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Coaching Corner
The risks of ‘knowing it all’
Leaders are human beings. As a leader of other human beings, you face complex and intricate challenges every day. At times, pinpointing and articulating these challenges can be difficult. However, until you can thoroughly address and resolve them, they have the potential to hinder your personal growth and your team’s success. This is where expert coaching can come in.
The Challenge
Jan is the CFO of a very dynamic multinational company. This role has historically been suited to Jan’s technical capabilities and temperament. Highly intelligent and known for risk-taking, Jan has enjoyed significant success in the past. But there is an issue:. Jan finds it difficult to take the counsel of colleagues — and this is particularly true with subordinates. Jan tends not to listen to others and can be very stubborn in terms of decision-making. Recently, this has come to a head.
One of the finance managers on Jan’s team has voiced concerns about foreign currency fluctuations and emailed the senior management team recommending the company hedge its financial assets and investments to avoid serious losses. Jan, however, chooses to ignore this advice, believing hedging to be unnecessary: a view that Jan doggedly cleaves to despite the evidence.
In the event Jan’s subordinate is quite right. The company loses a very significant amount of money because of Jan’s failure to listen and take remedial action. The losses are so serious that the company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) wants immediate answers. Jan is in the firing line.
Anxious about the future and uncertain quite how this has come to pass, Jan seeks the advice and support of an executive coach.
The Coaching Journey
Jan’s immediate response on learning of these major financial losses is to apportion blame to others. The finance manager who first flagged the risk, says Jan, is at fault for “not having insisted enough.” However, working with the coach, Jan begins to see certain flaws in this thinking.
The coach challenges Jan to reframe the situation, asking if there are aspects of Jan’s leadership approach that might have made it difficult to accept advice or look for alternative perspectives. This is a first step towards building greater self-awareness. With the coach acting as a “mirror,” Jan makes a first critical discovery.
“Do you see courage as something greater than humility?”
Jan’s successes have been historically tied to task orientation and an obsession with pragmatism that has served Jan well in functional roles. But ascending to leadership, Jan has failed to develop certain interpersonal capabilities, the people skills that help leaders remain open and receptive to external expertise and diverse perspectives. Overly self-reliant on innate skills and knowledge, Jan has become more arrogant over time, which Jan’s spouse has also noticed and mentioned.
Talking to the coach, it becomes clear that Jan has been taking a “90:10” approach to leadership: Jan is a “good driver” who gets it right and is safe 90% of the time but takes dangerous risks the other 10%. Jan now understands that the 10%, can be lethal.
Digging deeper into why Jan’s thinking and behavior has evolved this way, something else emerges. The pursuit of excellence characterized Jan’s childhood and upbringing. Both of Jan’s parents had systematically pushed Jan to be the best in every endeavor, and as a result, being “better” than others has become embedded in Jan’s sense of self-worth. This lifelong habit has found its expression in arrogance, an arrogance that could now cost Jan a job.
Impact
Over successive sessions, Jan works with the coach on techniques and tools to build self-awareness. Jan starts to appreciate the need to work on listening skills and to question behaviors that shut other people out or diminish their expertise.
During this coaching journey, Jan and the CEO come to a mutual decision. Jan leaves the company to take time out and reflect on the lessons that are emerging and on future directions. A critical function of this is stepping back into the family more and enacting a shift from task-to-people-oriented thinking.
Taking this sabbatical to be with the family and to reframe the future altogether, Jan begins to understand that no individual has all the answers all the time, and that effective leadership is built on listening and prioritizing other people just as much as having technical capabilities. This is a long journey, and walking away from the company is a major step for Jan. But there are critical learnings available to Jan that will undergo sustained future success in the years to come.
Jan is aware of this and the risks that accrue with arrogance — a tremendous shift in thinking and an important advantage that Jan will take into the next leadership role.
Questions to ask yourself
- Do you see courage as something greater than humility?
- Do you prioritize seeking other people’s input and perspective on complex issues?
- Would you say your listening skills are adequate, or could you improve them in some way?
In the Coaching Corner series, we share real-world, practical coaching scenarios. Read on to discover the specific challenges highlighted in the cases and the insights that could help you navigate and find solutions to your own multifaceted challenges. How might these insights and questions apply to you?
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