opinion

Leading others demands the capacity to lead ourselves

In all the talk, all the programmes, all the tools and techniques about leadership, we hear a lot about how to lead others, but how often do we hear about self-leadership? And yet unless we know how to lead ourselves, we can’t expect to be effective leaders of others.

Executive coaching equips leaders to self-lead

Executive coaching plays a key role in facilitating self-leadership. The executive coach is responsible for creating conditions in which the leader can become equipped to clarify and assess their situation, draw lessons from it, work out their options, create opportunities, make positive and sustainable changes, and make decisions that are congruent with the person they are, and what they want to achieve. The coaching journey enables the leader to create and discover insights which they can experiment with in the conduct of their own working lives (‘self-leading’), and then apply to leading others.

Development and transformation through executive coaching

Leaders I coach achieve development and transformation: they make profound and sustained changes in themselves, in their teams, in the philosophy and practices of their organisations, in their effectiveness, and in the quality of outcomes they create. They learn to self-coach, becoming better able to question assumptions, old beliefs, and behaviours that limit their effectiveness. They might subconsciously have been carrying all these around with them for years – and through coaching they understand how to integrate new knowledge into their practices, and they get to know at a profound level who they really are.

Outcomes from self-coaching

Their self-coaching engenders a capacity for self-leadership as a pre-condition for leading others. The leader learns to tap in more fully to their capabilities – so they become more effective at achieving the outcomes they want. They think freshly, from new perspectives, and they feel safe enough to think creatively – so they create new solutions. They discover what helps them and what hinders them in achieving the right outcomes – so they’re better able to make decisions and judgments which are well-grounded, and which make their results sustainable. They create and sustain productive working relationships and get the best out of their people. They propel their careers and their organisations forward, they learn what might be in their way – and they learn how to address those barriers.

Self-awareness and self-understanding

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, to be ready for – and embrace – some uncomfortable learning and, most importantly, to build their self-awareness. They need to develop self-understanding, awareness of how others tick, and a capacity to put themselves in those others’ shoes. This quality of leadership requires an awareness of how the systems of relationships and influences around them work and how they impact on each other, a curiosity to keep learning (especially when things go wrong) and a discipline to keep applying the learning.

The opportunity of choice

Awareness and understanding create the opportunity for choice – choice about behaviour and thinking, so as to avoid falling into the rut of habit, to ensure response rather than reaction, to apply curiosity and to take a strategic perspective on judgments and decisions.

Benefits of self-leadership

The self-leader is a leader who is likely to be inspiring, to engender high levels of engagement and retention in their teams and organisations, to foster learning and innovation, and to nurture excellence.

The journey to self-leadership isn’t always an easy one, but – if my clients re anything to go by – it’s a journey that can bring more rewards than were ever anticipated.

e-book: ‘Become the Leader You Are’

If you’re interested to learn more about self-leadership, see my e-book ‘Become the Leader You Are: Self-Leadership Through Executive Coaching’ and click ‘Buy this book’

Photo by Scott Norris via Compfight

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?

Wilful blindness, belonging and exclusion

Wilful blindness - the blinding of oneself to uncomfortable facts - comes from fear of conflict and fear of change. A powerful, unconscious impulse to obey, conform, and preserve our sense of belonging, means that we favour information that makes us feel good about ourselves, and that makes us feel comfortable and more certain. However, it actually leaves us crippled, vulnerable and powerless. Without challenging our belonging, the chances of growth, progress and anchored, sustained change are diminished.

Coaching qualifications and accreditations: a new angle

Knowledge and experience alone may have little or nothing to do with what makes for an excellent coach – and yet until now many of the principles underlying coach assessment have been about competencies. Tatiana Bachkirova and Carmelina Lawton-Smith (2015), of Oxford Brookes University, argue that the complexity and unpredictability of coaching may need a new model, and they propose a capabilities approach rather than a competencies approach.

#hellomynameis: Courage, passion and pioneering

Consultant geriatrician Kate Granger, who set up, and became the force behind, the campaign #hellomynameis, has died of terminal cancer aged 34. Passionate about person-centred, compassionate care, she was a leader by virtue of her passion, commitment, courage and determination to reach as many people as she could in service of a message which she believed would create a better quality of medical professional by releasing more of their inherent humanity.

Leadership and the EU referendum

Leaders need not only to fully understand the issue they’re dealing with, especially if it challenges groupthink, but they also need to be able to communicate it in a way that is accessible and compelling to their audiences. The leader who connects with their followers will hold them in the palm of their hands. This is truly where the power is.

Culture and culture change

Organisational culture shows up in literally hundreds of different ways in which people behave and live out attitudes and beliefs. Changing a culture needs to be addressed both at the level of the leader and at the level of the whole system - and by exploring how these two interact. A culture in which the past is honoured is a culture in which change towards a new future can be embedded most effectively and sustainably.

Cross-cultural coaching: complexities and pitfalls

In cross-cultural environments the coach needs be cautious about challenging the assumptions that they might otherwise challenge: if the client's attitude or belief comes from their culture of origin, it may be close to their sense of self. Equally, issues such as self-promotion in the context of career development and the client's relationship to their family need to be handled sensitively.

Identity, transition and transformation

What a caterpillar calls death a wise man calls a butterfly. The coaching client travels from their current identity, via transition, to their new identity, and the coach travels with them from their current meaning, via meaninglessness, to their new meaning, equipping them to move through uncertainty to a new identity. This is a journey of transformation. The client makes the change. The coach does not remove any part of them, but works with them so that they release more of their capabilities. As they add to their current identity, they enrich who they are.

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