Leadership Consultants – The Change Experts

I have often been struck by the amount of leaders that seem to get into a senior role and then spend a large percentage of their time doing their old job or the jobs of their team. My experience is that this is often because they are no longer being asked to do what they enjoy, what they are passionate about or what they perceive themselves to be good at.  A good sales person will be promoted to sales manager and suddenly won’t be selling any more, but managing others who are. No wonder then, without development and awareness, that they jump back into their teams day to day world at every opportunity. When they say ‘I could do this better’ they are probably right! Unfortunately getting down into the detail disempowers people, encourages abdication and affects the enjoyment of the Individuals.

Of course there are some leaders who naturally love strategy and ‘big picture’  and their problem is different – keeping themselves engaged and performing whilst in junior roles that require more detailed involvement! However for the majority of junior and middle managers climbing the ‘greasy pole’ is quite stressful, as they struggle to get clear on what is their role, what they should be delegating and to let go of what they love.

The answer seems to lay in greater self-awareness, having ‘big conversations’ and getting in touch with what they care about. If they are clear on what they are trying to create then it makes it easier to make great decisions, they are more comfortable with their role and purpose and they find new enthusiasm in leading a team to deliver their passion. By enabling open and honest conversations to take place, leaders become more self aware and team members can give them feedback when they do inadvertently ‘meddle’ in their work! 

I saw this recently in my interactions with a Managing Director of a large blue chip company. He was driving his team mad by getting involved in solving problems every time they occurred. As a result all leaders were leading at the level below where they should. Also he said to me ‘I don’t do visions’ and struggled to focus on the future rather than the short term. There was a feeling of disengagement throughout the business, and a feeling of not being trusted to do your job. 

I worked with the senior team to surface these feelings and got them to have powerful conversations about their frustrations. We then worked on the Future he wanted to create, what he was passionate about and what he was leading for. He was able to articulate this once he let go of the limiting belief that he ‘didn’t  do visions’. We were then able to engage all the senior leaders in what they were passionate about and how their part of the business can help deliver this future. They were then able to talk to their people in a different way, getting people excited about the future rather than overly focussing on the present. We also got them to identify their limiting beliefs and turn the volume down on these, to allow the more positive voices to be heard. 

 We helped leaders to develop Coaching skills, to avoid the temptation to jump back in, and undertook regular away days with the leadership team to review progress, identify what still needed to be done and help them to form new habits rather than reverting back to old behaviours. As a result, business performance is now at a record high and employee engagement has increased dramatically. Most importantly, the MD is now enjoying his role in shaping the future and leaving the problem fixing to those who have the remit to do so!

If you are looking to release the Reluctant Leadership within your business, call David Tomkinson on 07710 003029 or e-mail at david.tomkinson@andpartnership.com