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The leader’s role

The remit of the leaders I coach is to develop and drive strategy, and to inspire its implementation. However, a number of my recent clients in leadership roles have found themselves trapped in the detail of the operational, needing (and often desperate for) the headspace that’s necessary to fulfil their bigger strategic agenda.

The motivations and pressures

Some of them feel that working in the detail is foisted upon them by line managers who need things to be done, and call constantly on their reliable second-in-command without taking account of where that individual might be best deployed – or indeed what they’re actually being paid for.

Some of them are working in an organisational culture which is focused on the detail of ‘getting it right’ rather than revisiting their processes, people and outcomes (both aspired to and achieved) in order to properly plan ‘the right thing’.

Others know that they are getting drawn into the detail because no-one else is dealing with it, and so – almost unthinkingly – they leap into the gap, and can’t work out how to get out of it.

And yet others resort to it as a familiar place of safety, because it’s where they’ve always been, what they’ve grown up to expect of themselves (they may carry messages about being valued if they work hard, needing to be seen to be ‘doing the doing’, having status if they’re involved in everything, or enjoying the satisfaction of the quick results that can come from ‘getting things done’.

Revisiting operational detail

However, operational detail is not the domain of the leader, and if they’re inappropriately involved in these areas their teams will lack the bigger sense of direction, perspective and focus they need if they’re to achieve what they need to. The leader who is overly involved in the detail is letting their team down, and may indeed have trouble accounting for themselves further up the line. They may fail to spot and implement necessary strategic change because their time, energy and attention are taken up with rearranging the deckchairs on a metaphorical Titanic: they may just not notice the big issues while the deck on which they’re standing slides inexorably into the sea.

Fighting your way out of the web

The first task is to realise that change needs to happen – and if the individual doesn’t realise it of their own accord, it may take a boss or an external person, such as a coach, to call attention to it. Each leader will then find their own way of extricating themselves from the web that traps them.

Old loyalties and wilful blindness

For many the way forward comes from mindfully recognising old loyalties – people, messages or patterns of behaviour that they have brought with them from a long way back – and which are now a burden, although they may not have realised this. Some may be wilfully blind – not seeing what is in front of them and what is plain to everyone around them, but resorting to the very human behaviour of ignoring them.

Speak truth to power

Some need to find the courage to speak the truth to power – facing a boss who is expecting them to fulfil detail as an outcome of their role. This isn’t easy because it’s overlaid with fear, and the very finding of the courage and the clarity can take some work and some preparation. However, if they remember that, as educator and author Stephen Covey wrote ‘the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing’, they can stay focused.

The bigger picture of the bigger picture

For that they need to step back regularly and with discipline to honestly face where things are going and revisit with a fresh mind what needs to be happening, and what their role is in that. They need to see the bigger picture – and the bigger picture of the bigger picture.

The underlay: courage and resilience

To sustain all the above, both courage and resilience are necessary: it can be a long, hard journey, but there are ways to nourish that courage and resilience. And interestingly, building self-awareness and systemic awareness, building clarity of purpose and values, building presence and mindfulness, and becoming familiar with your emotions and behaviours can be the way forward.

Photo by Ivan Radic via Compfight

Trapped in the detail

The remit of leaders is to develop and drive strategy, and to inspire its implementation. However, those in leadership roles can find themselves trapped in the detail of the operational. If they’re inappropriately involved in these areas, their teams will lack the bigger sense of direction, perspective and focus they need. The first important step for the leader is to realise that change needs to happen, and each will find their own way of implementing that change - perhaps through mindfully reviewing old loyalties to ideas and people, or surfacing wilful blindness, or speaking truth to power. Courage and resilience are fundamental to the change that's needed, along with self-awareness and systemic awareness.

