A personal reflection
on Leadership
At a relatively young age I was fortunate enough to be promoted into a senior leadership position with P&L responsibility and a sizeable team. In retrospect I wasn’t really fully equipped with all of the necessary capabilities (both skills and leadership) and was not open enough to get the support needed. Instinctively I adopted a perceived personality; how I thought I needed to show up at work, opposed to being my authentic self. This led to a lot of system 1* thinking and behaviour - being more on broadcast than listening mode. I may have been financially effective but this was often at the expense of an overworked team. I also presented an extroverted style of leadership, when, in reality I am ambivert (a mix of two) meaning that I ignored the opportunity to use the traits of effective introverted leadership**.
*see Daniel Kahneman - Thinking, fast & slow. ** read up on Darwin Smith, the CEO of Kimberly Clark who 4x shareholder returns versus market averages during his tenure.
“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others”
Jack Welch - Chairman & CEO, General Electric
I found an unexpected Coaching solution. Thanks to feedback I wanted to address the listening issue; I volunteered at a suicide refuge (other events had also contributed to this particular decision). Naturally, at the refuge the gravity of the challenges far exceeded the pressures of P&L responsibility. Being effective meant supporting ‘guests’ in building their own life plan, not solutioning on their behalf, which is reasonably consistent system 1 and extroverted behaviour. The only tool I could use was listening.
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter"
Martin Luther King
Taking that learned experience back into the work place transformed my own way of working, retaining my commercial drive but balancing that with more positive leadership scores (as measured by anonymised 360 appraisals). I was now bringing my true self to the work environment which not only increased the joy I took from my work but created a more open circle of trust in my teams; we could all discuss the challenges, take the positive learnings from any failures and create the best environment for everyone to grow. From a business perspective this harnessed the power of the entire team, giving everyone a voice, empowering everyone and diversifying leadership - all of this translated into better results.
My own epiphany was that I enjoyed coaching my teams above anything else, which has led me to my role today as a dedicated coach. It is also why I believe that truly effective organisations need the dexterity to create layered & inclusive working practices. A cornerstone for all of this is recognising that being completely open and applying greater emotional intelligence is our greatest super power in today’s technology age.
Why Coaching could help you
"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference"
The Serenity prayer