How Does Your Saboteur Show Up?

Mary-Ellen Hynd, MBA, CPCC, PCC is an ICF-Accredited global coach and strategist known for unlocking potential and moving ideas to meaningful action through leadership, sustainability & communication.  She specializes in physician burnout & leadership coaching and is an active member of the Canadian Physician Coaches Network. 

As a physician, do you sometimes or often feel like there is a force within you that wants you to fail? Does it deliberately disrupt, delay, destroy and hinder your success, making progress feel like an uphill battle?
 
Don’t worry. Whether you are in medical school, early or midway in career or already a seasoned physician leader, this is completely normal. You are not alone. That’s your saboteur or inner critic making its de-habilitating presence known.  
 
Saboteur expert, Shirzad Chamine describes saboteurs as our internal enemies. They represent a set of automatic habits of your mind, each with its own voice, beliefs and assumptions that work against your best interests.
 
A universal phenomenon formed in early childhood, saboteurs start off as guardians to help us survive the real and imagined threats to our physical and emotional safety.
 
By the time we are adults, these saboteurs are no longer needed, but they have become invisible inhabitants of our mind. When allowed to become the lenses through which we see and react to the world, saboteurs greatly limit our potential as adults.
 
In my work as a certified coach supporting physicians through burnout and leadership development, every coaching engagement includes identifying and acknowledging a client’s saboteur (s). This starts by noticing what it says, what it sounds like and when it typically shows up.

One creative client calls her saboteur the REBELLIOUS SLUG.
Here it is in plasticine form, sticking out its tongue at the world
at large saying I don’t feel like it and you can’t make me.

“The REBELLIOUS SLUG visits me almost every single day, often more than once. It runs the show and tries to trick me into thinking that I’m not in control of myself or anyone else. It leads to a messy house, makes me order food rather than cook, has me start projects and leave them half-finished and convinces me to chill out at home rather than getting out into the world to do something - anything.”

Saboteurs are a powerful force to be reckoned with as you can see from this vivid client description and more below. These are the words of wonderful, naturally creative, authentic, resourceful, hard-working, respected and accomplished physician, many in leadership positions.
 
“YOU ARE A LOSER. You are never going to achieve your leadership goals. It feels like a belly ulcer that gnaws at me when I can’t affect rapid change. My saboteur shows up when I’m exhausted and I get into a closed loop of shit.”
 
“YOU ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH. The voice is very loud when I’m meeting new people and wanting to be liked. You are trying too hard. What a stupid thing to say. It’s emphatic and authoritative and makes me feel like it knows more than me and that I will be found out. My saboteur shows up when I’m tired and frustrated that a situation is not going the way I would like.”
 
“THERE’S NOTHING SPECIAL ABOUT YOU. Why spend money on podcast equipment when no one will listen to what you have to say? It sounds like constant, critical chatter and feels like a war in my head. My saboteur shows up when I’m tired and tries to get me to quit but it’s quiet when I’m engaged and energized.”
 
“YOU ARE SECOND RATE. Look at the way they look at you. It wouldn’t happen to David because he’s white. It’s like an angry clown - a cowardly, introvert troll in my mind heckling me with negative energy to make me feel like I’m not good enough. My saboteur shows up when I’m stressed, not sleeping well and feel like I’m being treated unfairly.
 
 
When we are tired and faced with challenges, stress or uncomfortable situations, our saboteurs are activated and we can fall into old, negative self-sabotaging behaviours. The good news is that once you become familiar with your saboteur (s), there are coping strategies to shift the power, manage and quiet that dissonant voice.
 
The first step in weakening your saboteurs is to identify and expose them, as you can’t fight an invisible enemy, or one pretending to be your friend. I encourage you to learn about your personal saboteurs by taking Shirzad Chamine’s Free Saboteur Assessment.
 
It was created based on the research presented in his New York Times best-selling book and Stanford lectures on Positive Intelligence. Shirzad says there are 10 saboteurs and we all suffer from at least two.
 
I hope this glimpse into the saboteur makes a difference for you. The free assessment is an excellent starting point. You will receive a ranking and description of ten possible saboteurs. Please feel free to share your thoughts and experiences.
 
Adapted from original blog post published March 20, 2021 at maryellenhynd.com. 

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