An HR manager from a successful legal practice reached out to me recently asking for some support for one of the senior leaders in her organisation.
Some decisions made by this leader during the height of the pandemic had neither been thought through or communicated terribly well to the people who needed to know. In addition, the fallout from his command and control approach was having a negative impact on other areas of the business. When a couple of key people resigned the individual got a mention in their exit interviews.
The HR Manager approached the senior manager in question to understand his perspective and offer some support. Initially, the leader didn’t understand what all the fuss had been about. He had made a decision and implemented some changes. What was the problem?
What he had not considered was the consequences of his rather rash actions. The emotional upset it had caused among some of his peers and the ripple effects on other areas of the business had run deep. What had turned this normally rational and collaborative decision-maker into someone entirely different?
During the pandemic, there were lots of additional dynamics playing out for leaders and their teams. Leaders were not only having to fully show up at work but each had their own experience of the pandemic. Not an excuse. However think for a moment about your own experience of the last 18 months and I am sure there were some days the professional in you struggled to make an appearance. Confined to the spare bedroom consumed by yet another day of meetings on MS Teams, with shouts for assistance with Google classrooms becoming the norm.
Research shows that there is a high price to pay on a business when even one leader behaves badly. One study found that 30% of people leave their manager and not the organisation so an investment in helping leaders develop themselves, build awareness about who they are, how they lead and the impact of their leadership style is essential. Heightened awareness becomes even more important for a leader to understand when it comes to how they behave and lead under high stress.
As we continue to adapt to new ways of working, deal with the emotional aftermath and embrace the lessons of the last 18 months, what I am hearing from HR, OD managers and those responsible for supporting leaders is a need for effective leadership development strategies, techniques and tools for leading teams’ in these unique times.
If you are wanting to give your leaders space and protected thinking time to reflect on their impact then the safe and confidential space that coaching can provide has to be the number one choice.
Within coaches toolkits, there are lots of tools that are particularly effective when it comes to working with behaviours.
Clarity 4D is one such tool. It’s a self-reported profiling tool. What I particularly like about it is its simplicity. It helps an individual look at their behaviours and psychological preferences from a number of viewpoints and gain a greater awareness of the impact their behaviours have on others.
It provides an opportunity to discuss the options they have in terms of their behaviours – those they have now, those they wish to develop, and others they may wish to minimise or discard.
Using colours, it offers an easy language to describe how the individual interacts and modifies their behaviours when confronted by different types of people and varying situations.
Clients I have worked with report that the Clarity4D profile has helped them discover more about how they see themselves, how others see them and helped them develop more appropriate behaviours. By far the biggest benefit has been the ability to reconnect with their people and build back better relationships.
If any of this resonates for you and you are interested to learn how coaching and profiling can benefit your business then please get in touch. I would love to help.