Why leadership fails

Humble businesses

My mum had a humble wholesale shop for many years. When I ask her what was the most important success factor for a shop. She said: “the workers”. The more mum talked the clearer it was: there will be no business without the loyal and committed workers.

I know that in the business world, the world ‘leadership’ is loaded. But I did not think that it is equally important for the modest shop my mum had. Many kiwi business owners I met wondering if it is necessary to work on leadership. They fear those management terms would only work for big multinationals.

Make it work

Even when we start to work on it, too often we get frustrated. Companies pay a huge cost for poor leadership. Despite increasing numbers of courses, workshops and tips offered to build leadership skills.

  • Most organisations are operating with a 5 - 10% productivity ‘drag’ (that better leadership practices could eliminate)
  • Less-than-optimal leadership practices cost the typical organisation an amount equal to as much as 7% of their total annual sales
  • At least 9% and possibly as much as 32% of an organisation’s voluntary turnover can be avoided through better leadership skills
  • Better leadership can generate a 3 - 4% improvement in customer satisfaction scores and a corresponding 1.5% increase in revenue growth*
  • In dollar terms: DDI, a leading researcher in the corporate world, has created a Cost of Poor Leadership Calculator. According to their calculations, one poor Leader costs a company more than $126,000 over the course of a year due to low productivity, turnover, and staff dissension.

Can we change this paradigm?

Yes, but perhaps not through a workshop, or one magic trick.

If leaders willing to do the work, change can happen. Often I will say to my client:

"Coaching doesn’t work, you work... Coaching just explains how you work. "

Very often workshop or magic tricks promise a quick fix. However, as we all know, we not trust or love people because of one thing or ten things they do.

Do you love someone because they brought you chocolate or flowers? No. How do people falling in love? We fall in love because how we feel. How do we change someone’s feeling? Changes need to happen at a deeper level.

Neurological levels

1. Environment, one way of change leadership dynamic is changing the external setting. Perhaps get different team members. {often this is what most clients do themselves}

2. Behaviours, change what you do with your team. Invite them to be more engaged. {often this is what a HR trainer would suggest}

3. Capabilities, obtain new communication skills {often this is what workshop trainers would do with you}

4. Beliefs and Values. Here is where fundamental changes happen. This is where coaching works. We will look at your thoughts as a system. How do you see the world, experience the world and respond to the world. How your beliefs are built. We will ask ourselves questions, how does it work for you?

5. Identity. At this level, change can occur by giving client new experience of who they are as a person. That’s very often workshop or training do not work because change needs to occur at this much profound level to be sustainable.

6. Spirit. This is the person’s connection with greater systems of which they are a part, such as communities and or the universe.

If you can change your thoughts, your beliefs and values, your action and everything else follows. This is why over two-thirds of CEOs in the United States would work with an executive coach#.

Let’s face it. We could all use a little help from time to time. As a leader, it is not always easy to find someone to bounce ideas off and get honest feedback. Why not get in touch with me and have a conversation.

It all starts with a conversation.


Reference:

*Smart CEO report

# Executive coaching survey by the Stanford University