush, we’re skipping the first step–awareness. Before the resolutions, declarations, and big plans, before all the January goal setting–first take the time to look inside.  

Goal setting.  It’s an inside job.

For years, I took part in the annual goal setting rush. I compiled exhaustive to-do lists—feverishly cataloging the goals I hoped to achieve over the next year.

It didn’t work. But why?  Why did all this goal setting trip me up instead of pushing me forward?

I was building out goals blindly, without first taking the time to look at my own values, behaviors and thoughts, the results I really wanted or the blocks that got in my way of achieving my goals. I couldn’t see how I was getting in my own way because I wasn’t looking.

When I learned this, it changed everything about my goal setting and achievement.

I discovered that I had a tendency to absorb the expectations of others, to define my goals according to perspectives that were not my own. We’re all subject to so many external influences —professional pressures, personal relationships, cultural norms. It isn’t obvious to us that these external influences, and many unexamined patterns of automatic thinking and old stories, are driving our goal creation in the first place.  Awareness allows us to look at all of this for what it is. 

Awareness is so vital to your journey as your own leader and as a leader of others. Once I understood this–and only then–I was able to move on and get down to the business of identifying different goals that I wanted and make different choices to accomplish them, from the inside out.

Step One: Block Out the Noise

Awareness comes out of creating the conditions for it –  muting the noise all around you. And for women leaders, life can be extremely noisy!

At any given moment, your child is texting you for homework help, your aging parent is calling because they still can’t figure out the remote control, and your email inbox is piling up.

Push the “Silence” button on all of it—just for a little bit.

Hear your own thoughts more clearly, notice your feelings, remind yourself of your core values and you can see the results you actually want with your eyes wide open. Let your who and your why drive your goal creation. 

Try it.  

Step Two: Take Stock of Your Core Values

We face unique challenges as women leaders. Awareness plays an especially important role in staking out your own identity, defining your leadership style, and steeling yourself against unproductive, default patterns.

Take stock of yourself. The benefits are considerable including:

• Improved performance;
• A clearer sense of purpose;
• Stronger conviction in your beliefs, values, and identity;
• A richer relationship with yourself and with others; and
• An internal compass that guides your decision making and keeps you focused on the right things.

Your core values, your greatest aspirations, the endeavors that give you more energy than stress–identify these things before you set your goals. 

Take a look under the hood before you get on the road.  

Step Three: Shift Your Perspective

So how, as a leader, do you prioritize reflection when you’ve made your success through always rushing into action? It takes a shift, in perspective, mindset, energy – whatever you like to call it.

To quote Marshall Goldsmith, “What got you here won’t get you there.”

I once worked with a client who was reluctant to “waste time” looking “underneath the hood.”  She was in a rush to set goals and take action.  

It was only when we began to look at her core self that she started to make connections. Suddenly, she could give a name to what her gut had been telling her for years. Her thinking shifted. She could see what she really wanted, and could then set goals to get there. 

It was like turning on a light switch. 

Awareness is a Practice and a Journey.

You can tell how I feel about Awareness by this point. It is one of the most important practices you can develop within yourself for your goal setting, your leadership and your life.  I am excited for you to start today in your own practice. Be gracious with yourself and as always, have some fun too. Let me know what you find and how it impacted your January list of goals! 

XX,
Michele