Once upon a time...
...there was once a brilliant [insert profession] who was so good at their job they got promoted to a Senior Position.
Trouble was, it turned out that being brilliant at doing [finance/operations/surgery/law/design/data...] was no longer actually their job. Two things became their job.
1. Vision - Understanding how the work fitted within the whole organisation, to work towards the common goals.
Yes, they could get behind this: a strategy, structured plans, clear messaging, reporting.
2. Leading people and resources - creating networks, advocating, influencing, negotiating, shaping culture.
Uh, oh. They felt unprepared for all the human messiness of people behaving the way they do.
The effect
That was when they started thinking they weren't cut out for leadership. Messages weren't landing, unspoken power dynamics were sabotaging their efforts, undermining their authority.
They dreaded meetings, anything to do with line management, dealing with project teams, requesting resources. The bottom line was suffering. They felt they carrying the can for something outside their control. Surely the problems at the organisation were fixable. There must be a secret sauce that a consultant could help them find.
Enter the "consultant coach"
It was relief to share.
- "l am confident in what I do at work ...except for dealing with people" .
- "I enjoyed the doing, but now I only have to manage people."
- "I've got lots of ideas and plans but the busyness doesn't feel productive".
The client was John*. The consultant coach was me! To assess the scope of the perceived problem, we started by delving into how the prevailing culture affected their role, emotional cues, people dynamics, influencing and negotiating techniques and the role of psychological safety. We surfaced how the culture suppressed conflict but didn't address the causes.
The answer was not a classic consultant's structual or personnel change recommendation. It was creating awareness of what was holding the person and the whole organisation back. Igniting the flame of change by introducing tools and techniques for teams and individuals to connect, collectively gaining the confidence for collboration.
Not a quick or easy path and there's never an ending, but this senior leader is a lot happier and more confident. The organisation as a whole is working on creating a more open culture.
Many coaching consultancies like this and my own experiences in-house have been the foundations for my "Flow Builder" in-house programme.
What more could you achieve by creating a culture of confident collaboration for positive growth?
Apply for your free Flow Culture assessment today by sending an email to info@clearasabell.uk and I'll be in touch.
*name changed for privacy.