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Confusion. Instability. Chaos.

I’m encountering these issues more and more frequently in my coaching sessions. Senior people holding significant responsibility are sometimes struggling with lack of clarity around a whole range of issues: where their job boundaries are, what’s expected of them, how their performance will be evaluated, what’ll ensure or inhibit their continued future in their roles – and of course in our rapidly-changing world, where the next competitive threat will come from, whether a competing product or service or the leakage of their talent. Not only does this diminish their motivation, because they have no clear sense of progress, but it also causes the kind of overwhelm and stress that depletes confidence, stifles hope and destroys health.

Some of my clients operate in a kind of chaos: constantly changing goalposts on a playing field whose shape and dimensions seem to be constantly changing too, alongside constantly shifting relationships – relationships that felt safe yesterday but feel precarious today.

My sense is that the drive for speed, for getting more out of less (including people) and for treating people as commodities rather than valuing them as humans have something to do with it.

However, the fact remains that leaders need not only to survive, but to thrive, and to enable their teams and their organisations to thrive in contexts where the basic human needs for certainty, autonomy and relationships are denied to them (for more on these needs or motivations, see the article on his SCARF model by neuroleadership specialist Dr David Rock).

What strikes me when I’m coaching clients in such situations is the tension between the organisational requirement (or more frequently pressure) to achieve high-impact, large-scale, significant results on the one hand and the individual leader’s fundamental need to get the basics in place before they can deliver any kind of result at all in the confusion and chaos: to find a calm place in themselves where they can think both objectively and creatively, to feel a degree of trust and consistency in their relationships, to know what matters to them and to feel able to hold on to those values. To feel safe in their vulnerability.

I’m struck by the irony that while their organisations are demanding big results, what these leaders really need is the simplicity and peace to know who they are and that they have the resources to sustain and nourish themselves.

Often an exercise in mindful breathing – time out from the maelstrom – is enough to begin to restore the balance through the most fundamental and life-sustaining activity that a human being can engage in. Then the priority is self-care (which often seems counter-intuitive to a leader racing to survive). And then what helps is to begin to rebuild structures that can contain and order the chaos: identify and build a small number of key relationships, define organisational and personal purpose, regain a sense of identity – where the individual’s place is within the purpose, set success measures (how ever modest or short term), and know what it is that really matters.

Basic, fundamental, modest stuff. But without it no real results are possible, let alone ambitious ones.

Photo by Zoagli via Compfight

Chaos and organisational life

In the chaos and confusion that sometimes is the hallmark of life at work, while their organisations are demanding big results, what leaders really need is the simplicity and peace to know who they are and that they have the resources to sustain and nourish themselves.

Creativity, innovation and leadership

David Bowie, pop artist and visual artist, was a creative and innovative pioneer. The leaders we need in our turbulent and fast-changing climate likewise value experimentation, creativity and innovation, they read the market and the system, and they have the courage to pioneer.

Career refocus: stepping off the treadmill

Several of my executive coaching clients feel like they're on a treadmill, stressed and under pressure. And yet it's exceptional for any of them to choose to get off the treadmill. Instead, they make career decisions based on a fuller sense of awareness, within a context of well thought-through perspectives, rather than being based on emotion, stress, exhaustion or just not seeing broader horizons

Development and transformation as coaching outcomes

Development is the release of more of an individual's potential and transformation is a fundamental shift in thinking, feeling or behaving. In my experience the shift is often around a previously unresolved issue that an individual has kept carefully guarded for a very long time. When they make their peace with that old issue in a transformational way, the change sticks and the chances are higher that they will become a transformational leader.

Mindfulness: coaching the leader

Mindfulness training and practice enable sustained attention, an improved capacity to regulate emotions and to manage that chatter in the mind that can so inhibit constructive thinking, reduced stress levels and increased resilience and well-being. How will my clients benefit from my training in mindfulness.

Mindfulness, leadership and results

Mindful awareness is about learning to pay attention, in the present moment, and without judgement. It's like training a muscle - training attention to be where you want it to be. It's a valuable tool for impactful leadership.

Building blocks of healthy relationships: autonomy

Leaders who treat their people as autonomous adults are likely to get the best out of them: an autocratic style gets quick, short-term results but anything less than an empowering style doesn’t adequately nurture the discretionary effort and engagement that are essential for organisational success.

Building blocks of healthy relationships: respect, care and listening

Through healthy relationships individuals flourish, they become balanced and resilient, and they contribute to the world around them with energy and commitment. In such circumstances it’s relatively easy for people to learn how to manage their emotions by articulating them and being heard rather than judged. The messages for leadership are clear.

Relationships: the leader’s secret weapon

Leaders are sometimes tempted to focus on the task and the process for fulfilling that task. Such an approach may bring short-term results, but the real differences are made when the leader focuses on strengthening relationships, listening and building trust.

Neuroscience and the leader

We all have not one but several selves, and several self-esteems, and it is in part the job of the coach to enable the coaching client to raise their awareness of their range of selves rather than of one self. Self-esteem varies according to context and we have several self-esteems alongside our several selves. The coach can play a valuable role in working with the coaching client to uncover and manage those self-esteems.

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