Ineffective leadership behaviours

This article was originally published in the newspaper “La Estrella” and is part of a biweekly column from the ICF Panama Chapter to disseminate what Professional Coaching is. It seeks to inform, create more awareness and differentiate professional coaching, in which the Coach is governed by ethical principles and is continually improving his or her skills.

See the original article in this link.

In the leadership development process, through executive coaching, different approaches can be used, depending on the context of the leader and the organisation, the needs identified and the objectives set.

One of them is working from the outside, from what is visible and perceived, such as behaviours (doing) towards the inside (being and thinking), in an iterative cycle to promote sustainable changes over time.

This approach is particularly suitable for leaders who perceive that leadership behaviours associated with their success in the past may not be those necessary to achieve success in the future, in more complex, ambiguous and changing contexts.

This is a work that begins with the identification of the leader’s behaviours, how this is perceived by his or her people of interest or stakeholders, and the impact of their behaviours on their organisation and the broader system. The work continues to promote the interaction of the leader with his stakeholders for integration of their suggestions for improvement into a plan of action, which is evaluated and adapted in a regular cycle, simultaneously facilitating the change of behaviours and perceptions.

Most of us look at behavioural changes that others should make, and are available to provide suggestions for improvement, but in general we are not as perceptive of the behavioural changes that we should implement and have a difficult time doing so on a day-to-day basis.

The impact of our behaviours is significant on the people around us, on our organisation. This impact grows with the level of responsibility of the leaders and with the size of the stakeholders internal and external that we impact.

As a leader becomes successful, this behaviour change is even more difficult to make, because he associates it with past success, he does not understand that he needs new behaviours to be successful in the future.

Benefits can be identified from implementing changes, but we are not always willing to accept the costs, to let go of behaviour that no longer serves us, we can even think and verbalize, but “I am like this, I have always been like this and it has always worked for me…”. This indicates that we do not want to commit to the process, we may not have the humility or courage to do so.

One of the challenges for coaches is to perceive their clients’ willingness to work on their objectives and implement the changes they propose. The success of the process is the responsibility of the coachee with their reflections, learning and actions. The coach facilitates the process and provides the appropriate encouragement, reinforcement and support to achieve the objectives.

One of the authors who most developed and implemented this approach to behaviours is Marshall Goldsmith, internationally recognised as a thought leader in leadership, as an executive coach and as the author of various best-sellers.

In his book “What got you here won’t get you there” Marshall Goldsmith identifies 20 ineffective habits or behaviours in leadership. Among them we can mention:

earn too much, or the need to win in all situations, when it is important, when it is not, and even when it is totally irrelevant. This is the behaviour identified by Marshall Goldsmith as the number one challenge for most leaders.

Other related ineffective behaviours are: add too much value, that is, adding our grain of sand in each conversation or discussion even when it does not add value; he retain information, to gain advantage over others; and the play favourites, to gain allies.

It is also ineffective to devalue the opinions expressed by others by making destructive or sarcastic comments; express negativity, or “I’m going to tell you why this doesn’t work”; or a more unconscious way responder, to comments or suggestions, with “no, but, however…” withdrawing value from what the other is expressing.

They are still ineffective behaviours. speak with anger, using emotional volatility as a management tool and the not listening, not being consciously present for our people of interest, advocating lack of time, overwork, or listening with partial attention due to distractions such as the cell phone.

To develop more effective leadership behaviours, the client must recognise that they need to change and commit to the process. The coach, based on his knowledge and experience, and in alliance with the client, promotes, among others, self-awareness, self-management and management of relationships with people of interest.

Author: Fatima Ribeiro

The author is ACC (ICF Associated Certified Coach), Coach in professional development, leadership and teams processes, and member of the Board of Directors of ICF Panama.