—
“Where do I start? What do I prioritize?” In virtually every industry, the exponential rate of change has made it nearly impossible for leaders to quickly respond and adapt. If you’re in this position, trying to thrive in a sea of changes, you may feel fatigued or even paralyzed.
After 30 years as a leadership coach, I’ve seen a range of leaders—from C-suite executives of energy empires to senior leaders at big banks and telecommunications giants—struggle with these issues. Although each faced unique and unfamiliar obstacles, nearly every leader I’ve worked with would default to old ways of evaluating and solving problems, regardless of the new challenge.
Can leaders break free and find a better way forward? While there isn’t a single, quick-fix solution, coaching can help you identify ingrained patterns and find new pathways. If you find yourself spinning your wheels, wondering how to move forward, or doing things the same way, the answer might be to shift your own behavior.
Here are four behaviors that may be holding you back:
1. Relying on what’s worked before.
It’s human nature to rely on tactics that have already proven successful. It worked before, so why wouldn’t it work now? Sadly, chances are it won’t.
At Sounding Board, we see this often with coachees who have been recently promoted to management. They struggle to transition from the high-performance individual contributors they were to the effective leaders they need to be.
It’s tempting for new managers to keep taking on the tasks they handled before. After all, it’s easier and quicker, and being a dogged taskmaster is what earned them the promotion in the first place.
Yet, that isn’t what their current role calls for. They must learn to let go of that behavior to become leaders who delegate, have strategic vision, and invest in the development and growth of their direct reports.
Falling back on the tactics you’ve used previously only works if the situation—your role, your organization, your team, and the challenges, markets, and environments you face—has remained exactly the same, an impossibility in today’s ever-changing world.
2. Using a leadership style that doesn’t fit.
Despite what countless books and motivational speakers claim, there’s no one leadership style that fits every leader and every organization. Many people have asked me how to define a leader. The truth is, I can’t because there’s no single model of leadership.
There are sets of capabilities and capacities that are useful for leaders, but the combination of these is endless. Insisting that all great leaders must act a certain way or have certain attributes is not only exclusionary but can also lead to unintended negative consequences.
For example, an organization once hired me to coach one of its leaders. The company was confused. Previously, the leader had been very introverted, analytical, and deliberate. Now, he was acting erratically. They were so concerned by the drastic change in his behavior that they suspected he had a substance abuse problem.
After speaking with the leader, the actual cause of his shift in behavior became clear. Before tapping me to be his coach, the board told this leader he needed to be more charismatic. His recent “weird” behavior? It came from trying to fit into the leadership style his organization asked him to emulate.
Nothing is wrong with stretching your abilities, but trying to fundamentally change how you naturally operate limits yourself, and your inauthenticity will snowball into bigger problems.
3. Refusing to flex to others.
On the other hand, refusing to flex your style to accommodate others can have equally troubling results. How you interact with clients should differ from how you engage with direct reports. Likewise, you need to be flexible when communicating with team members whose interaction styles are different from your own.
Here’s a great example. I once worked with an action-oriented leader who was appointed to a team of creatives. This group liked to brainstorm and consider multiple ideas before narrowing on a solution. In contrast, the leader was used to making quick decisions and would often skip explaining why he made those decisions. Their styles couldn’t be more different.
Because the leader failed to flex his style to accommodate his direct reports, the team felt his direction was impulsive. They weren’t sure what to prioritize. Worse, they were hesitant to offer differing opinions or perspectives, closing the door to opportunities for collaboration.
A leader must have the capacity for flexibility to effectively communicate with a wide range of personalities. Refusing to adapt can silence team members, stifling creativity and innovation.
4. Falling into binary thinking.
Binary thinking traps leaders into believing there’s a limit to the number of solutions they can pursue. Win or lose, good or bad, right or wrong—these aren’t the only choices in life, and certainly not the only ones in business. Yet, binary thinking persists even in those who consider themselves open-minded.
For example, I once had a CEO client who swore he took a scientific approach to decision-making and never fell into the trap of binary thinking. Yet, he confided in me that every day, he assessed whether his day was good or bad.
When I pointed out that this was a classic example of binary framing, he admitted that choosing between two options was more comfortable for him, even when his days were too complex to neatly fit into one category or the other. Feelings aside, this framework prevented him from honestly assessing situations and restricted his ability to make effective decisions in the future.
His binary thinking was affecting his team as well. His habit of forming dichotomies felt like ultimatums to his direct reports and demoralized the team.
Moving past the binary framework to find the third, fourth, or fifth option can be liberating. It requires revving your creative and analytical engines, driving you forward.
3 Ways to Make a Change That Spurs Growth
Shifting mindsets and behaviors is a process that differs from one person to another, but the first step usually involves letting go. Here are three ways to help push you toward breaking the behaviors that are holding you back. Whatever option you choose, give yourself a hard deadline and make yourself accountable.
Make the easiest change. Identify the easiest change you can make. It can be simple as long as it’s real and tangible. Small, incremental changes can add up to greater shifts.
Make the most impactful change. What action might require more time and effort (like acquiring a new skill set) but have the most tangible impact? Your sense of accomplishment could motivate you to take additional actions and create an even greater impact.
Make the most enticing change. This is just what it sounds like: Think of a change you clearly want to make, then do it. Drilling down to what you really want might take more effort than it appears, but it will fuel your growth and keep you motivated.
Lori Mazan is a distinguished 25-year executive coach who has provided tens of thousands of coaching sessions to today’s top leaders, from Fortune 100 CEOs to venture-backed startup executives. She’s the co-founder, president, and chief coaching officer of Sounding Board, Inc., and author of the new book Leadership Revolution: The Future of Developing Dynamic Leaders. Learn more at SoundingBoardInc.com.
This content is brought to you by Lori Mazan
