Conscious Leadership–There Is No Crying in Baseball nor Executive Leadership… Yes, There Is and That’s Fine

Conscious Leadership Scenario:

About half of new executive transitions are considered failures within two years- but why? I’ve coached hundreds of struggling executives over the years, and almost every time, their failure is a surprise. The story usually goes something like this: They’ve been high performers their entire careers. As they moved up, they always received high praise. For the most part, people liked working on their teams, and they got along well with their peers. 

Leadership Fail:

As senior executives navigate through the “Never Enough” wickets of board meetings and senior executive team meetings – THE SWITCH flips. The usual cycle of a new challenge, work hard, succeed, and move on is suddenly short-circuited—the high performer stalls. They almost always keep their struggles private. But sooner or later, the private struggle fails and things start to unravel.

Negative Affect on Culture and Organizational Performance: 

There’s always a step back in performance. The senior executive’s team falls behind and the negative mood affects morale, then you start to see turnover up-and-down the team’s organizational chart. The performance of the business unit will almost certainly drop off. Then there’s the opportunity cost of actions not taken. 

The common excuses for not getting senior executives help and boosting them back on track:

1) Executives should be able to figure it out.

2) We can’t afford coaches for executives.

3) You can’t train for this.

Conscious Leadership Solution:

How to help senior executives succeed in a never enough society?
Are you interested in helping others and getting your organization back on track?

First and foremost, understand what’s going on behind the scenes with your executives. There are four forces of executive pressure that often cause people to fail. These pressures are related to how they handle the business, their network, their team, and themselves.

Option 1) One powerful approach is to connect your executives with experienced coaches who have undergone specialized training to help uncover the potential pitfalls in their new role(s).

Option 2) Simulated role immersions can also be useful by helping leaders see how they react to common day-to-day challenges in the life of an executive. Gaining this perspective on one’s approach to leadership is immensely revealing to senior executives.  

Option 3) It may also be useful to consider shared development experiences. This can help your executive teams grow together. Shared development can also add both efficiency and energy to the learning process. Group experiences have the added bonus of helping develop stronger bonds. Participants move forward with a better network of alliances across the organization.

The success of the business is in the hands of the leaders. Let’s step up and provide them guidance, development, and heartfelt vulnerable leadership skills. 

Live2Lead

Travis