Confidence on the coaching agenda

Confidence is the result of resolving or settling issues which may be related to identity, belonging, self-esteem, self-acceptance, resilience, the culture of the client’s organisation, or indeed countless other issues which interrelate, intersect and are interdependent. It manifests in a host of different ways, including effectiveness, efficiency, assertiveness, finding one’s voice, creativity, more balanced relationships, the resolution of conflict, respect and care for one’s own wellbeing, a reduction in stress, and a sense of personal peace. Leaders who constantly build the confidence of their people see that its relationship with the successful release of potential is direct and significant.

Parallel or converging?

My article 'Parallel or converging?', published in the May/June 2019 edition of Coaching at Work, takes a geometrical look at how I interpret my own experience, the client's wellbeing, and the importance of neither projecting onto the client, nor converging nor colluding nor getting drawn in to a parllel process.

Burning out - and recovering health

I’m coaching two individuals who are on the verge of burning out. Both are hugely committed to their jobs and their organisations, both are talented, and both are high achievers. And no-one in their workplaces has looked beyond their stellar performance or considered what it costs them on a personal basis to deliver that level of performance. No-one has guided them back towards a healthy way of working. A first useful step for them is to engage with, and accept, the tricky task of facing the truth of what is happening. And the second step is a visit to the GP or to Occupational Health.

Why don't you hear me?

Talented people may feel a sense of isolation – lonely (nearly) at the top of their organisations - either because their perceived currency has diminished, or because it has been inconvenient to hear them, or because established hierarchies and power structures don’t allow their voices to be heard and their true value to be released. There is no simple, linear solution: the answer lies in a blend of self-awareness, mindfulness, systemic awareness, finding your voice, multiple perspectives to broaden your thinking, and listening to your intuition and your wisdom.

The end and the beginning

My article 'The end and the beginning' - Coaching at Work's reflection column in the March/April issue - takes as its context the Buddhist wisdom that what the caterpillar perceives as the end, to the butterfly is just the beginning. I consider my contrasting experience in working with, on the one hand, clients who have real energy for change, and, on the other, clients who resist change. Both endings and beginnings need respect for their time and their process.

The uncertain and the unknown

Uncertainty is an inevitable part of both our personal lives and our organisational lives. Self-awareness, self-understanding, and awareness of the systems we’re part of give us a foundation of ‘the known’ in a context where much may be unknown. This, in turn, can give us a greater sense of safety and agency. In addition, the acceptance of what is – acceptance of the now – is perhaps the most powerful source of calm in the turbulence of uncertainty. Mindfulness – awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgementally - encourages focus and distances us from distracting thoughts and emotions. Not only is it relaxing, but it also nurtures a quiet confidence in the present moment.

Humility and the advancement of the executive career

Humility is the capacity to recognise that you – how ever junior to me – offer something (a talent, a skill, an insight) that I don’t have, and that in that sense you are important to my success as a leader, and to our success as a team and as an organisation. Indeed, I am dependent on you – no matter in how small a way - in the system that we are all part of. Humility can be a key - albeit surprising - factor in the advancement of executive careers. More and more organisations are recognising the value of – and are recruiting for – talent that demonstrates the ability to be humble.

Inconvenient truths

My latest article, in Coaching at Work magazine's reflection column (Jan/Feb 2019 edition), looks at our reluctance as human beings to face uncomfortable facts, and the implications for organisational behaviour, especially where this can be counterproductive, or lead to ignoring obvious truths, such as poor leadership or distress in a team. I believe my role as external coach carries responsibility to surface and illuminate what may be hidden or opaque, to peel away layers of wilful blindness and enable sight of reality, which can be uncomfortable, confronting and liberating for my clients

Authority, courage and the leader

There's an interconnection between a leader stepping appropriately into their authority, on the one hand, and their courage, on the other. An effective leader understands their team and their client group, and is able to stay up to date with their needs, changes in those needs, and changes in the context and the system that impact on those needs: they are in touch with the ebb and flow – and act on it - without getting sucked in to the detail, and they can anticipate and prepare for changes. This takes courage.

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