6 Proven Tips For Making Your
New Leadership Journey A Success

Collaboration – How you see the world is not the only way…

…and if you think it is – it’s probably holding you back.

A recent client of mine, Lizzie*, came to me because she wasn’t able to connect in her organisation, in fact, she was alienating herself!

The remit Lizzie had was distinct, in many ways, she had been recruited because she was different.  It had enabled her to be successful and she was sure it brought something to her new role that others would love… Lizzie’s struggle was that she couldn’t understand the mindset or approach of other people in the business. It didn’t match the way she saw they needed to be for success. As a result, she dismissed people as unmotivated, lacking the required passion and ingenuity.  This didn’t help Lizzie, in a senior role where she needed to deliver significant change and new initiatives.

A highly passionate person, Lizzie was committed to driving her own agenda. When Lizzie stopped for breath she had alienated herself. She was becoming increasingly entrenched and distant from stakeholders, the relationships could only be characterised as unproductive. In our first conversation, she shared her frustration of knowing the clear merits of her approach. Her belief was that the other people in the client service business were not competent enough to understand it. Lizzie mistook the apathy she had generated around her agenda as a lack of skill, ability and motivation.

DiSC Enlightens

Her DiSC profile showed a high ‘Dominance’ style.  Indicating a decisive, tough, competitive, demanding and self-centered person, with low concern for others. Her profile is strong in terms of organizing, leading projects, creating ideas, with strengths around vision and pioneering new ways. Some of the traits to Lizzie’s style were not helping her take people with her.  And in trying to undertake the journey alone, Lizzie was burning out.  She had joined the business and burned a lot of bridges, she felt frustrated and stuck.

Lizzie had felt her high ‘D’ profile gave her leadership potential; she wanted to be a ‘D’ because of this. She didn’t account for the prerequisite of followership!

Taking Off The Blinkers

When people didn’t see her vision, hard work and approach in the same way she struggled to understand and her impatience led her to blame their competence and performance. This impacted her interactions and how she managed situations. Lizzie left she had the answers, the plans and the ideas and the evidence.  She held all of the cards this and her approach to others was holding herself back from success by not being able to work with and through others as a leader.

Being able to work with Lizzie’s DiSC profile was powerful.  Lizzie was able to get an appreciation for the limits of her profile as well as the strengths.  This helped Lizzie to understand where she had created blocks for herself.  We were also able to look at her stakeholders and create a clearer understanding of who they were and how they contributed in different ways. Planning approaches meant Lizzie started to broaden her understanding and see the potential for her to engage others and bring them into work alongside her to achieve goals.

The Power Of Seeing Others

We worked on some of the key initiatives she had to deliver and Lizzie started to understand how to pace them. We looked at the levels of detail and time others needed.  Lizzie was able to take more account of the critical factors others needed in their approaches. People started to come with her as she learned to understand and work with their strengths.  The hardest thing Lizzie needed to do was to acknowledge and communicate the changes she needed to make; we worked closely on how she could do this.

DiSC is a useful tool, it builds awareness of different personality types as well as the validity of different needs and perspectives. In coaching we can work to understand how you communicate and work alongside other people, creating greater levels of understanding with considerable gains.

Clearly, within the rich tapestry of life, we don’t all fit into 4 boxes or degrees of boxes. Personality is one of many factors that drive who and how we are. As our understanding and self-awareness grow we have a platform to build new capacities and broaden our potential, creating greater competence and levels of emotional intelligence.

The DiSC profile created a platform for Lizzie and myself to start to work from.  We went deeper and wider, understanding what drove Lizzie and also where she tended to get caught up.  She started to understand what triggered her, she put in place some clear strategies that helped her to see herself, stakeholders and the business in a new light. Lizzie is now working on some complex initiatives and doors are opening all the time.

There is only so far we can go it alone and only so much we can get done without others commitment. If we only have our lens, we limit and close ourselves off.

If this article resonates with you please contact me to find out more about our coaching and leadership development programmes. Call +44(0)1635 780028 or please click here to email us directly.

*not real name.

The Power of Wholeness

As we come to the end of Mental Health Awareness week, I wanted to share some thinking.  It comes from the sense of difficulty I see clients facing, a way of thinking and an approach that has helped people I work with as well as myself.

