CHAPTER 18 DISCIPLINE

“Preparing others to live a life of success and happiness… starts with discipline.”

Lou Holtz¹

The word “discipline” is derived from the Latin root disciplinare (to teach). It is about instilling values and behaviour through positive learning, shaping or correcting behaviour. It’s about setting norms and limits and training,² perhaps to follow a specific teaching or code. Linked to discipline is disciple – someone who, of their own free will, chooses to follow a master, a guru, a teacher. Who or what are you a disciple of? What systematic instruction, training or code of conduct are you choosing to follow?

Discipline is a mark of love and compassion, not punishment.³ This story from Lou Holtz of two men and their dogs is a good illustration.

“Let me cite an example of two young men, each of whom owned a new puppy. The first one loved the dog and showered it with love and affection. Anything the dog wanted to do was okay. There were no restrictions on the dog.

“The other young man loved his puppy also, but he put a choke collar on the dog. Anytime the dog did something he wasn’t supposed to, the choke collar took effect. It wasn’t long before the dog realized there were limitations on his freedom. A year later, the man took the choke collar off the dog and gave it great freedom. The dog ran around the neighbourhood and everyone loved it. The reason the dog was given freedom was because the owner knew it would respond to his commands. It would not bite, destroy or abuse its freedom because it understood what would and would not be tolerated.⁴

“The man who showered his dog with love could never allow the dog any freedom because it wouldn’t respond to any commands, nor did it understand that there were always limitations on what could and could not be tolerated.”

Developing discipline facilitates the development of responsibility. Relying on others to tell you what to do and how to do it leaves you helpless, unconcerned about what the right thing to do is and ignoring the consequences of your actions (well, you’re not responsible for them, you were just following instructions!).

Developing discipline puts you in the driving seat of your experiences, both physically and emotionally. You are more keenly aware of the impact and consequences of your choices. Choosing your own path, rather than letting others determine it for you, leads to greater confidence, health, resilience and happiness.

“In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves... self-discipline with all of them came first.”

Harry S. Truman⁵

Developing discipline does get you past imposed limitations – whether you impose them on yourself or accept the limitations that others have for you.

One of Walt Disney’s often quoted statements is: “If you can dream it, you can do it”, but only when you have the discipline to turn those dreams into reality. At the Disney Institute, development programmes share Disney’s secrets with a vast array of other businesses. At first, senior executives were concerned but they eventually concluded there was no risk because no one else had the same level of discipline. No one else worked as hard as Disney to do what they did.

“I believe everybody is creative and everybody is talented. I just don’t think that everybody is disciplined. I think that’s a rare commodity.”

Al Hirschfield⁶

This idea of getting past limitations is echoed in the world of martial arts – discipline equates to “emptiness” or the absence of fear, hatred, anxiety, arrogance. As focus and attention improve, there is a greater feeling of power, peace of mind, wisdom and love. In martial arts, first you learn to notice yourself. Then you must look at things with non-judgement... only then are you able to understand the mind and finally learn to let go.⁷ This is the goal of disciplined practice.

Leaders at every level in an organization have a significant role embodying and teaching organizational disciplines and modelling organizational practices – and those at the very top of the organization set the benchmark. It’s not easy to create a disciplined environment, where people can enjoy success and gain confidence – but it can be very effective. A disciplined approach fosters trust, confidence in the organization, team productivity, a desire to achieve and a clear sense of “the way things work around here”.

Purposeful discipline, paradoxically, seems to make life easier.

“Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.”

Seneca⁸

DEVELOPING AND SUSTAINING DISCIPLINE

“I am an ordinary man who worked hard to develop the talent I was given.”

Muhammad Ali⁹

Self-discipline is a type of selective training, creating new habits of thought and behaviour toward improving yourself and reaching goals. Self-discipline is a positive effort. It’s about mental training and working hard.

No sustained success, achievement, or goal can be realized without some level of discipline. It is singularly the most important attribute needed to achieve excellence or outstanding performance. The absence of immediate pay-off is what makes discipline elusive. Consider the Olympic champion training on Christmas Day or the executive studying for exams after finishing a gruelling day. Consciously learning a new discipline in service of a particular outcome is about mental training and working hard.

The starting point: Defining your purpose

Discipline and motivation are the yin and yang of success. You are motivated towards success, yet you create the road to success by the disciplines that you put into place.

What is the purpose of the discipline? What is the goal you are striving to attain? Greater happiness? Spiritual awakening? Reaching an organizational vision? Creating a brand?

Discipline without purpose has a clear danger of running to rigidity, reducing creativity and innovation, stifling growth and ignoring what might be seeking to emerge.

Once you’ve clarified your purpose – it’s then about creating discipline to deliver. More is written in Chapter 5, Purpose.

