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Organisations want growth

Organisations typically want to develop – to grow, to make the most of their resources, to cut costs and increase profit or benefit. Sometimes the wish or the need is urgent, and there’s a significant push for momentum in the quest for that change. In their efforts to move onwards, they may restructure, implement new strategies and/or bring in new leaders at the top of the organisation, accompanied by a message (implicit but powerful, nevertheless) about the importance of the sustained pace which is required to build to some form of crescendo.

Momentum needs to build and sustain

Often growth, rationalisation of resources, cost reduction and maximisation of profit are in play all at the same time. For momentum to build and sustain, the organisation needs its people to be aligned in their purpose and focus, it needs its leaders to inspire them and keep them on track, it needs to manage conflicts, or lack of alignment, of all types – between individuals, between departments, and at all scales, and at contact points between external bodies (such as suppliers and customers) and the organisation itself.

Momentum, disruption and turbulence

Momentum seems to me not be a linear process, but rather a complex process – and leaders sometimes forget to what extent the pace and the momentum inevitably create disruption and turbulence, both of which inhibit the momentum.

From what I observe with clients, the effort to achieve momentum may be experienced as turbulence for some time before there’s any sense of things settling into a pattern, and particularly any sense of wellbeing with and within that pattern. People struggle to build momentum while things feel turbulent or unstable: momentum and turbulence are uneasy companions. Leaders need to anticipate this process as part of their planning for the momentum they want.

While momentum – unless it is extremely skilfully managed – almost inevitably creates turbulence, at the same time human beings crave certainty. And certainty is, by definition, impossible, given that much of what they had taken for granted is thrown into question.

Leaders need to keep their teams stable and confident

Individuals’ mental energy is fragmented by the emotional effort of seeking stability in a context which feels insecure. The challenge for leaders is significant: they need to keep their teams feeling stable and confident.

Leaders’ thinking traps

Clients of mine who have been in this situation have learnt that there is enriching learning in such situations as long as they manage their mindsets productively. This entails stepping back to observe and examine their own thinking, and identify the thinking traps they may have fallen into, because thinking significantly impacts behaviour.

Leaders’ ways forward

One leader I coached discovered that sharing his own feelings and responses with the team – being transparent about his own vulnerability while maintaining confidence that they could together make a success of the challenge – brought him closer to his people. They commented that this closed some emotional distance between him and them, and that they felt that the team became more cohesive and connected.

Another looked for all that was stable and certain, put explicit emphasis on it, and encouraged her team to work with that emphasis – and she noticed that this helped bring a kind of settling as well as impetus for the onward path.

A third nurtured small-scale creativity by encouraging safe-to-fail experiments, aiming for learning, readjustment of the path, and small but constant and measurable steps

Complexity

My own coaching in this context draws on the lessons from complexity, in which fruitful approaches include (thank you, Jennifer Garvey Berger) implementing safe-to-fail experiments, thinking in terms of direction rather than destination, and taking a systemic view in which any given element exists in relationship to others – exploring what happens elsewhere, for example, when you experiment with changing something that appears to be on the edge of a situation.

When reality is revealed, the vision can be delivered

Viewed through this lens, the reality of an apparently simple intention to create and sustain momentum is revealed – and once that happens, the vision can be more appropriately delivered.

Photo by steve_w via Compfight

Seeking momentum

For momentum to build and sustain, whether for growth, cutting costs or increasing profit or benefit, organisations need their people to be aligned in their purpose and focus, and they need their leaders to inspire them and keep them on track. Momentum seems to me not be a linear process, but rather a complex process – and leaders sometimes forget to what extent the pace and the momentum inevitably create disruption and turbulence, both of which inhibit the momentum. The effort to achieve momentum may be experienced as turbulence for some time before there’s any sense of things settling into a pattern, and particularly any sense of wellbeing with and within that pattern. People struggle to build momentum while things feel turbulent or unstable: momentum and turbulence are uneasy companions. Leaders need to anticipate this process as part of their planning for the momentum they want.

Presence and gravitas

Leadership is at least as much about being as about doing - so a leader’s presence and gravitas help resource them to motivate and inspire others. Personal presence is most obviously about authenticity, integrity, non-judgmental awareness of, and openness to, all aspects of one’s environment (internal and external), and acceptance and self-acceptance. Gravitas results in impact and influence through the power of communication and the impact of relationships. It conveys a sense of authority, substance and weight, but also includes humanity and humour. Contributing factors to gravitas are presence, behaviour and expertise – and they are all necessary conditions. In other words, gravitas combines being with doing and communicating.

