One self-insight. Some of the hardest challenges as a leader is to know how you come across to others. It’s also an important point for those who seek to coach leaders.
Effective leaders rarely have perfect are too fixed on their over-arching purpose to worry much about themselves; others display narcissistic properties that badly distort their sense of self. But what characterises effective leaders is a sense of what works for them with others. This does not necessarily require that they have a deep understanding of how and why it works. What we observe in effective leaders is primarily self-awareness.
As they interact with others, effective leaders seem better able to learn how they are seen and how they can actively shape others’ perceptions in the formation of their identity. It is in helping them fine-tune their self-awareness that executive coaches can best help leaders become more effective.
Knowing and showing personal leadership assets is the key to becoming an effective leader. Yet very rarely do aspiring leaders get the opportunity to discuss this aspect of their working lives. Still rarer is the chance to get an unbiased, objective second opinion. After all, the difference between success and failure as a leader often hinges on the perceptions of people we barely know.
Most of us can probably recall from our teenage dating years a time when – excessively concerned with appearance – we had favourite items of clothing. Remember the lucky shirt, the special perfume, which seemed to work for us? You may have tested where your differences had their greatest impact: on the dance floor or walking in the park? Your adolescence probably marks the first time that you consciously thought through and tried out how to make the most of your differences in a way that might interest others.
Effective leaders keep working at this, and they learn to use these differences to their advantage.
Consider Bill Gates. What is different about Gates is that he is the ultimate computer geek, yet he has taken a pejorative stereotype and turned it to his advantage. When it comes to the computer industry, Gates knows what he is talking about. His consistent display of “geekiness” tells us something very important about him and his company. It has become an increasingly skilful use of self-image.
To begin with, this self-development is unconscious. But at some point individuals make conscious choices – and turn up the volume. What is hard for emergent leaders is to test those messages. In our work we emphasise the importance of feedback to developing leadership skills, and deploying personal leadership assets.
The role of the coach is to help accentuate the positive – and reduce or eliminate the negative. It can be the difference between someone becoming CEO or suffering career derailment.
We have observed people using their differences in order to build their leadership capability at all levels of the organisation. Consider Paulette, who runs a sales force for Proctor & Gamble. At first meeting she seems a shy, rather retiring kind of person. Indeed, our first observation was that there was nothing exceptional about her. And then we observed her with her team.
Two powerful leadership differences were on display to great effect. First, the sheer analytical power of her intellect: every aspect of the market, the competition and the products, had been analysed – to the delight of her followers. Second, her passion for winning excited everyone around her to higher performance. Rarely have we seen a leader in whom this obsession was so effectively translated into an asset.
Many more leaders maximise the impact of their difference. The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, dresses like a slightly careworn schoolteacher, speaks in a distinctive way and has a passion for newts. He makes a point of commuting to work on the underground. On at least two occasions he has used his leadership to change
London’s transport system – by dramatically reducing fares and, more controversially, by introducing congestion charging in central London. Few other politicians could have introduced such a potentially unpopular idea without losing office. He succeeds because Londoners believe that he identifies with them.
All of the leaders we have cited use difference to signify something about who they are. They all use personal differences that work for them appropriately in context. But the differences must be authentic, significant, real and perceived. Ultimately, it is this sense of authentic self-expression that makes them so convincing.
Coaching authentic leaders
Comfort with origins and ease with mobility are critical to maintaining authenticity. As leaders’ careers progress, they need to be able to move into new situations and social settings without losing sight of where they come from. So how can coaches help aspiring leaders grow these capabilities? Here are some pragmatic suggestions drawn from our research. Effective leaders should:
Seek out new experiences and new contexts
One tough CEO worked in a drug rehab unit on a one-month sabbatical. He reported that it forced him to re-examine his own leadership behaviour and to reconnect with his fundamental values.
Avoid comfort zones and routines
Developing self-knowledge requires active experimentation.
Seek out sources of honest feedback
We have had very good results from carefully collected workplace feedback (including 360-degree feedback). But there is also an important role for coaches who can give an external perspective.
Explore biography
Many leaders we observe have a deep and intimate knowledge of what made them who they are. Self-knowledge grows from coming to terms with the events which make us what we are.
Return to roots
One CEO takes a short golfing holiday every year with a group of old friends from Pontypridd, the Welsh town where he grew up. Leaders should spend time with people who know them without the trappings of organisational power.
Find a third place
US writer Ray Oldenburg has put forward the convincing argument that after work and family we all need a third place1 – somewhere we can make associations and develop a sense of self, free from the obligations of work and family roles.
Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones, founding partners of Creative Management Associates, are the authors of Why Should Anyone Be Led By You? Harvard Business School Press, 2006. Rob Goffee is a Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School. Gareth Jones is a Fellow of the Centre for Management Development at London Business School and a visiting professor at INSEAD. He was formerly Director of Human Resources for the BBC.
Professor Goffee will be speaking at the CIPD’s annual learning and development conference, HRD 2006, at Olympia, London, on 4–6 April. For details, call 020 8612 6202 or visit: www.cipd.co.uk/HRD