Understanding Your Personal Leadership Capacity

This post comes courtesy of the intersection of a number of parallel but distinct events and experiences over the past week.  Often times as individual leaders and organizations we feel overwhelmed by the opportunities and challenges before us.  This reality hit me particularly hard - in more ways than one - this week.  I heard flavors of it from a couple of my coaching clients, in a strategic planning session I facilitated and from my own personal and business perspective.

From several of my coaching clients this week I heard the lament of too much on my plate, how do I get this all done, how do I prioritize and/or how do I get others to appreciate that my plate is already full.  If we flip the coin on this lament we can hear some other common themes that are all too often a part of our work these days - diminishing levels of employee engagement and challenges to work/life balance.  Sometimes these results are being borne out because of or in parallel to the perception or reality of lack of resources.  "If I only had more budget, more staff, more supplies...all this would be more manageable."  I suspect, however, that more resources is not the solution.  More resources may just mean higher expectations rather than management of existing workloads.  In some cases it might not matter how many resources were thrown at any one division or leader - the stress level might end up being exactly the same.

Just as challenging it would seem for some leaders or organizations is the willingness to say no or to otherwise prioritize the requests and workloads coming at them.  In some of these cases, as described by my clients, there appears to be an organizational willingness to say "yes" to everything that comes across the table.  Conversely, it may be that there is an organizational unwillingness to say "no" to anything that comes across the table.  This predicament is probably enhanced in the kind of economic downturn that my province is experiencing right now.  Saying no to a request might be perceived as tantamount to asking for your own termination notice.  Unfortunately, too many organizations have not been willing to truly establish the key guideposts by which they would evaluate any initiative that comes before them.  The result is predictable - yes is the answer to every initiative regardless of current workload or resources.  The long-term sustainability of such a response is hardly considered.  Just don't say no now.

Therefore, for me, it was refreshing to recently hear a CEO of a large organization espouse to his executive team and governing board the need to understand - and respect - their personal and organizational capacities.  Rather than demand more and more - as is the wont of many hard-driving executives - he was holding the feet of his people to a different fire.  Understand your capacity.  Understand that there are limits to the time available to you in a day, week, and month.  Understand that there are limits to your ability to handle multiple priorities.  Don't tell me you are going to add another initiative to your plate and keep to every other milestone you have already set.  Chose wisely and execute well.  It was a powerful message and one that clearly was being understood and accepted, even if slowly, over time.

The message of this forward-thinking CEO, an individual that I would no way characterize as soft, stands in sharp contrast to others I have experienced or worked with.  One of the most iconic examples is of a CEO who tried to alter his staff's perspective on prioritization by use of the somewhat infamous "Big Rocks in the Bucket First" exercise.  A decent enough exercise but it presumes that all managers and staff have the ability - or are allowed - to pick their own big rocks.  In the case of the forward-thinking CEO already noted this appeared to be the case (outside of regulated or legislated initiatives).  But for other CEO's, who most often define what the "big rocks" are, there is a lack of appreciation of how many big rocks can be rolled down the hill or the potential consequences of ignoring some of the "little rocks" that others in the organization need to work with.

In fact, perhaps it's time to update the Big Rocks exercise.  Perhaps there has to be an understanding of what size of bucket we are actually working with.  What's our actual capacity?  Perhaps as leaders we need to undertake a bit more of an internal environmental scan before launching the next big rock down the hill and understand how that fits with - or displaces - other rocks we have already launched yesterday or the week before.

The final hitting home point for me on capacity has come on my own business and personal side.  These past two months have been busier than at any other time in my current career and despite the economic downturn we are currently facing.  That fact alone has already challenged my "capacity" and more particularly made me feel that I have been less of the quality family man then I should be ans aspire to be.   Others - most notably my wife - has taken up more of my personal "overflow" than is acceptable.  While potentially manageable in the short-term the stress tolerances of continually exceeding one's capacity has inevitable and predictable consequences.

The lesson of capacity is one that I'm trying to learn (or learn again) in my personal and business life and I trust that you can be more forward-thinking, insightful and discerning as you contemplate launching your next big rock into your leadership or organizational bucket.
_________________________________________________________

Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC
Director - WMC
TEC Canada Chair/Executive Coach/Senior Consultant
hadubiak@wmc.ca

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.

What's Your PCR Level?

Leadership is about change.  Leadership is about seeing what must be done, oftentimes more uniquely than anyone else around you including your competitors.  It's also about understanding how you can effectively, efficiently and profitably implement change, appreciating how all of the various market and internal forces of your company may support or challenge your change effort.  And finally, after appreciating what the environment and opportunity might be, there is the necessity and the courage required to take action.  Without combining action with insight and vision one may be merely in possession of a beautiful but unrealized dream.