Life can be tough, and it sometimes feels overwhelming.  The research is clear; the pace, complexity, uncertainty and challenges we face now, are set to increase.  This can be incredibly difficult at times – leading us to feel stuck; we may end up backing out of the opportunities we desire or creating conflict and difficulty that thwarts our success.

Several things happen when we face pressure, most of it under the surface.  The difficulty shows up in our behaviours and responses; and it exacerbates the discomfort that occurs beneath our consciousness, leading us to feelings such as anxiety, being conflicted, angry or confused.

The role of ego

Ego is the Latin for ‘I’, and you can find many descriptions for what it is. Often thought of as the drive we have to be front and centre – to be noticed, heard or achieve recognition, leading us to act in certain ways.  Carl Jung saw the ego as the thoughts, memories, and emotions a person is aware of. The ego is largely responsible for feelings of identity and continuity.

The drivers of our ego occur mostly below our level of consciousness.  It’s derived from our needs, beliefs and values; the stories we hold. Psychologists understand that when we are born, we do not have an ego as such.  The way a baby experiences the world is free of judgment and interpretation.  Babies see things for what they are, with great presence and mindfulness.  In this way, their ego is unformed, and this is when we were at our most whole.

It was the gaps in our care that formed our ego, our painful experiences created the need to impress, shy away or attack situations.  In part formed to protect the needs humans have to belong, feel safe and keep their dignity.  Our experiences have taught us the patterns that we come to embody and carry forward into our lives, forming our behaviours and thinking.

The ranges of experiences that generate ego responses are immense: being the last one to be picked for a sports team, unavailable or overinvolved parents, or being humiliated by a teacher’s comment could do it…  Many are well understood – middle child syndrome, the responsibility placed on the eldest; or the clown-like fights to get noticed of the youngest child, are just some examples that inform the people we are to become.

Ego’s impact

All these experiences form a felt sense, around where we feel safe, who we are, and how we identify ourselves alongside our peers and in society.  The psychologist Eric Berne said that we have formed the story of our identity and its worth by the age of eight.

Our ego plays a significant role in driving our needs too.  We may have needs around respect, being listened to, affection or being in control. Often these needs are the antithesis of the situations that created our layers of ego.

Our ego develops, wrapping itself around the sense of ‘wholeness’ we once had, creating counteractions; casting a shadow.  Unchecked, it covers up our true sense of self, detracting from our balanced and healthy level of belief (creating over or under confidence) in ourselves.  We encounter egos every day of our lives, those that cannot be wrong, those that always believe they are wrong, those that need to please or don’t wish to please at all; who fail to complete for fear of making a mistake or drive through others at their expense to be a standout success.

Ego and presence

Our egos inform how we create presence. How we carry ourselves; respond, approach and engage with others.  The decisions we make, the way we think about a problem and the choices we think are available to us.  Science now shows that we hold and carry memories of our past in our bodies, as well as our brains.  Making Albert Mehrabian communication pie all the more powerful, with 55% of communication happening through visual stimuli.  We embody our unconscious memories in powerful ways. As a result, others sense our internal belief systems and respond accordingly.

Get to know your ego

In my coaching journey, I came across the ‘whole person approach’, and it resonated with me, but it wasn’t something that I fully understood at the time.  Initially, without seeing my own ‘wholeness’, it was a concept beyond my thinking and development level.  For some, these words will not connect, but if you can recognise the challenge and discomfort I’m talking about, I would encourage you to read on.

There is a strong relationship between our wholeness and our ego; a crucial link is our ‘shadow side’.

Shadow Side: “The ‘shadow’ is the side of your personality that contains all the parts of yourself that you don’t want to admit to having. It is at first, an unconscious side. It is only through effort to become self-aware that we recognise our shadow. Although many infer the shadow is ‘negative’, this is not true.”

Without awareness, your shadow means that much of the way you operate is below your level of consciousness. Developing awareness of your shadow brings an understanding of your needs, how you see the world, and what drives you.  And with this the opportunity to work with, release and also accept yourself and what challenges you.  Awareness is curative!

