Benefits of Leadership Agility Coaching: Developing "Achiever" Leaders
Case Studies and Results
How has this 360 been used to help leaders add Achiever leadership to their repertoire?
Read real-life examples of how coaches have used Leadership Agility Coaching to help leaders operating at the Expert level develop Achiever-level leadership. Three case studies are presented below ...
- The Leader who didn't have Time to be Strategic
- The Leader who Blamed his Colleagues
- The Leader who tried to Solve Problems on his own
The Leader who didn't have Time to be Strategic
The Challenge
Imagine that your certification as a Leadership Agility Coach opens the door to work with the executive team for a large health care system. One on this team was Jason, who had just been promoted to the executive ranks as VP of Organizational Excellence. Jason's unit serviced the medical practices that had become part of this system. They provided what were essentially consulting services to these practices, for example, helping them redesign their administrative processes to make them more efficient.
Overall, Jason led like a very high-functioning Expert. Three things in particular stood out: First, now that he was an executive, he
wanted to spend more time thinking and acting strategically. But he felt that the demands of his job simply did not allow time for that - not an uncommon experience.
Second, he led his team of direct reports in an Expert manner. That is, in his "team" meetings, he would begin by sharing information about his current priorities and about relevant goings-on at the executive level, then shift into what is sometimes called a "searchlight meeting." That is, would go around the room asking each person in turn to report on progress and issues in their area. There little group discussion, and all decisions were made by him with little or no group discussion. Outside team meetings, he managed his directs in a "hub-and-spoke" fashion. Everything had to go through him. As a result, most of his direct reports were not very engaged, and he had to spend time following up with various individuals to make sure everything got done.
Third, his coach could tell from their early conversations that Jason had a capacity for reflection and strategic thinking, yet he had a "shoot from the hip" style that did not take advantage of these capabilities.
The coaching engagement and results
It was a real aha for Jason when his coach pointed out the connection between the way he managed his team and his lack of time for strategic thinking.
When Jason asked his coach what the alternative was, his coach described the basics of Achiever team leadership: Shift from thinking that leadership is only about using authority and expertise to thinking it's about motivating others by creating a team environment where people can feel challenged and satisfied by contributing to larger objectives. Think about the areas where team members' work is interdependent. In some cases, interdependencies are between 2 or 3 people. In others, they are relevant for the team as a whole. Then create meeting agendas that generate group discussion and problem-solving in these areas. Ask for the group's input before making a decision, rather than making all the decisions on this own.
Obviously, it was up to Jason to decide whether that was the direction he wanted to pursue. In fact, he saw the value of this approach immediately. He could see how giving his direct reports more responsibility could free time to be more strategic, and how it could make his team and the unit as a whole more effective. Right away, he introduced this approach to his team and started putting topics on the table for group discussion. Over the next few months, he became a more skilled listener and facilitator of group discussions. It eventually got to the point where he could tee up a topic for group discussion, leave the meeting to have a strategic conversation with another executive, then come back and hear the group's recommendations. Outside of team meetings, he delegated more and spent more time coaching his direct reports.
Throughout the coaching engagement, Jason also worked on developing "Achiever awareness and intent." Achiever awareness is a robust reflective capacity that sees connections (for example, the interdependencies between team members) and sees issues in their larger strategic context. Achiever intentionality shifts beyond the Expert's preoccupation with "doing everything the right way" to achieving desired outcomes. Toward the end of the engagement, Jason told his coach, "I've been practicing this thing I call 'the pause'," that is, slowing down at times to be more reflective.
His coach asked him for an example. Jason said, "I was walking down the hall the other day, going to a meeting I had called, yet I had given no thought to how to handle the meeting. As I walked along, I just paused mentally." "What happened when you paused," his coach asked. "Thoughts just came to mind," Jason said. "Like what do I want the outcomes of this meeting to be?" (Thinking backwards from the result you want to how to get there is a hallmark of Achiever thinking). This new habit of mind, put into practice through his behavior, strongly supported his strategic thinking and the way he now led his team.
The Leader who Blamed his Colleagues
The need
Imagine your certification as a Leadership Agility Coach led to a request to use this process in coaching a middle manager in a small software company. Dale (as we'll call him) was responsible for Quality Assurance, reporting to the VP of Engineering. Dale had 16 years of experience, mostly in QA positions, more than the great majority of the more junior hires that worked around him.
In addition to being experienced, Dale was bright and talented. However, when he disagreed with others, especially those in other departments, he let it be known that his way was the right way, often citing his greater experience. Needless to say, this caused a lot of
unproductive friction. In his own mind, this friction was caused by others. But his boss thought all parties were responsible. He gave Dale feedback about behavior he had observed and laid out how it contributed to this problem. And he tried to coach Dale, to no avail.
It was about this time that Dale attended a leadership workshop led by two certified Leadership Agility Coaches. Dale had an epiphany during the workshop module on "pivotal conversations." There, he learned new ways to approach conversations with people whose views differed from his own. He was intrigued. So when Dale's boss talked with Dale about the possibility of working with one of these coaches, he was game.
The coaching engagement and results
Dale was a manager who typically led from the Expert level of agility. As you might guess, one of the leadership practices he chose to work on concerned "pivotal conversations." His coach led him through an exercise to create an agenda for the engagement. He helped Jason concretize each practice he wanted to work on using a "from-to" format. Behaviorally, this meant concretely describing the behavior Jason wanted to change, as well as the new behavior he wanted to practice. Jason's coach then helped him identify a mindset he could adopt that would make it feel easy and natural to practice the new behavior.