Effective leadership, however, doesn't start by scanning the external environment for threats and opportunities, nor by looking at the skills, abilities and capacities of one's company or staff.  In my estimation, effective leadership comes from the ability to critically evaluate one's own leadership skills and gaps.  Moreover, once that assessment is made there is a requirement to act on the opportunities presented.  In this regard I then ask you what's your PCR Level - what is your Personal Readiness for Change?

By any measure, regardless of sector we are working in, we see and believe ourselves to be in change overload mode.  Nothing stays the same for long.  Science fiction technologies we dreamed of only yesterday are today's reality.  For me one of the best examples is the ongoing drive (no pun intended) to realize driver-less technology - taking the human factor out of the automobile.  If you are like me perhaps your first thought is what impact could this have on the transportation sector.  But if we think bigger what might realization of this science fiction dream mean for the insurance industry (e.g., are they still going to be in the business of insuring individual drivers), education (e.g., will there be anything like driver's education and licensing?), and entertainment (e.g., I guess I don't have to worry about getting my next distracted driving ticket anymore...).  What does this kind of rapid and disruptive change mean for where you are working now and what kind of leader you will need to be?

If we go back to a core definition of what makes a leader - seeing what needs to be done, understanding how it could be done, and having the courage to act - how will you effect continuous evolution (or revolution) in your leadership?  I don't really believe that there is any question of whether you should or should not invest in your continuous evolution as a leader.  Perhaps the only leaders who might consider themselves immune from this requirement are those who are only a few years (or months) away from retirement and those that have become independently wealthy.

So how do you see what needs to be done for your leadership evolution?  Do you periodically and objectively evaluate your leadership acumen through a skillfully applied and interpreted set of assessment instruments (e.g., EQi, SDI, etc.), do you seek out broad-based feedback from key stakeholders (e.g., Board of Directors, peers, subordinates), or do you open yourself for "review" by a peer advisory forum (e.g., TEC Canada) on an annual or more frequent basis.  Ideally, you are not just relying on your own level of self-awareness to achieve insight to target next steps in your leadership evolution and development.  We all have blinders on - for good or bad - and we all require other perspectives to truly come to conclusion and really see ourselves as we are, warts and all.

Second, do then investigate and appreciate the "how" of dealing with the "what" you have seen for yourself?  Too many leaders suggest or kid themselves into believing that they simply don't have time for ongoing self development.  They are far too important to be absent for any length of time from their place of business.  They are irreplaceable.  The fact is that if you believe any part of the reality of being the most important tool you have to ensure the success of your business venture then you are too important to not devote time to your leadership development and evolution.  EVERY tool must be sharpened periodically to continue to be effective.  To be of any use to your business you had better be the sharpest tool in the toolbox.

Finally, both in terms of seeing what must be done for yourself and how it may come to pass, you must have the courage to act.  This means having the humility to see your leadership for the quality it is and is not.  It also means having the courage and humility to recognize that some of your skills may be outmoded and need of upgrading or wholesale replacement.  The key word here is humility. I've worked with too many leaders who failed to appreciate - or actively resisted/dismissed - the feedback they were receiving.  Alternatively, despite having received and accepted the feedback, they felt they could not afford the time or money to invest in their leadership development.  Either way they ended up doing a disservice to themselves, failing to reach their true potential and effectively held back the performance of their staff and their company.

So what's your PCR Level?  Are you willing to see yourself objectively, are you prepared to truly evaluate your options for improvement, and are you prepared to act with humility and courage to take your leadership to the next level required by the changes happening around you.  It's not science fiction.  It's About Leadership.

_________________________________________________________

Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC
Director - WMC
TEC Canada Chair/Executive Coach/Senior Consultant
hadubiak@wmc.ca

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.

When NOT to use Executive Coaching

I'm a strong advocate for the use of executive coaching.  As an executive coach myself you'd probably expect nothing else.  However, I'm not just speaking as someone who provides executive coaching services but also as someone who has benefited from and continues to benefit from using an executive coach.  I've experienced first hand the power of having an unbiased sounding board and accountability partner work with me to perform at the next level or work through particularly challenging times.

However, while executive coaching can be one of the most effective ways of accelerating your development as a leader its not the panacea for all situations or circumstances.  There are in fact times when an individual and an organization should consider other options for addressing leadership or organizational challenges.  I identify some of these circumstances - where executive coaching may not be your first choice - below.