“How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow? I must have a dark side, if I am to be whole.”  Carl Jung

The use of whole person coaching helps you see yourself more truly.  In working this way, you see the moment you retract yourself and your ego unfolds. With practice, you can reduce your potential to fold inwards on yourself, to have an internal collapse in which you lose your potential.  It enables you to see your strengths and weaknesses and with perspective make choices.  Your light and shadow sides create the power you have to move forward and redevelop a secure identity and acceptance.

Without work

Without wholeness, you get stuck in patterns.  Your shadow side of needs, ego, beliefs unmanaged grows in power, particularly in difficult times. Times that as we already know are becoming more common. You risk becoming the leader who loses it with their staff.   Leadership is a dangerous role when no one can tell you when you have a terrible idea, for fear of the reprisal arising from an unconscious or unmet need.

Without wholeness, you limit your potential; not understanding your actions limits your choices.  When you have unresolved issues, they grow; they show up in your patterns, triggered by deep-seated memories.  When the same old stuff keeps happening to you; it’s a sign that you have a destructive pattern seeking your attention.

Respond V react

When you maintain your sense of wholeness, you see others actions as theirs, resulting from their world.  You respond from a place of wholeness and no longer personalise or catastrophise events.  In a state of wholeness, you believe you are enough.  The jagged edges of your ego are smoothed and with a deeper understanding of yourself, you can catch and evaluate your responses.  You stay present and can become grounded.  When challenged, you can think more clearly and under pressure, you work with others in a connected way, rather than alongside driven by unconscious needs.

To conclude…

We have the potential to write our own stories. However, the pressure and complexity of life can tie us up in knots. We live in a time with incredible opportunities for success.  BUT we are also living with the increasing pressure of a world at a breaking point.

Humanity needs love, respect and vulnerability – people are continually fighting for growth, wellbeing and opportunity. As individuals, we each need to change the lens in which we see our lives and ourselves to achieve our deeply held intentions.  It is no longer about black and white, but about grey, and in grey we have to be open and accepting of others. And while this is incredibly challenging, it holds immense opportunity…

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Contact us if you would like to discuss how Awoken Development could help you or your business.

Jemma Barton.
Director & Coach

Development that sticks

what to do when you’ve completed a development programme and you’re still not there…

Warmest wishes,

Jemma

6 Leadership essentials for creating a culture of trust

I have been reflecting on a discussion I had at a recent event around culture, where trust came up. I see the impact of high and low trust cultures. I listen to leaders who struggle with a perception of needing to have oversight.  They face the paradox of being accountable but also wanting to create a sense of trust and empowerment.

“Cultivating a high-trust culture is not a “soft” skill — it’s a hard necessity. Put another way; it’s the foundational element of high-performing organisations.” Steven Covey

WHY TRUST IS CRITICAL TO CULTURE…

PWC’s 2016 Global CEO Survey revealed that 50% of CEOs worldwide consider lack of trust to be a significant threat to their organisational growth.

Harvard Researcher Paul J Zak’s in-depth research showed that “compared with people at low-trust companies, people at high-trust companies report 74% less stress, 106% more energy at work, 50% higher productivity, 13% fewer sick days, 76% more engagement, 29% more satisfied with their lives, and 40% less burnout.”

In low trust organisations, there are bottlenecks in decision making and powerplays for attention. But it’s not about handing over the reins on the realisation that you need to trust. Your culture needs to move to support trust. One area that I see come up for leaders is managing how and when people work and the discretion they afford people over the approach they take to work. There is a natural fear attached to things being missed, or seeking knowledge and understanding the decisions of others. However, if you can be clear about where responsibility lies and the deliverables expected you can start to build the discretion around how work is carried out. As well as creating trust this approach also creates autonomy, purpose and growth, critical factors for motivation.

As you look to scale your business or move your leadership forward, you will increasingly be required to take a broader approach.  By building strong connections, communication and trust with people in your organisation you strengthen your position.  Here are 6 actions you can start to consciously build into your approach to create a high trust culture:

6 LEADERSHIP ACTIONS TO BUILD TRUST

1. BE REAL AND CONNECT

It’s hard to trust people we don’t know, who don’t let us in or seek connection with us.  As a leader, you should role model the depth and quality of connection in your business. Ensure you meet regularly face to face and when you do that you fully engage in conversations and remove distractions. Be aware of your body language, how you listen and eye contact. Don’t be afraid to share your concerns and fears about a challenge. Also, you will start to notice the quality of insights you get back to give you more significant opportunities for action.  Get to know the people in your business and let them get to know you.