Creating discipline

•     Learn how to focus your mind and energy on your goals and to keep going until they are realized. Use visualization techniques to clarify what you’re aiming for. These techniques are used by high-achievers and top athletes. By imagining the future in great detail, they can start to “feel” how rewarding it is to achieve that success, get a sense of the benefits and understand more clearly the path that will get them there.

Muhammad Ali used this “Future History” technique to say that he never climbed into the ring to face somebody he had not already beaten (through visualization).

•     Start small – one step at a time. If you’re keen to build more effective working relationships, create a space of 15 minutes to speak to one of the key people that you interact with in your role. Connecting with just one person from across your network each day will support you to build stronger and more personalized relationships. People often make the mistake of creating big goals which are unrealistic and never get actioned.

•     Cultivate a mindset where deliberate choices determine behaviour rather than simply reacting to emotions, circumstances, or other people. Practice saying “No” to feelings and impulses. Pause, breathe and reflect before taking action. Together these practices help to build a habit of keeping things under control. Try waiting an hour to open an email for no reason other than to exercise your willpower. Endure temporary discomfort with the purpose of greater gain at a later date. See Chapters 13, Mindfulness and 14, Resilience for more on these topics.

“Self-discipline begins with the mastery of your thoughts. If you don’t control what you think, you can’t control what you do. Simply, self-discipline enables you to think first and act afterward.”

Napoleon Hill¹⁰

•     Create an environment that makes the desired discipline easier and more pleasurable than the procrastination. Remove temptations (like the desk drawer of sweets and treats). Instead, surround yourself with inspiration and encouragement – photos of what you want to achieve or your “gurus” or a phrase that particularly resonates with you.

•     Develop your mental strength by deliberately creating uncomfortable circumstances to test yourself. From your task list each day, do the most difficult first, the most stressful, the most challenging. Put yourself forward for a development programme that you will find stretching. Volunteer for those meetings that you find difficult.

•     Support the habit of discipline by engaging in sport, craft or activity that requires discipline – whether it’s joining a sports team, learning a musical instrument or studying a new language.

Keeping going¹¹

Celebrate achievement and success to motivate more of the same. Pat yourself on the back for what has been achieved. Appreciate those you work with and their achievements. As an organization, record and celebrate what has been achieved.

Deal with procrastination immediately. Do what you said you would do, staying the course, regardless of any challenges, temptations or procrastination. Willpower goes up and down with energy levels. Learn what energizes you, don’t allow yourself to justify shortcomings. Choosing not to follow a particular discipline once (although easily justifiable) becomes twice and more. A downward spiral away from the chosen goal has begun.

If you want to build relationships across your network – and you let one monthly call to a colleague slip due to work pressures, it doesn’t seem so bad really – just one call. Similarly if you let one deadline flex, it’s likely to be met with understanding. While individually you might allow your disciplines to flex to circumstances, how much are you really kidding yourself? It’s too easy to give up on our disciplines due to “work pressure”. If you give up on the principle that leads to achieving your goal, then you will never make the change that you want to make. The more you can stick to your disciplines, the likelihood is that you will enjoy the benefits of that focus more quickly.

Routinize everything that you can, for example, developing a network of colleagues could involve setting reminders to send an email or making a call first thing, just before a lunch break and last thing before going home. Similarly, bad habits can be eliminated by deliberately creating good habits. Precommitment,¹² deliberately avoiding the bad habit in the first place is demonstrated to be more effective than willpower alone for developing good habits. Deliberately set your watch five minutes fast to arrive at meetings on time. The same applies to organizations – create routines around meeting schedules, formats, and behavioural norms.

An organization requires discipline to deliver the right experience to stakeholders. This was personally experienced when working in five-star hotels. As an assistant manager, the first job every day was to visit each of the conference rooms to ensure the rooms were set up correctly. This included making sure that every pencil on every writing pad at every place setting was at the right angle, logo facing upwards.

It is this discipline to ensure the correct standard and attention to detail is delivered every single time that sets Disney and other organizations apart from the majority.

DISCIPLINE AND 31PRACTICES

31Practices provides a framework, enabling practices and disciplines to be formed across the organization that brings the values and purpose of an organization to life. It is the discipline of focusing every day on one aspect of a value through the way you behave. Celebrating success is part of the methodology – supervisors, team leaders and department heads are encouraged to nominate those who live the 31Practices excellently. It is most effective when the 31Practices are built into all aspects of the organization’s operating platform, creating the routines that are required to support the ongoing discipline of 31Practices.

The discipline throughout the organization that 31Practices creates where every employee takes an action each day helps embed the Practices more quickly and create a virtuous circle of positive reinforcement.

As noted above, creating an environment that enables people to be disciplined is a challenge – leaders perhaps have to display strong personal disciplines to align themselves with what they are asking others to step up to.