Leadership is a tight-rope walk, your coach is your balancing pole...
Alexis was almost a decade old in this organization. While she had handled a multitude of roles in the past, this new one was unlike any other. She had a strong analytical mind – and often made robust recommendations considering all possible repercussions. So when a senior leader moved on, she was the obvious choice as a successor. All the senior folks knew her, valued her journey and her perspective and that made her the best person to liaison with them. It’s tough being a new leader. Alexis was not only someone who did a great job to present the pros and cons of a particular decision for someone else to decide, she was now the decision maker. The lens of talking to people was a more “organizational” one.
Promotions, be it of any nature are probably one of the most difficult transitions at the workplace. For Alexis, this was about defining her own deliverables in that role. The success of many a cross functional projects that she sponsored would rest on how smoothly she was able to get other people to work with each other.
Ascendancy into leadership carries with it profound opportunities, challenges, and responsibilities—and few people are truly ready for what awaits them. Most people when presented with the opportunity to become business leaders, take a more commonsensical approach. A lot of the actual leadership muscle building is by chance, unconscious and very subtle. Leaders need to tend to daily uncertainties and struggles, and their true learning of being a conscious or a more choice-aware leader recedes into the background.
Alexis’s success was now tied to how well the company performed across the strategic projects she led - and that changed the game for her. Two months into the role, and Alexis felt the need to have a sounding board for all things work and also somebody who Alexis would always have firmly in her corner.
Did you know that almost 50% of those promoted into the highest levels of leadership fail within the first eighteen months. Leaders day in and day out have to deal with anxiety, self-doubt, overwhelming responsibility of people that they don’t know about - all the while maintaining the facade of being collected and focused. It’s a superhuman ask, no wonder the failure percentage is so high. What's the fail safe against this kind of statistic? What can an organisation do to set up its leaders and hence itself for success?
In this chaos, what can a coach help a leader with?
How do you think having a coach will help Alexis become better in this role?
Being cognisant of power and how it impacts listening - Leadership is a powerful position. It doesn’t corrupt people as much as it alters them, sometimes irrevocably. Of course there’s the adrenaline rush of being all powerful, but there’s also the realisation that all this rides on you. What makes this complicated is that - it’s not just the leader whose behaviour changes, it’s the behaviour of those close to her too. Everybody modifies their behaviour in accordance with assumed expectations/ perceptions. What’s the leader to do?
The coach in this case helps with building a powerful leader. The coach brings an understanding that the leader’s perception to those closest to her can no longer be completely relied on. Depending on what she’s doing, the perception and the political repercussions will vary from person to person. The coach is a powerful influence here and bridges the gap between what someone means to say, and what the leader hears. In bringing awareness to the power of the leader, the coach is actually shining a light on what you are listening to. Are you listening to only what works for you, or are you actively listening? The coach helps you reflect on how you gather your information. How much are you really tuned into hearing beyond what's said?
Alexis knew folks from all over the company and heard a lot of what everybody was saying. But she didn’t realise till her coach Sandy came in, was that, it was mostly conjecture, feelings gone awry or just may be somebody having a bad day. And there was no way, that she would take decisions based on how somebody was feeling that day. That was one of her major realisations.
Misbehaviour is rarely deliberate. When you read that line, you nod and think yeah, but of course. But when you judge another for their misbehavior, you never credit them with the benefit of doubt. You assume intentional misbehaviour. When a leader does this, misbehaves or is at the receiving end of misbehavior, the impact is magnified - for ALL. When a leader misbehaves there are questions asked in terms of fairness, inequity, bias, favouritism and so on. When a leader is misbehaved with, there are questions asked in terms of how well she handled the situation, what else she could have done to contain it, what did the leader do to incite such behaviour from a coworker. You see, in both cases, the onus - or at least the implicit onus rests on the leader.
Alexis though new at the role was finally getting her bearings right. Given the deluge of information that made its way to her, she couldn’t but sometimes be misled by what she heard. Even though there were no permanent decisions based on those, it unconsciously affected her attitude towards people. Harmless enough. Everybody, even the boss can have a bad day.
Her coach was able to help Alexis see how her role was “magnified” through the lens of power. It’s unfair of course to expect the leader to be everything, but it’s only natural to expect everything from your leader. When a leader shares her opinions and time freely, and never hesitates to make suggestions and offer advice or to step up for others, others may either see this as supporting or as patronising, so contextualizing to the needs of the receiver becomes a critical leadership skill.
It might be easy to dismiss what a leader goes through, after all they did sign up for it. But this in no way minimises what they actually go through in order to lead. There are countless cases where vulnerability and being humane are touted as the best thing for a leader to be, but ultimately in all situations they are seen through the power lens. That isn’t always a pretty place to be in. Having a coach, who is firmly in your corner, can help you tremendously to walk on this tight-rope.