Getting to a leadership position is not easy. Staying there is often even more difficult! It is quite common to see a leader successfully guide a company through one challenge and then fail to face other less pressing issues.
A study by HBR reported that two out of five Fortune 500 CEOs fail in their first eighteen months. At the mid-career level, a lot of leader’s career stalls, and are often passed over for promotions.
How does a leader avoid such a fate and keep growing as a leader and keep moving up the career ladder? What are the ego trap and Leadership Derailers leaders fall for?
The wise advice to the newly appointed General!
Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, the world’s number one leadership thinker and executive coach, narrates an incident with a newly promoted General in the US army.
Read the summary of two best-selling books by Marshall Goldsmith What Got You Here Won’t Get You There-Marshall Goldsmith-Book summary and Triggers – Marshall Goldsmith-Book Summary
At a dinner and a cocktail party, the new General was approached by a veteran, experienced and wise General. He asks a few questions to the newly appointed General and shares some words of wisdom with him.
Wise General – “Have you noticed lately that people tend to laugh at all your jokes?”
New General – “Yes, I have!”
Wise General – “When you share a nugget of your wisdom – everyone nods their heads in unison, and no one disagrees with any of your ideas?”
New General – “Yes, it is true!”
Wise General – “Well, let me tell you something! You are not that funny. Nor are your nuggets of wisdom any good! It is the star on your shoulder – that tells them that you are a General – that is getting you these rave reviews. Don’t forget that, and don’t let it get to your head!”
Getting honest feedback as we move up the career ladder
As we move up the career ladder, it becomes more and more difficult to get honest feedback. People around us avoid telling us unpleasant truths. They learn to highlight our “good” deeds and shower praise upon us. Essentially, we get watered down truths at best and unfettered and sometimes insincere praise at the worst.
We only hear one side of the story–how good we are! Unfortunately, this continuous positive reinforcement eventually gets into most leader’s heads. It is hard for the leader to stay grounded, and the leader suffers from what Marshall Goldsmith calls “success delusion.”
Unless the leader makes a concerted effort to solicit honest feedback, people simply won’t volunteer honest and useful feedback.
360 degree assessment to solicit honest feedback
One of the best tools to get honest feedback from team members is using the anonymous 360 degree feedback assessment. It measures how the leader’s team members see the leader and help overcome leadership blindspots. If you’d like to know more about 360 degree feedback, read the article.
Read: 360 degree feedback A complete guide with questionnaire
The Emperor’s new clothes
We have all read the story of “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” The Emperor’s ministers, family members, the common folks–all saw that the Emperor had no clothes on, and he was naked. But no one wanted to tell the emperor the unpleasant truth that he was naked.
When you are a leader and in a position of power, subordinates, colleagues, and peers hesitate to tell you anything unflattering. Getting the unfiltered truth from them becomes increasingly difficult. And this becomes a problem sooner than later. When a leader stops getting candid feedback, he loses touch with reality.
He will stop learning, changing, and improving. In a fast-changing VUCA world, that puts the brakes on the leader’s further growth, or in the worst-case scenario, gets them fired.
Read: Feedback is a gift-leadership feedback is a huge favor
Author Jen Shirkani in her book Ego vs. EQ. – outlines eight “leadership ego traps,”–which are basically leadership blind spots. The first ego trap is – “Ignoring the feedback you don’t like.”
Actively soliciting feedback is the key
New York mayor Ed Koch was known for stopping commuters (average citizens) in the streets and asking them the question–“How am I doing?” It is a powerful question, especially when the leader asks that question directly to his leadership’s recipients–his subordinates and frontline workers.
Read: The 8 Ego traps that derail a leader’s career
How do you know for sure how you are doing as a leader?
I often pose the same question to the leaders I coach during my executive or leadership coaching engagement. Often the reply is that– “I am doing well or I am doing OK.” I then ask–“How do you know that?” And “How you know that for sure?”
Eventually, it leads to the discussion of getting unfiltered, honest, and anonymous feedback through the 360-degree feedback tool.
It allows subordinates to share honest feedback with the leader without the discomfort or fear of giving the same feedback to the leader’s face.
When I share the feedback from the 360-degree tool with the leader, there is one sure shot tell that determines whether the leader will get better or not? What is it? If the leader accepts the feedback, she is likely to become an even better leader.
If the leader tends to ignore, discount, or malign unflattering feedback, the leader will have difficulty getting better. This will eventually prevent the leader from progressing or moving up.
Stalling or derailment of a leader’s career
Jen Shirkani quotes a study done by PDI Ninth House. A study of 39,000 leaders found a significant correlation between “inability or unwillingness to see one’s own faults” and the stalling of the leader’s career’s derailment.
Leaders who were “out of touch” with the way their direct managers perceived them and rated them in performance reviews were more likely to derail (low performance, demotion, or even being fired). How much more likely? 629% more likely! That is a significant drag and a detriment to any leader’s career.
Read: Henry Ford FAILURE story & bad leadership & Lessons for leaders
How does a leader avoid success delusions or ego traps?
Be like the good kings in the olden days!
Good kings used to tour their kingdoms dressed as common folks without the entourage in the old days. Why? So that they can see and hear firsthand what common people were saying about the king.
To get the unfiltered and honest truth about the people’s condition and what they really thought about the king’s performance and behavior. Well, the modern-day version of that technique is the 360-degree feedback process. It allows the leader to get an accurate picture of how others see her.
Get a wise General on your side!
Wouldn’t it be great if all leaders had a wise adviser like the experienced General? Such an adviser would help the leader stay grounded and avoid the success delusion and the ego traps? Help control the derailing behaviors that hurt the leader’s career? The modern-day version of that wise General is a leadership coach (often referred to as an executive coach)!
Read: Everything you ever wanted to know about executive coaching and leadership coaching
A leadership coach is the best investment for a leader’s career
A leadership coach or an executive coach will do what a sports coach does for an athlete. Take any sport and any successful athlete at the top of their game. Although they probably are the best in the world, they still have a coach! Why? To provide an outside perspective, objectively see the athlete, to point out areas of improvement – so that the athlete can stay at the top of their game and get even better. A leadership coach may be the best investment a leader can make to improve their leadership skills and develop their career.
NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching
That delivers guaranteed and measurable leadership growth. It is based on a stakeholder centered coaching process with a 95% effectiveness rate (in a study or 11000 leaders on 4 continents). It is used by companies ranging from startups to 150 of the Fortune 500 companies to develop their leaders.
Here are some of the salient benefits of NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching
Time and resource-efficient: The leader does not have to leave work to attend training programs. We go to the leader and her team. And it only takes 1.5 hours per month. The rest of the time, the leader is working to implement with her team.
Separate and customized improvement areas for each leader: Every leader is different. One size fits all approach doesn’t work. Individual development areas for each leader are aligned to the business strategy.
Involves entire team: Unlike most leadership programs, NAL Triple Advantage Leadership Coaching involves the leader’s entire team, and it has a cascading effect – increasing the team effectiveness and improving organizational culture.
The leader becomes the coach: for continuous improvement for leaders themselves and their teams. It is like kaizen for your leadership development.
Cost-Effective: Our entire one-year coaching engagement often costs less than sending the leader to a short-duration leadership program at any reputed B school.
Guaranteed and measurable leadership growth: as assessed – not by us – but anonymously rated by the leader’s own team members.
Pay us only after we deliver results!: We work with many of our clients on a pay for results basis. What does it mean? If the leaders don’t improve, you don’t have to pay us.
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