2. ACTING WITH INTEGRITY

It has never been clearer what the public costs are of indiscretions. As a leader, you are watched and the little things people see matter. A failure to keep a promise, a lack of transparency over an issue or acting intentionally with ambiguity are some of the ways people lose trust in their leadership. By having the courage to admit to your fallibility, you will create trust and build transparency and open communication in your organisation.  You will also build a culture where people are open and if creativity and innovation are critical behaviours in your business, this is the ground where these can start to thrive.

3. BENEVOLENCE

‘Thequality of being well-meaning; kindness’ by the Oxford Dictionary

It is a prerequisite for trust. It is through benevolence that people want to stand alongside you as a leader or in an organisation in difficult times. When people know you have their back, that they will have yours. In some organisations benevolence becomes hierarchical, leadership looks after its own and teams replicate this behaviour. It is of little surprise that the organisational system churns out events that embed and reinforce the, us v’s them culture.

Change requires openness, transparency and vulnerability for leadership to extend well-meaning to all, remaining consistent and open through the inevitable push back.

4. COMMUNICATION

Often when we hear the word communication, we think about how we create our message. It is essential to remember that communication is two way. Good communication comes from a place of understanding, and therefore the requirement to listen.

Research shows the company-wide communications and directives are not generally trusted. Leaders need to create opportunities to meet and communicate personally. Some conversations will inevitably be difficult. When you do need to share a problematic message taking time to consider what peoples needs and positions are as well as being able to put yourself in their position. The insights you will get will not only help you create understanding but ensure your message addresses more needs.

How you communicate will contribute to the climate and environment of your business. Your communication is the critical link to your business that creates understanding and drives action. If you fail to communicate others will do it for you, this is when rumour and conspiracies start. Ensure you communicate regularly, on multiple occasions for sensitive issues and invite feedback to confirm the right message is coming across.

5. OPENNESS

Without openness, there can be no trust, as, without trust, we are not open to others. A lack of transparency creates a paradox of people desiring to be trusted but not willing to trust others themselves. Distrust is often a direct result of misunderstanding a situation or misreading the intentions of another. When we are not sure what is happening, we tend to become distrustful.

That is why in a closed environment, there tend to be many rumours. The only way to bring light into the dark room is to open the door. Organisations can vary significantly in their levels of openness – there is a considerable difference in the intent of seeking to consider why something should be shared compared to why something shouldn’t. It’s the difference between knowing what you need to know, and knowing.

Openness creates a sense of belonging, being part of something and having skin in the game. A greater appreciation for challenge and difficulty provides for greater opportunity to be creative and to know and push the boundaries.

6. CONSISTENCY

Actions speak louder than words! People pay attention to what you do, being consistent not only builds credibility it also creates psychological safety — a critical requirement for good performance. If you are inconsistent, it is a behaviour that will show up throughout your organisation. In all parts of a business, consistency builds performance, brand and safety-critical attributes.

Trust is an asset in a business, one that leadership creates, builds and maintains.  It is lost in an instant and part of the reason why leaders must be self-aware enough to both understand their actions and demonstrate their leadership calibre in the most challenging situations.

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Amygdala Hijack: Empowering Your Emotional Intelligence

Amygdala Hijack: Empowering Your Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence: “the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one’s emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically.”

Managing your breaking point…

When you see someone snap, it may be the result of an amygdala hijack. It can happen in an instant, or following a slow build – the amygdala kicks in, overpowering the prefrontal cortex (our rational thinking brain) and emotion takes control. It’s our inbuilt security system awakening at the perception of danger. People sense this as a surge of emotion, a need to take action without considered thought.

Most people will have experienced this, seeing their boss lose their temper, road rage – a fit of anger against a perceived injustice or being left speechless during a meeting in the face of an unacceptable behaviour. Amygdala hijacks are often regretted, however this awareness only occurs once prefrontal cortex has resumed control and the damage has been done. Trust is broken; reputations and relationships are damaged, often leaving the person suffering the hijack trying to justify inexplicable behaviour – ouch!