1. Executive Coaching in lieu of performance management.  Good executive coaching should not be substituted for good - or bad - management.  I've had a few occasions where I've been approached to undertake a coaching engagement where it's clear that a leader's perspective or that of an organization is that executive coaching is the last ditch effort to "salvage" an employee.  At this stage, its often relatively clear that the employee in question is on their last chance but unfortunately have gotten to this point because of poor hiring process at the beginning of their tenure, poor expectation setting and communication on the part of their direct superior, or a combination of related factors.  Ideally, executive coaching is more often applied to advancing an organization's high potentials rather than salvaging those an organization no longer has any faith in.  More often than not in these cases I would prefer to coach both the employee offered the opportunity as well as their direct superior.
2. Lack of defined outcomes or objectives.   Any good executive coach and any strong organization will seek to establish an understanding of specific goals and objectives for the engagement.  Whether sought out by an individual or secured through organizational endeavor, the quality of an coaching engagement is measurably improved when all parties involved are on the same page when it comes to understanding what success is supposed to look like.  If there are no clear outcomes established - whether at the outset or relatively early in the engagement - then there is a risk of "any destination will do" coming into play.  As with any initiative, being able to define and measure success is key to achieving such.  
   
3. Client is unprepared to work.  An executive coach is there to challenge your thinking and assumptions, to move you to new levels of performance, and to enhance confidence through action.  But just as it is incumbent upon you (sometimes in partnership with your organization) to define the outcomes it is equally essential that you show up in the coaching session ready to work.  The time spent with a coach should not be akin to pulling teeth - you are addressing your current challenges, taking charge of your future, and you should be prepared to work as hard - and harder - than your coach.  You should not expect your coach to offer up ready-made solutions.  A coach is there to help you discover and execute on your own self-discovered plan of attack.  If you expect your coach to do the heavy lifting for you you are probably not ready for, nor will you fully benefit, from working with an executive coach. 
4. Client is unprepared to work - Part II.  The work in a coaching engagement doesn't just or even mostly happen when you are face-to-face with your executive coach.  Your time with your executive coach is designed to develop plans, explore options, test assumptions and commit to change.  While a change in perspective and perception will happen in the executive coaching session, delivery and action happens in between sessions and back at the coal face of your work.  All the best laid plans are only as effective what actually happens when you implement your plans.  If you have no interest in implementing your plans or making time for change in your work its best not to engage an executive coach.  
5. Unprepared to Change.  If you are thinking about engaging an executive coach, be prepared to change.  Growth comes only from change.  Change is often or entirely uncomfortable.  If you are only looking for validation or affirmation there are likely other avenues for you to pursue.  Engaging with an executive coach is not about maintenance or just having a great conversation.  You - or your organization - is expecting you to evolve, grow and change as a result of the investment of time and money made in an executive coach.  Work with an executive coach is not about maintenance of status quo.  You should expect that when you choose an executive coach that you will be undertaking new challenges, overcoming anxieties, and assertively progressing forward.  The coaching engagement should make you feel uncomfortable.  Be prepared for and embrace change!
   
   
6. Unprepared to drive the agenda.  Sometimes it's of benefit to think of your executive coach as your co-pilot.  You are in charge of where you need to go.  You define the work for each session.  Again your executive coach will be there as a guide, a thinking partner, and a challenger, but you are in charge.  You are the leader in your business (and personal life) so be the leader in your own personal development.  Work with your co-pilot to plot the course at each session and once decided focus on your path.
7. Unprepared to be truthful, candid and honest.  Your executive coach is focused on your success.  Period.  In that regard, if you have done the best job possible in selecting your executive coach you've determined a fit does in fact exist, you trust the person in front of you and you are confident in their track record in support of your goals.  So don't beat around the bush.  Time is money and if you are going to move forward assertively be prepared to be vulnerable.  It's in your best interests and your executive coach has no other agenda than what works for you.
   
   
8. Unprepared to own the coaching relationship.  As tough as it might be for some executive coaches, you are the customer and the customer is always right.  Tell your coach - your vendor - what is working for you in the coaching engagement, what's not working and how the work can be changed to be more effective.  If you are not prepared to do that you may be disappointed in the results you get - or don't get. 

Coaching can be a powerful tool in moving leadership forward in a powerful way but much of that success depends on using it in the right circumstances, for the right reasons, and with ownership of the effort on your behalf and that of your organization. 

 _________________________________________________________

Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC
Executive Coach/Senior Consultant
gregh@breakpoint.solutions
780-250-2543

Helping leaders realize their strengths and enabling organizations to achieve their potential through the application of my leadership experience and coaching skills. I act as a point of leverage for my clients. I AM their Force Multiplier.