Keeping quiet and carrying on - or finding your voice

When most of us see or hear - or indeed experience - behaviour by our leaders at work that lacks integrity, justice or humanity, our usual response is to keep our heads down and carry on, fearing the penalties if we speak up. When we have an emotional reaction to what we've witnesed, as long as we don’t act, both the injustice and our own lack of action may continue to rankle. So we get caught in a double bind: it’s too dangerous to speak out, and it’s too uncomfortable not to speak out. Speaking up can require significant courage. As an executive coach, I’m privileged to be able to provide a safe space in which leaders engage with the risky process of finding their voices, articulating their own truths, becoming more of who they are – and in the process becoming more effective and compelling leaders, invariably with greater integrity and humanity.

Saying goodbye to the glitter

My article 'Saying goodbye to the glitter' has been published in the November 2019 issue of Coaching at Work. When a very high achiever is obliged, or has chosen, to move on from the peak of their career, the experience can be akin to a bereavement. They can experience their sense of identity, their sense of belonging, their sense of meaning and the knowledge that they are making a difference as at risk: they need to recreate their sense of self.

The loneliness of the long distance runner

Leaders who are at the peak of their careers, while anticipating or indeed experiencing the fulfilment of achievement, are frequently lonely, isolated and lacking the safety of honest conversations. They feel deeply the pressure of expectation. They have inadequate opportunity amid the intensity of pressure and complexity to have safe conversations in which to maintain or create clarity about what they really want to do. At some point for leaders in all such situations, the need and search for ‘self’ becomes imperative: they need to rediscover - or indeed discover – themselves in order to articulate their choices and manage those choices. They realise they can reduce the loneliness by articulating and sharing ‘what is’ with a compassionate yet challenging coach with whom they feel safe, connected and trusting, and who has no vested interest in their challenge.

Influencing through compassion

The need for the leader and the manager to influence effectively has always been important. Now, however, their contexts are becoming more uncertain and more challenging. I’m coming across more instances of lack of integrity at senior levels, and this poses a dilemma for the leader who wants to stand up for either the values which their organisation claims or for their own values. I'm finding that an approach for them which embraces compassion – for themselves and for others – can make all the difference.

Trust and safety in coaching

My article 'Trust and safety in coaching' has been published in the September edition of Coaching at Work. When a client trusts their coach they can feel safe enough to engage with their inner world - and a certain kind of magic can happen. The richness of both dialogue and data that is enabled by deep trust can uniquely empower the client to face difficult or energising truths, and can also stretch the boundaries of what they'd previously thought was possible.

Seeking purpose - and being part of the whole

Albert Einstein wrote: "A human being is part of a whole, called by us the 'Universe,' a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us…” This resonates for me as I coach talented senior people who create stellar careers. Some of them realise they feel restricted because their lives don’t integrate what really matters to them. They start asking 'What’s my purpose in getting to the top?’ rather than ‘How can I get to the top?’. This is rich and fertile territory for coaching, which enables an individual, in a risk-free environment, to explore, surface, clarify and articulate what meaning and purpose is for them and to become connected to the bigger whole.

Trapped in the detail

The remit of leaders is to develop and drive strategy, and to inspire its implementation. However, those in leadership roles can find themselves trapped in the detail of the operational. If they’re inappropriately involved in these areas, their teams will lack the bigger sense of direction, perspective and focus they need. The first important step for the leader is to realise that change needs to happen, and each will find their own way of implementing that change - perhaps through mindfully reviewing old loyalties to ideas and people, or surfacing wilful blindness, or speaking truth to power. Courage and resilience are fundamental to the change that's needed, along with self-awareness and systemic awareness.

Confidence on the coaching agenda

Confidence is the result of resolving or settling issues which may be related to identity, belonging, self-esteem, self-acceptance, resilience, the culture of the client’s organisation, or indeed countless other issues which interrelate, intersect and are interdependent. It manifests in a host of different ways, including effectiveness, efficiency, assertiveness, finding one’s voice, creativity, more balanced relationships, the resolution of conflict, respect and care for one’s own wellbeing, a reduction in stress, and a sense of personal peace. Leaders who constantly build the confidence of their people see that its relationship with the successful release of potential is direct and significant.

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