Not long ago, I was working with a manufacturing leader who was EXTREMELY TALENTED, smart, and innovative.
He worked really well with associates at the floor level and with his peers. He valued people and was a strong collaborator.
But he did NOT work well with the exec team (aka ‘management’).
He would often show up (in their words) as argumentative and disrespectful. He was quite challenged when managing relationships with people in authority over him.
The company saw his potential and believed he was a tremendous asset to the organization. They had given him feedback to help him improve. But they hadn’t seen any behavioral change.
So, we began working together to discover his NATURAL WIRING, VALUES, and BELIEFS. This is Phase 01 of The Coach Approach to Leadership™ program. What he learned about himself during this phase MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE!
Here it is:
(1) He saw how his natural wiring was both an asset and a potential liability to him – given the situation and how he chose to show up.
(2) He realized a deep and strong belief that he operated with: ‘management doesn’t care about employees.
The good thing = he was a strong advocate for employees and built great relationships with them.
The challenge = everything he saw and heard from management was filtered by his belief that management doesn’t care about employees.
This strained his relationships with management, his ability to collaborate with them to find solutions, and his own upward mobility in the company.
So we started by challenging that belief.
We looked for how that belief could be and also might not always be true. As he began working with this new perspective, we also asked the question, “How could HE become an influencer for good?”
He did a complete 180.
This leader became so much more engaged and began to see potential in people at ALL levels in the company that he had never seen before.
What’s more, he was promoted to other areas of the business.
Within a few years, he was promoted up to be responsible for 50 employees, while previously he had been responsible for 4-5.
The other day, he told me that our work together changed the trajectory of his career.
He had opportunities he’d never had, a better relationship with his boss, and he was placed in positions of leadership in other parts of the business to lead larger groups of employees.
Sometimes the thing that’s limiting us is not our external environment or situations, but rather our own selves—our NATURAL WIRING, VALUES, and BELIEFS that we’ve not yet learned how to process and leverage.
If you’re interested in this kind of deep self-discovery that can lead to improved leadership and greater career opportunities, let’s talk. DM me to set up a call, and I’d love to hear more about your goals.