Tony Schwartz identified the top five work triggers for the amygdala hijack as:

• Condescension
• Being treated unfairly
• Being unappreciated
• Feeling that you’re not being listened to or heard
• Being held to unrealistic deadlines

The science of an obsolete function…

The amygdala was once our survival tool, getting us out of danger when facing predators. It’s now much redundant and often inconvenient in the modern world. It does not recognise the difference between a threat to our survival or a threat to our ego, its responses are firmly set to flight, fight or freeze – when it’s in the pilot seat outcomes can be regrettable – think of Mike Tyson and the ear bite that cost him $3 million.

Hijacks are signified by a strong emotional reaction, sudden onset, followed by regret. The impact of outbursts can damage careers, reputations and erode respect. They occur as the information our senses send to our brains is hijacked by amygdala before the prefrontal cortex can take control. In a hijack neuroscience shows a flood of oxygen to the amygdala at the expense of the prefrontal cortex, the amygdala is in control…

Emotional Intelligence

Daniel Goleman coined the concept of the amygdala hijack as part of theory on Emotional Intelligence/Quotient (EI/EQ). He defined EQ as ‘the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships.’

Watch Daniel Goleman explain his theories of emotional intelligence 

In my post “Letting Good Emotions Roll” I gave an overview of how performance is determined by our emotional intelligence. Hay Group identifies EQ as twice as important as IQ in determining future career success. EQ demonstrates an intrinsic link between individual and company performance, and the EQ of its leaders. Emotions are contagious! In leadership teams, hijacks can jeopardies decisions, collaboration and teamwork. The potential of negative impact and lasting damage is considerable.

Leaders can mitigate hijacks using their EQ – self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy and social skills. Self-regulation requires understanding and acknowledging your feelings. This strengthens your ability to regulate and control brain function, empowering the rational part of the brain. ‘Affect Labeling’ our responses can help to identify and understand our triggers and take effective action.

Highly successful leaders recognise and identify with the emotional landscape, defusing and managing situations. Employing effective tools positively to de-escalate an issue, using humour and empathy rather than a negative contagion of anger. Goleman observed that the best leaders get people to laugh three times more often. His research showed EQ as a key differentiator for leadership success, becoming increasingly important the more senior people become.

EQ has a considerable impact on performance and on how people perceive you. There are some tactics to help maintain control during challenging times:

1. Understand your trigger points and know when you are reaching your threshold
2. Plan ahead, recognise risk factors and potential derailers, plan accordingly
3. Wait at least six seconds before responding; breath deeply
4. Acknowledge your feelings and create choices
5. Take a considered choice, enable your prefrontal cortex to operate
6. Check and modify your behaviour accordingly
7. Acknowledge when you have been hijacked, identify and label the trigger for the future

Simon Senek, in his powerful TED talk; Why Good Leaders Make You Feel Safe; clearly states that trust and cooperation are core requirements for successful leadership, key for creating high performing and engaged teams.   Without self-control, self-regulation and an understanding of people leaders will not be trusted. A leader sets the tone of an organisation, doing so requires EQ, a coaching and supportive approach, authenticity, clear vision and the ability to work in partnership. Leaders are often promoted based on their technical ability and require support to develop effective leadership skills.

Tailored leadership coaching and development programmes support leaders to develop the skills they need to differentiate themselves from the pack.

In my post “Letting Good Emotions Roll” I gave an overview of how performance is determined by our emotional intelligence. Hay Group identifies EQ as twice as important as IQ in determining future career success. EQ demonstrates an intrinsic link between individual and company performance, and the EQ of its leaders. Emotions are contagious! In leadership teams, hijacks can jeopardies decisions, collaboration and teamwork. The potential of negative impact and lasting damage is considerable.

Leaders can mitigate hijacks using their EQ – self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy and social skills. Self-regulation requires understanding and acknowledging your feelings. This strengthens your ability to regulate and control brain function, empowering the rational part of the brain. ‘Affect Labeling’ our responses can help to identify and understand our triggers and take effective action.

