How to Turn Around an Ineffective Leader
By Linn Brynildsen, Consultant, OPP®
Introduction
What does it mean to be an 'ineffective leader'?
Turning around - what is required?
Understanding environment and relationships
Self-Awareness
Goals, Mobility and Motivation to Change
Support to Sustain
Where are we trying to get to?
Introduction
Leaders today are facing a demanding and fast-paced environment in which they must demonstrate high performance and produce results. In this results-driven culture, leadership development often revolves around outcomes, competencies and skills. At face value this appears to make business sense, but in their chase for success, leaders rarely receive continuing feedback and support to meet these high demands and self-reflection and personal development is seldom a priority. It may therefore be difficult to see when and how they started to become ineffective.
Back to top ^
What does it mean to be an 'ineffective leader'?
Research highlights common indicators of leadership ineffectiveness as: problems with interpersonal relationships; failure to meet business objectives; failure to build and lead a high performing team; and inability to change or adapt to change during a transition (Zeus & Skiffington, 2003). More often than not, however, the reasons will be much more complex. Leaders' personal experiences, underlying issues and obstacles may interfere with their ability to perform effectively or reach their potential.
Various methods can help turn around an ineffective leader. These include action learning, team development, training and coaching. An experienced, professional coach can be invaluable to the process. OPP® coaches are business psychologists, who work with the psychological processes underlying a leader's emotional and behavioural responses to organisational life. Our work with leaders enables them to unlock their own potential to maximise their performance. We initially focus on the leader's self-awareness, to help them identify, recognise and accept the areas in which improvement may be needed. Then, facilitated by a coach, they can start mapping out a new route towards effectiveness
Back to top ^
Turning around – what is required?
Understanding environment and relationships
Analysing the leader's current situation will highlight their pressures, performance issues, relationships with and impact on others and impact on the business.
Information about the market, the industry, or the political environment and culture in which the leader is working provides insights into the pressures they are experiencing. These factors impact the leader's behaviours and experience of their work and so are important to understand the situation and identify ways forward. As the environment is difficult to change, however, it is crucial to work with and help the leader adapt, adjust and change.
Feedback on how others perceive them as leaders will be invaluable and can be achieved through a 360o instrument, such as the Benchmarks® questionnaire. 360o feedback provides impressions and perceptions about the leader's interpersonal behaviours and performance, held by colleagues, superiors and direct reports. People at the top often do not receive regular feedback – other than on their results or outcomes – so 360o feedback is an important first step for the leader to acknowledge the impact their behaviour has on others and therefore on the business. This enhances self-awareness, which helps the leader to start turning around and walking towards recognition and acceptance of a need to change.
Back to top ^
Self-Awareness
Leaders may be ineffective partly due to a lack of understanding of their own motivations and behaviours, or acknowledgement of their weaknesses. Self-awareness is about knowing yourself and what you are personally experiencing. It is also about recognising what you enjoy doing and being aware of what impact you may have on others. Self-awareness means having the ability to recognise your skills and strengths as well as your development needs.
Self-awareness can be increased through a thorough feedback process, based on results from personality questionnaires such as the Myers Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®), FIRO-B®, or 16PF® questionnaires, used by OPP coaches. The increased awareness that can result from both 360o feedback results and personality instruments can motivate leaders to change the way they behave and perform in their role. Information from these two sources is often found to coincide, which helps identify trends and themes for the leader, and aids recognition and acceptance of those themes. When working with leaders in a coaching capacity, I have seen the impact the above information can have, as it acts as a 'stop and think' sign, which contributes to the self-understanding necessary to become effective.
Back to top ^
Goals, Mobility and Motivation to Change
A leader must have the motivation and desire to change. To gain this they must be clear about their goals and where they are going, and understand why the identified goals are required. A business psychologist coach helps leaders understand their behaviours and underlying motivations through questioning techniques and sophisticated analyses and helps them to reach 'mobility'.
Mobility is about having clarity around where you are now, where you are going and why. It refers to the time when the leader makes their own choices and recognises that they are in charge of own actions, values, thinking and goals. A coach provides support and challenge and helps leaders identify their strengths and development needs. This enables them to build trust in their own inner resources, which is vital to be able to move forward.
During this process the leader reaches a 'crossroads', where they must make choices about which route to take. Rather than the organisation or others choosing and commanding changes, the leaders should take responsibility for their thoughts and actions. This will enhance their commitment to the goals set, and their performance will increase as a result.
Back to top ^
Support to Sustain
It is important that coaching is seen as an ongoing process, not a one-off. During the coaching process, motivations and behaviours are discussed, goals are refined, and action plans agreed. The leader is equipped with changed or new behaviours to try out in the workplace and can then reflect and follow-up with the coach to continue learning and to sustain the support received from them.
Ultimately, the leader needs to have support from trusted peers and from the top of the organisation if the behaviours are to be successfully implemented and sustained. An environment should be provided that is safe and that encourages openness, learning and development.
Back to top ^
Where are we trying to get to?
Ultimately, the leader's journey will lead to increased effectiveness and performance. A self-aware leader will be able to talk and think about both strengths and limitations and to learn from mistakes to increase future performance. At the core of the OPP approach to leadership effectiveness is the concept of authenticity. The leader is guided to become aware of and to develop their own unique and genuine leadership potential. Being an authentic leader is about being true to yourself and your values rather than presenting a façade that you believe is required or accepted.
It means learning to optimise your own competencies and recognise your own resourcefulness. Research has found that leaders who exemplify authentic leadership produce outstanding business results and high morale in the organisations they lead (Burnham, 1993) and in OPP research employees rated 'trust' as the most important attribute of a leader. The self-awareness and openness that follows authenticity will build trust and commitment in the leader.
The concern for business leaders trying to increase their effectiveness is how the organisation's competencies and emphasis on productivity fit into leadership development. For the development approach outlined here, the focus is primarily on the individual leader and secondly on the leadership competencies required by their organisation. Where possible, goals identified with a coach can refer to a competency profile, or requirements (key skills, knowledge, behaviours) recognised as important for the role and the organisation. Furthermore, the ethos and values of the organisation can be built into the coaching dialogue, to ensure that the leader's development is aligned with where the organisation is going. However, the secret to leadership success rests with development that is guided by what is important for the individual in question, enabling recognition of their own resourcefulness and ways to build on this for future success.
This article was first published on the website 'Complinet'
If you would like to discuss running a leadership development programme within your organisation, please contact us on 01865 404666 or by email at: consult@opp.eu.com
Back to top ^ |