For his pivotal conversations practice, Dale identified his current behavior as making assertions without inviting other views and acting as if he was always right. The mindset underlying this behavior was a believe that he was more experienced and therefore much more likely to be right. He also tended to think that others disagreed with him because they were inexperienced and lazy.
He described his desired behavior as being more collaborative, asking questions to better understand other's views - giving them room to think, and asking for feedback. He also wanted to be more transparent about his own reasoning, rather than expecting others to believe him soley because of his experience and expertise. The mindset he wanted to try to adopt going into pivotal conversations was to remember his belief (which now was genuine) that a more collaborative approach would be better for himself and for his co-workers.
Dale came to see his coaching sessions as an oasis from the stress he experienced at work. He used these sessions to develop his reflective capacity by examining what went well and not so well in challenging conversations, then to plan more effective approaches. As he continued his practice between coaching sessions, he experienced the benefits of adopting a more collaborative mindset, and others, including his boss, began to see that his new behaviors of asking questions and asking for feedback were not a temporary blip but a genuine change. His girlfriend began to see a "new Dale" as well (a good thing).
Over time, Dale and developed a more nuanced view of this "power style," meaning the extent to which he was assertive or receptive in pivotal conversations. Whereas the main behavior he wanted to change was being overly assertive, he realized there were other times, especially in group meetings, that he withheld his views. So he worked on speaking up more in those setting, and doing so in a way that encouraged others to share differing views, if they had them. His coach helped him to "helicopter" above intergroup and interpersonal dynamics to see things from a more systemic perspective. HIs ability to speak from this perspective when organizational problems arose earned him the respect of his co-workers.
By the time the coaching engagement came to a close, Dale was more regularly practicing collaborative behavior, which actually made others more receptive to his experience-based views. He became more reflective and more strategic and outcome-oriented. Through his committed work on pivotal conversations and other practices, he had become someone who had developed the inner capacities and behavioral repertoire to lead at the Achiever level.
Dale's Quote
"I cannot say enough about Leadership Agility coaching has done to help me to take my leadership skills to the next level. It made it easy for me to identify areas for improvement and provided a framework that's made it easy to work on and improve my mindsets and my leadership skills. For example, my 'pivotal conversations' with colleagues are much more effective now. I've found this coaching to be invaluable and highly recommend it to anyone who is serious about growing as a leader."
The Leader who tried to Solve Problems on his own
The need
Imagine that your certification as a Leadership Agility Coach made it possible for you to work with a relatively new AI unit in a larger corporation. This group had implemented a number of Agile practices, but the group's leader realized they would not be able to create a truly agile organization unless the established an agile leadership culture. To accomplish this, he specifically wanted to work with certified Leadership Agility coaches, based on recommendations he had received from another manager in the company.
The coaching engagement
The 10-person group that participated in the program included a manager we'll call Ken. Ken was very bright and was quite experienced in his area of expertise. His 360-feedback report indicated that his approach to leadership was primarily at the Expert level. Once he had taken in the feedback, one of the practices he chose to work on was something he called "collaborative engagement."
Ken described his current behavior in this area as follows: "I usually wait for others who've identified problems and opportunities to come to me, seeking my input. Or, when I come up with an idea or issue, I work it out completely on my own, then try to persuade others to adopt my solution." He said his "wait for others to come to me" behavior was due to "an introverted mindset - Thinking of myself as a contributor who adds to problem-solving conversations initiated by others." He said his habit of solving problems he has identified on his own was driven by "a perfectionistic mindset. Fear of failing or making mistakes or being seen as not constructive. Feeling I need to prove myself by demonstrating my knowledge and expertise on the matter at hand."
Identifying his current behavior and the mindsets behind it freed him to focus on what he wanted to do instead. As he put it, "When I see an opportunity or need for change, I will identify the key stakeholders, then convene them and frame the issue at a high level. I will facilitate a collaborative problem-solving discussion by observing and understanding group dynamics (what is working and what is not), sharing observations, drawing out opinions, and sharing my own (but not with a fixed idea of the solution going into the discussion)."
He identified the mindset that would best support him in putting this practice into action: "A collaborative leadership mindset. Think of this practice as an opportunity to develop a new kind of expertise having to do with taking the initiative and facilitating a group’s decision-making or problem-solving process. The more I can engage others and establish their buy-in, the greater their commitment to implementing the final solution/plan/vision, and they will be/feel more accountable."
Results
Now that he was clear about how he wanted to change, Ken immediately began to apply this more collaborative approach to creating a new vision for his discipline, setting new goals for his department, and involving his team in problem-solving. He also applied this approach to planning a new mentorship program within the scope of inclusion and diversity.
When I come up with an idea, I will set a goal, convene the relevant stakeholders, and work through the issue. In framing the issue, I want to clarify the problem and provide any guardrails on reaching decisions (e.g., getting input and consensus from every stakeholder to arrive at a joint resolution (understanding that consensus is not necessarily unanimity).
This approach yielded dramatically better results. after the new mentoring program had been implemented, higher-ups told him it was the best such program in the company’s history. Ken's new commitment to collaborative planning and problem-solving also inspired a few others in the AI group who were working on similar practices.