Highly successful leaders recognise and identify with the emotional landscape, defusing and managing situations. Employing effective tools positively to de-escalate an issue, using humour and empathy rather than a negative contagion of anger. Goleman observed that the best leaders get people to laugh three times more often. His research showed EQ as a key differentiator for leadership success, becoming increasingly important the more senior people become.

EQ has a considerable impact on performance and on how people perceive you. There are some tactics to help maintain control during challenging times:

1. Understand your trigger points and know when you are reaching your threshold
2. Plan ahead, recognise risk factors and potential derailers, plan accordingly
3. Wait at least six seconds before responding; breath deeply
4. Acknowledge your feelings and create choices
5. Take a considered choice, enable your prefrontal cortex to operate
6. Check and modify your behaviour accordingly
7. Acknowledge when you have been hijacked, identify and label the trigger for the future

Simon Senek, in his powerful TED talk; Why Good Leaders Make You Feel Safe; clearly states that trust and cooperation are core requirements for successful leadership, key for creating high performing and engaged teams.   Without self-control, self-regulation and an understanding of people leaders will not be trusted. A leader sets the tone of an organisation, doing so requires EQ, a coaching and supportive approach, authenticity, clear vision and the ability to work in partnership. Leaders are often promoted based on their technical ability and require support to develop effective leadership skills.

Tailored leadership coaching and development programmes support leaders to develop the skills they need to differentiate themselves from the pack.

Promoting to succeed – why it’s key to develop in leadership transitions

Leading is more than a skill; it’s a way of thinking and being. When we promote people (leadership transitions) to operate at a more senior level one of the biggest requirements placed on them is to develop thinking for what they come to understand of themselves, their organisation and the world in which they operate.

Some leaders have a palpable sense of awareness and perception. And it’s these leaders who are the most effective in complex and challenging environments and who can bring people with them. I believe 58% of leaders fail in their first 18 months (McKinsey) because their thinking has not been developed and they do not recognise what leads them; when they are operating in multiplicity they are out of position.

Organisations challenge leaders

Organisations need leadership to create cohesion and unity, which is the polar opposite of dominance and control. Organisations are systems that respond in relationship to themselves as well as markets, environmental and cultural forces. The impact is unconscious but it creates a culture of conditioned responses that have the potential to generate and magnify conflict and disrupt performance. People are indoctrinated into it because ultimately culture is definitive and people that stand out and do not conform are at risk. Leaders need to develop the capability to see and interpret the system to create organisations that are effective.

But what does this have to do with leadership transitions?

When you have leaders that have grown from the expert; high performing talent pools, no doubt you have highly skilled and capable people. However, individuals need to develop a broad understanding across the organisational functions, its idiosyncrasies.   To have managed the pressure of paradoxes and understand themselves in these environments.  In reality, many of the behaviours that have made experts successful are counterintuitive to the leadership of organisations and need to be reprogrammed in transition.

How do you teach someone affected by culture to influence culture?

Organisations must think about the development of their leaders and their future talent in a different way. Leadership development is not simply skill development, it goes to the core of how people think, perceive and behave. This shift is what’s known as vertical development and this is where real leadership transitions happen.

‘Vertical Development refers to advancement in a person’s thinking capability. The outcome of vertical stage development is the ability to think in more complex, systemic, strategic, and interdependent ways. It is about how you think…’ (CCL)

Historically people development looked at horizontal development – skills, knowledge and behaviour but failed to tackle thinking and perception. Vertical development’s focus and approach are to increases the impact and effectiveness of thinking. It is this form of development that enables leaders to be effective within complexity. The CCL framework shows the shifts that vertical development encompasses an emerging perspective.

Why vertical development is so important.

When you consider how organisations will challenge leaders, it shows there is a deeper level of understanding required. Many people can put labels on what is wrong, even where it is wrong. Leaders with higher levels of development will be able to see how it is wrong, the dynamics and paradoxes at play that have led a system to behave in a certain way. When we promote people into leadership without expanding their thinking, we are effectively creating traps for them. They are left to respond blindly, without being able to see the deeper interconnected contexts at play.

