Another brilliant guest blog post by Karen Bremner, a Brisbane-based Career Coach who helps clients of all ages to choose, develop and manage their careers. Karen is a professional member of the Career Development Association of Australia and a certified workplace coach, with a background in Psychology and 12 years’ experience in Human Resources.  Karen can be contacted at karen@keycoaching.com.au. She now has a website too!! www.keycoaching.com.au

“Who’s on your team?

If you’re familiar with the idea of peer pressure, it’s thanks to psychologists from the 1950’s. In the wake of World War II, researchers wanted to understand what had driven so many to follow the Nazis… and proved that we’re social animals, hard-wired to fit in.

One researcher, Solomon Asch, led a series of these social pressure experiments. He famously found that most people would give the wrong answer to a simple test, if the rest of their group had already voiced that wrong answer; the twist being that they’d been prepped to do so. The conclusion? Most of us would sooner go along with what we know to be wrong, rather than stand up to our peers.

In 2005, Dr. Gregory Berns repeated the experiments using fMRI – letting him monitor participants’ brain activity – and it turns out social pressure is actually even more powerful.  He found that ‘naïve’ participants weren’t in fact knowingly over-riding the right answer; the group’s wrong answers literally altered what their brains saw, at a pre-conscious level. In other words, the people around us have the power to fundamentally change our basic perceptions, in ways that we don’t even register.

This has profound implications for all of us.

In all of our endeavours, we are hugely – and unconsciously – influenced by the company we keep. This applies whether you’re voting for political leaders, trying to quit smoking… or planning careers. The people you surround yourself with have the power to alter your perceptions – what you see, what you don’t, what you believe to be true, right or possible. To quote Jim Rohn, ‘you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with’.

Accept this, and you can make it work for you. If your group can truly define your reality, then you realize you need to choose your company carefully.

Berns’s study found that participants who bucked the trend and thought for themselves experienced a physiological fear response – a flood of chemicals signaling social threat. Yet it took only one ally to diminish that effect… with more allies providing more support.

Make this work for you. If you’ve got big dreams, find someone who’s proven it’s possible – whatever your ‘it’ is. With this ally in your life, possibility becomes real. Find a mentor you ‘click’ with; someone to learn from, who’s been there, done that and can warn you of the pitfalls. Extend your group – reach out on LinkedIn, join industry associations, talk to others at training events, get involved. Build your sense of what’s possible.

Embrace the people who buoy you, challenge you, expect and encourage the best. Seek out and cultivate relationships with the people who see a reality you want to share. Distance or dilute the people who close off your options, drain or demean you.

Anything worth achieving typically takes time, energy and commitment, and you need vision, determination – and support – to get there.

So… take a look around you. What do your group look like? What do they believe? Do they support your efforts, or limit your options? Every team needs balance – people who fill your sails, as well as those who question and play devil’s advocate – so audit your group, find the gaps and then build the team you need.

Your success depends upon it.”