Lesson #5 – It All Depends on the Dose

In the first post in this series, I mentioned that I began my professional career as a Professor of Pharmacology (how medicines affect the body) at a midwest Medical School. I first studied Pharmacology in Pharmacy school.

One of the very first lessons we learned is that:

“Every drug is a selective poison and whether the effect is good or bad all depends on the dose.”

This lesson applies to all of life and to all situations. Whatever you are doing, the effect will depend on the dose.

It could be far too little and then there likely will be no effect. It could be way too much and then the effect might be death. Somewhere in between, there might be a sweet spot, a dose that produces the desired effect with no undesirable effects. This phenomenon is known as the dose-response effect.

In practice, that ‘sweet spot’ is mostly unattainable. Usually, the dose administered will produce a positive, desired effect with minimal unwanted, side effects.

Practical Application Day-to-Day Life

The drug analogy is not a perfect one for the balancing act we all are faced with in our daily lives. But it introduces the idea of balancing things we want against things that we don’t want.

And the challenge is still trying to find that eluxive sweet spot.

Almost everything you do in life has an aspect of dose to it. And the effect that your action produces depends, in part, on the dose. Once again there is a dose-response effect. Too little and nothing happens. Too much and everything blows up.

Think about some of the simplest things that you do every day. For example, brushing your teeth. Too little, a few seconds, and you wind up with bad breath and tooth decay. Too much, 2 hours, and you are wasting time and your gums may start to bleed. There is a sweet spot in there at a couple of minutes.

Let’s look at a more significant example, like preparing a report for work. There clearly is too little preparation that results in a poor, ineffective report. There clearly is too much preparation that results in wasted creative time and an overly long and way too detailed report that few, if any, will read. There is a sweet spot in between which will vary according to the nature of the report.

Similar work examples are doing market research for a new product, planning for a celebration of some sort, finding new prospects, learning new skills, etc. Depending on the nature of your career, these are all good things when you find the sweet spot and not so good if done too little or too much.

How does this apply to the roles of Manager and Leader? First off, be clear that we are all Leaders and Managers at least for ourselves in our own lives. We all are in relationships with others. Some relationships are more significant than others. And the more significant the relationship, the greater the likelihood that leadership and management may play a role. This applies to family relationships, friends, colleagues, bosses, employees, spouses, etc.

When serving as a manager/leader in a relationship the first ‘dose’ that you need to consider is what type of managing and how much you ‘should’ do in any particular relationship. Too little, no result; but too much may destroy the relationship.

And balance requires paying attention – awareness. What’s going on? How do you feel? What needs tweaking in your life? You are the Master of Balance. Do your best to keep your life in that sweet spot!

What aspects of your life are out of balance? Are you doing too little, or too much?

What special strategies to you use for keeping it all in a reasonable, dynamic balance?