This is ok in transactional roles, where there is clarity over cause and effect and where you can understand with some level of expertise what is at play. However, organisations are increasingly being impacted by multiple factors. We can see from Snowden’s Cynefin Framework (below) the impact complexity needs to have on our thinking and approach. When you are thinking about the environments leaders are being required to operate within it’s clear they need higher levels of vertical development to be effective.

The people dynamic

Alongside and integrated with the complexity that you see in organisations is how people interrelate and respond to each other. People operating every day within the organisational system, its history and leadership will determine whether people harmonise and support, conflict and fight or move away and distance themselves. These are responses to situations, leadership and pressures that have been developed over time, below the consciousness of the organisation. What this means effectively is that people and systems can respond in ways that are counter-intuitive.

When we are trying to impact organisations the people within it need to be involved in moving it forward. Leaders need to be able to bring people together, create dialogue and dive into the stories to enable both individual and common narratives to be shared. Building understanding to be able to see potential areas to probe, experiment and leverage what works and move away from and resolve what does not.

For leaders this means

Leaders must be able to bring together the appropriate people and facilitate experts and disciplines to come together and create dialogue. Being able to see and sense the relationships at play, the dynamics and politics – shining a light and brokering the competing demands and paradoxes. They need to be able to hold space in discomfort and be both challenging and vulnerable, to enable the process and build relationship and movement.

What this means for organisations

Organisations need to have people that can work across the spectrum of complexity and with each other’s thinking. It is now widely recognised that complexity in organisations and markets is increasing, which means that the development of leadership needs to account of this. The overriding research shows that to be effective in this domain, development must impact thinking and broaden understanding to see multiple interactions.

Organisations need to create environments and opportunities to tell stories, to understand the time that the organisation is operating in. What are the causes of the stories and the situations that come up and what are the capabilities required to address these? Ensuring people to be ready for leadership means creating experiences and opportunities throughout the career journey is essential.

A world of ambiguity and complexity means the organisations need to build the ability to be with and work with ‘not knowing’. Traditionally ‘not knowing’ creates a place of discomfort and a need to fix, however it also creates a host of opportunity for collective discovery. Leaders in this space need to be able to hold the discomfort and facilitate exploration.

…and for leadership transitions

Transitions create opportunities to realise potential; they are a hugely fertile developmental grounds. An organisation that understands its challenges can take a strategic overview for career journeys. As can individuals in commanding their own development opportunity.

When people move into a role that places broader requirements on them, their development must enable them to stretch their capacity. To perceive issues, working through and with people to create success. By vertically developing people we provide greater opportunity for them to engage their thinking and work with complexity and ambiguity.

Leadership transitions are a particularly fruitful time, vertical development is fast-tracked under pressure. The heat of these situations means that leaders who are seeking, open to development and change have a great growth opportunity. Therefore development opportunities focused in transition are effective in expanding and broadening perspective and create the opportunity to digest and reflect for vertical growth.

Our Landings to Legacy programme is focused on supporting leadership transitions to be successful.  We also offer transition coaching programmes to help leaders engage and become effective.  This programme supports you in your development to achieve great success in your leadership journey.  Email enquiries@vantagepeople.uk to arrange a consultation.

Self Awareness – it really is a thing!

Have you ever stopped to consider what it’s like to be on the receiving end of yourself? Self-awareness is one of the foundations of leadership, but what does it mean for a leader to be self-aware and why is it essential for leadership development?

Self-awareness is defined as ‘the accurate appraisal and understanding of your abilities and preferences and their implications for your behaviour and their impact on others.’ It’s reality testing; a calibration of yourself.

If you think about the great leaders that you experience, you will often remember them for who they were, how they showed up, how they made you feel and how they enable you to perform. Rather than the tasks they completed.

After all, it is by these attributes that leaders accomplish, by the nature of their role leaders spend much less time doing. Leadership is about relationships and the most critical tool for a leader is their self.

LEADERSHIP STYLES – LEADERS WITH EGO

However, this fact can be a burning platform. Have you ever worked for the ‘me show’ leader? Trust me, it’s not pleasant!

It happens for some reasons, the transition into and through leadership is tough. Leadership roles place leaders under considerable pressure and they’re highly visible but in many ways isolated. Leaders have traditionally been recruited because they stand out from the crowd and are highly self-determined. They hold great focus and clarity – they know how to get stuff done! Quite often you’ll find it’s the self-promoting, ensuring ones achievements have shone out that has got the leader noticed in the first place. Why stop something that’s made you successful?

