Do Your Best Work By Using Detached Engagement

Posted on March 07, 2015 by Bob Wilson, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.

Detached Engagement sounds like a funny way to do your best work, right?

Your business is important to you. You want to succeed: do whatever clients ask of you, be a good boss to your employees, etc. This usually means you pour yourself into your work. Give 110%. Say “yes” to everyone.

What does this create?

- Loss of boundaries
- Your efforts are diluted
- You are spread so thin that you can’t keep up
- Complaints
- Burnout
- You become resentful that people aren’t giving you enough credit for all your hard work

Many bad things, right?

Unfortunately, many people choose to operate at one end of the spectrum or the other. Either the one I just described: overly engaged or at the other end: completely disengaged.

A better place is to be in between, but way closer to the engaged side of things. This is what I call detached engagement.

Detached engagement is the key to doing your best work and being the most successful.

You will perform better by being a little less engaged. This may mean you say “no” to certain client requests. You may even say “no” to working with certain clients in any capacity. You do good things for your employees, but some things you choose to say “no” to.

Detached engagement creates several immediate benefits:
– Fewer things will slip through the cracks
– You will complete more projects on time in a quality way
– It reduces the chances of you being resentful
– You will get less complaint

It’s like pushing yourself to the limit, but stopping just short. Acknowledge that boundary and be respectful of it.

Think of it like driving your car. If you repeatedly drive your car with your foot pressed all the way to the floor, bad things happen. The speed limit is a healthy boundary.

When it comes to your work, obey the speed limit. You will be way more productive and way more satisfied with your work when you do.