Do you suffer from babbitry?
It means an excessive feeling of self-satisfaction. It also means small-mindedness, smugness, middle-class mentality.
But my friend, novelist Cathy Day, gave me the best definition of all: a person and especially a business or professional man who conforms unthinkingly to prevailing middle-class standards. The word comes from Sinclair Lewis’ novel, Babbitt, which is a social satire about Midwestern (American) values, and the societal pressures to conform, rather than leading a meaningful life.
Conform to the norm
How many times are you expected to conform to the work norm set forth by others — we’ve never done it that way here; we tried it and it didn’t work; we don’t like being the first to try something new — when your brain is screaming that this idea is what you need to increase sales. To find a new vertical. Or even to save the company?
How many times have you been stuck in babbitry’s swamp and felt the pull of the mediocre and dull?
When I worked in state government, babbitry was the only thing we excelled at. We communicated with the media a certain way, because we always had. We didn’t use social media, because we never had. We didn’t start an agency blog, because we didn’t want to be the first.
That was four years ago, and they’re still wrestling with questions about social media and blogging. No one wants to stick their neck out and be the first, because standing out is bad.
That heavy wet blanket that smothers
Babbitry is a heavy wet blanket that will smother your creativity and your enthusiasm, if you let it. If you work in a job where you’re expected to toe the line, along with every other grey-suited drone, look for something new. If you’re looking for a job using the same old job boards and paper resumes as all the other job seekers, try connecting with potential employers through social media. If you sell or market products where the only differentiating factor is price, find a way to add value to your product to stand out from the crowd.
Babbitry is all around you. The pressure to conform cannot be escaped. Even when George Babbit broke away from his conservative crowd, he found his liberal friends had their own rules of conformity.
The way we’ve always done it
But breaking away doesn’t mean you have to leave everyone and hang out only with the nonconformists. It doesn’t mean you need to foment open rebellion against the tyranny of your assistant regional manager.
Rather, refuse to accept the old excuses of how things were done, of why they won’t work, and the dangers of being first. Take on interesting new projects and join forward-thinking committees at work. Find new ways to add value to your clients and your coworkers. Read books and blogs by people who inspire you.
You may not be able to escape babbitry, but that doesn’t mean you have to fall victim to it, or be a part of it. Being a Babbit automatically means you’re not going to stand out and your personal brand is going to go unnoticed, or worse, be boring. Do what you can to stand out, and find the opportunities to show off your inner awesomeness.
I wonder if Odysseus-itry is a word.
Author:
Erik Deckers is the owner of Professional Blog Service, and the co-author of Branding Yourself: How to Use Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself. His new book, No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide to Social Media Marketing, which he wrote with Jason Falls, will be released in October 2011.