Recent research shows that one in five CEO’s has psychopathic tendencies, similar to the ratios in prisons! The markers of a psychopath’s behaviour are egocentric, grandiose behaviour, completely lacking empathy and conscience. Yup – I can think of a few… However certain aspects of their behaviour (charm, manipulation, grandiosity, insincerity) are part of their success story.

If we go back and consider what leadership is, it’s not about self – it’s about relationship… And if I ask you to go back again and think about those great leaders you’ve experienced, it won’t be about them – it will be about how they engaged you and made you perform. When we work with developing senior leaders and executives around self-awareness our earlier question about the impact they have is key.

SELF-AWARENESS IN LEADERSHIP

In a world where answers are increasingly unclear and when not even the questions seem to stay the same, leaders ability hold the space and work with uncertainty is crucial. As leaders become less about their ego they seek challenges, are able to be vulnerable and not know. These skills enable leaders to access the knowledge and experiences that are held deep within their organisation and build trust. Leaders with greater self-awareness have much more power and presence to do this.

KNOW THYSELF!
As a coach, I see how low self-awareness impacts. Leaders don’t understand:

• What they stand for, what drives their behaviour.
• What they need and what triggers them.
• What their strengths are and where they add real value.
• Where they fall down and what parts of the thinking and mindset inform that.
• What lens they hold – how it impacts their decisions and judgments.

A coaching client, recently promoted to a senior global role, had the challenge to understand why performance levels were not hitting targets. The process showed it wasn’t the strategy that was wrong; it had been his predecessor’s high people drive.   The initiatives had been good, but he hadn’t challenged the team to push client margins, close deals and deliver numbers that equated to a strong EBIT. He hadn’t created a balance between people and task. Ultimately his lack of self-awareness of what drove his choices led him to be driven by others and caused him to fail.

WHAT IS REAL SELF-AWARENESS?

Knowing your strengths, weaknesses, style, personality and preferences is the start – but it’s getting underneath these to understand how they combine and impact you. Along with these traits your life experiences, upbringing, wins, losses, beliefs, values, the stories you tell yourself, your fears, desires, needs and so much more create a web that informs how you understand and share yourself with the world.

A lack of self-awareness can cause leaders to derail. Leaders need to be able to decode themselves. Is their response to an issue being characterised by a belief they hold, the pressure to achieve a number or a conviction about the relationship they have with another stakeholder..?

Fenigstein identified two forms of self-awareness: private and public. Private self-awareness refers to an understanding of self that is invisible to others, such as thoughts, emotions, perceptions and goals. Conversely, public self-awareness refers to the awareness another’s perception of oneself and often involves an awareness of visible characteristics, such as mannerisms, behaviours and physical appearance.

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT EXERCISES

Leaders with higher levels of self-awareness are therefore much more attune the impact they have on others and the personality and needs others have and how they align with them to create better outcomes.  Here are some ideas that might help:

• Seek feedback, make trusted others aware of what you are focusing on and solicit their feedback. Think carefully whom you approach for feedback – it’s useful to have people who bring an alternative perspective, who will tell you honestly, whose views will create new insights.
• Ensure you build time in to reflect, across a day think about the reactions and feelings you have to people and situations. When you notice a reaction, try and get behind the response you’ve had, what is the story you have about it? What’s that story based on (belief or fact) and is it useful to you?
• Take some time to do some self-discovery work. Understand your goals, values and the beliefs that drive you. Your values have a critical role informing your choices, how you respond and what you are seeking.  Having this knowledge helps you to understand and relate to others.

When leaders abilities grow so does their ability to grow others. As a coach and facilitator I listen to your story, I can also reflect your emotions. However, the biggest impact I can have is by opening up your thinking and understanding about what’s driving you

This work enables leaders to work with their ego and go beyond themselves to see and hold the wider system. To work with and alongside paradox and broaden their perspectives to build the opportunities that challenge and uncertainty bring. Until a leader has accomplished self-awareness and can lead themselves this isn’t attainable. This is the stretch for senior leadership today and why whole person development is critical to driving success.