The Hedonic Treadmill
Hack the Motivation Trap: Protect Your Team
New to Leadership Letters? Here I talk about leadership qualities and challenges we often don't talk about. I share what I've learned from working with leaders at big companies like Apple and Google. My aim? To explore better ways to lead in engineering. Let's make tech fun for everyone!
Pledge: I am never going to enable payments for this content. I want to share leadership lessons with as many people as possible. If you like what you see, please share it with your friends and subscribe.
We've been discussing high-performing teams for some time now. In her book "Radical Candor", Kim emphasizes the significance of having both "Rockstars" and "Superstars" on your team. It's crucial to balance the desire for continuous accelerated growth. In today's publication, we delve into a human psychological trait: hedonic adaptation. We explore how leaders must be cautious in fueling their teams for efficiency.
Have you ever gotten a raise or a promotion and felt amazing, only to have that excitement fade over time? That's hedonic adaptation, our tendency to adjust to positive changes and return to a baseline level of happiness. As leaders, understanding this can help us prevent burnout by focusing on long-term well-being, not just short-term wins.
Let’s define it
The hedonic treadmill, also known as hedonic adaptation, is the observed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes. [Wikipedia]
The Problem
As a leader, your natural instinct will be to support the growth of the individuals you lead based on their needs. I once found myself in a very similar situation where my sole aspiration was career growth. Perhaps it was for bragging rights or more money, but if I'm being honest, I wasn't 100% sure why. Soon after receiving one of my long-awaited promotions, I celebrated over the weekend. Upon returning the next week, I asked my leader, "What's next? How do I get to the next level?"
After a very long and thoughtful conversation I understood I had gotten it all wrong. In the Tech industry this is a very common phenomenon. In today’s world, all of us are trying to optimize for career growth. Before going further, let’s first clarify the two terms we borrowed from the Radical Candor book. Rockstars are individuals on a team that performs at a sustainable rate, and stability is their superpower. On the other hand, Superstars are people who want to deliver impact quickly and push a team to exceed expectations. After the conversation, I felt like a superstar, but I wasn’t very happy to hear about the downsides of that.
Burnout
Not to anyone’s surprise, superstars often experience burnout more quickly and lose motivation. That's why it's crucial for a team to strike the right balance between rockstars and superstars. Burnout is a state of chronic mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion caused by prolonged stress and overwork. There are plenty of other reasons to feel burnt out, but today we are going to focus on the hedonic treadmill idea.
Continuing on the outcome of that conversation, I spent a week thinking about what I want and why. When I came back, not much had changed, but I had a clear sense of purpose. That day I understood the meaning of leading a good life.
Lessons Learned
If it were not for the leader I was working with at the time, confronting me with my desires, I’d be endlessly chasing a dream that will only end with myself. Steve Jobs famously said in his final days, “lying on my bed and recalling my life, I realize that all the recognition and wealth that I took so much pride in have paled and become meaningless in the face of my death.” A leader’s job is not only to support their team in their journey but to help them navigate these common pitfalls.
As a leader, here are few things you can try practicing,
Encourage a "Gratitude Practice": Regularly prompt your team to acknowledge positive aspects of their work - a problem solved, a helpful colleague, etc. This shifts the focus away from "what's next" and promotes appreciation.
Prioritize Well-Being: Actively advocate for work-life balance, time for breaks, and mental health resources. People can't sustain peak performance indefinitely without recharging.
Lead by Example: If you're visibly burnt out, your team will pick up on it. Model healthy work habits, take time off, and demonstrate that well-being is integral to the team's success. And most importantly,
Don’t just ask, investigate: A lot of people make the mistake of trapping themselves into this hedonic treadmill without realizing it. When noticing these signs, actively engage in thought provoking conversations and investigate the whys of their desires.
Today, we touched on a very common phenomenon of burnout. Omnipresence of the hedonic treadmill in the tech industry is alarming. Leaders need to take proactive actions to continuously probe their team to understand their aspirations. If you have experienced this in your team, try implementing some of the ideas from here and help them break off the treadmill!
If you enjoyed this content, please share it with friends and consider subscribing if you haven’t already.
The Hedonic Treadmill is a HUGE trap to fall into as bloggers. I fell into it hard the last 6-7 years. It can quite literally ruin your happiness.