blog

The exhilaration of a new role

You join a new organisation, excited and energised at the thought of what you’re going to be able to contribute and the changes you’re going to introduce to make this a better place to work and to make it function more effectively. You feel confident of being able to do a better job than your predecessor did.

Disillusionment begins

Just a few weeks after you arrive, you realise that the theme tune from the CEO conflicts fundamentally with what you believe to be right. Sixth months further on, and it’s clear – and even more serious – that the CEO is not open to fresh perspectives and views, and that the influencing skills that have served you well in the past, and accounted for some of your success to date, are definitely not working here.

You feel conflicted and frustrated, while performance in your team seems to be on a steady, albeit slow, slide. You seem to be having no more success than your predecessor, and the scope you have to make a real impact seems disappointingly limited.

Your need for a culture change

Your personal values seem to be at odds with those demonstrated by how the culture plays out in your new organisation. You can’t see yourself being able to tolerate this unless there’s a radical culture change – and you can’t see how you might influence that change for the better.

You feel isolated, unacknowledged and unheard: you seem to be unable to fully occupy your role.

It looks as though you may have made the wrong decision in accepting this job, and realising this comes as a blow.

A systemic constellations view

In such situations it’s easy for an individual’s confidence and self-esteem to feel under threat. In addition they can often feel that there’s no way out other than to leave – which would impact their career plans, the quality of their CV and their reputation.

Interestingly, when one looks at it systemically, a different perspective might show up. When an individual isn’t able to perform in their role, it may indicate that the role itself is burdened, and may explain why things seem so intractable. In a coaching constellations context, one could look at what might have been ignored in the organisation’s remembering, what or who might have been excluded or unacknowledged – and especially what might not have been acknowledged about the contribution of a previous occupant of the role. This is in particular the case when someone has left the organisation under a cloud or with some kind of negative connotation attached to them.

In reality, as long as that person and their contribution remain unacknowledged, the system will try to re-member them. This will manifest as some kind of dissonance – an apparently capable successor inexplicably unable to occupy their authority, or something seeming to inhibit the flow of energy in the organisation, for example.

The power of acknowledging

Precisely this occurred for one of my very senior clients, who was puzzled that, for the first time in her career, she lacked confidence and the self-assurance she had been used to – and notably a sense that her boss had confidence in her. When she acknowledged, with compassion, the experience of her boss – who had preceded her in her role some years before – the pressure he had been under in the glare of publicity, and his achievements, things shifted for her. Without any direct communication with him, she began to experience both a renewed sense from him that he trusted her and a renewal of her own self-confidence.

Fascinatingly, the simple act of acknowledgment can unlock a culture change for the better. Voices become heard, contributions along the timeline are made explicit, your influence as a leader becomes a more transparent and ‘flowing’ process, the stuckness dissipates, and blame diminishes.

Changing the culture means ‘being’ before ‘doing’

And as a result, team cohesion and alignment can improve, retention rates rise, and the mood music changes. Leadership becomes more effective. It becomes apparent that culture change is less a task and more a way of being, and your influence becomes a more culturally-aligned process.

Energy is released and you are freed up to do as a leader what you do best.

Photo by NOGRAN s.r.o. via Compfight

Influence, impact and culture change: a systemic view

When a new broom comes in to a senior role with high expectations, but is inexplicably unable to occupy their authority, the situation can benefit from a systemic constellations perspective. This means looking at what might have been ignored in the organisation’s remembering, what or who might have been excluded or unacknowledged - and especially what might not have been acknowledged about the contribution of a previous occupant of the role. Energy is then released and the leader is freed up to do what they do best.

Letting go of knowing: new article in 'Coaching at Work'

Clients and potential clients respond with more energy to their experience of how I am than to what I know - and equally, who I am, and how my ‘being’ shows up, have a significantly greater impact on my coaching than what I do.

Compassionate leadership

Compassion at work increases our willingness to trust: our brains respond more positively to bosses who have shown us empathy – and compassion increases the health and wellbeing not only of employees but also of the bottom line. When compassion is low, engagement and levels of discretionary effort are low, retention and recruitment are more difficult, stress and absenteeism are high, and success becomes more elusive.

Nourish Your Practice: new article in Coaching at Work

My article 'Nourish Your Practice' has been published in Coaching at Work January 2017. My reflection before and after every coaching session is an intrinsic part of any coaching that I deliver: without it I would be simply skimming across the surface of what is actually going on and what the possibilities for change could be. I encourage my clients to reflect too.

Practitioner in Systemic Coaching and Facilitation

I've achieved the Practitioner Certificate in Systemic Coaching and Facilitation. My use of constellations - which are a key part of this work - facilitates clients' growth through my coaching. The approach illuminates the hidden dynamics in relationships, teams and organisations, clarifies what may be puzzling or unclear or difficult, and enables change to happen at a level beyond only behaviour management or leadership models.

Neuroscience of gender and performance

In a recent article in 'Coaching at Work' I distil learning from a workshop on the Neuroscience of Gender and Performance. Nurture rather than nature accounts for many of the gender differences we observe in the workplace: male and female brains aren't as different as we're used to thinking.

'What lies beyond': my latest article in Coaching at Work

Attending the cremation of a previous client, and being surrounded by dozens of people who had been part of his life, made me realise that in a coaching relationship I hear and see only a tiny window on the client: their stories reflect just a fraction of who they are - and if I am to deliver real value in my coaching, I need to go far beyond the constraints of the coaching objectives to a deep understanding of who the client is, and can be, in their contexts and systems.

Self-leadership

Unless we know how to lead ourselves, we can’t expect to be effective leaders of others - and self-coaching engenders a capacity for self-leadership as a pre-condition for leading others. High-quality leadership isn’t a check-list: it’s a question of how the leader brings the essence of themselves to their role, and for this, leaders need to courageously examine their own practices and thinking, and to build their self-awareness, self-understanding, and awareness of how the systems of relationships and influences around them work, and how they impact on each other.

Making an impact - through self- and system-awareness

Creating an impact that is authentic - and therefore compelling and lasting - means going beyond the tools and techniques for managing body language, creating rapport and getting 'in the zone' for a presentation. The individual needs to be at ease with themselves through a high level of self-awareness and centredness, and a comprehensive clarity about their relationship to the systems they move within.

Post-truth leadership

We are witnessing the rise of post-truth politics: a culture in which statements are framed largely by appeals to emotion, completely disconnected from the political facts, and in which factual rebuttals in discussion are ignored. Are we also seeing the rise of post-truth leadership?

blog

Recent Posts