Patti Cotton

Executive Coach & Career Strategist

corporate

Redefining Success: Aligning Your Leadership Role with Personal Fulfillment

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Redefining Success: Aligning Your Leadership Role with Personal Fulfillment
Image Credit: Depositphotos

It’s been a rough four years. No matter where you stand with the events of today’s world, we have experienced unprecedented challenges.

And it has taken its toll.

More business leaders are leaving their roles than at any other time in our lifetime (McKinsey, Forbes). And that echoes the sentiment I am hearing from so many of you. It’s no longer enough for you to weather the proverbial storms in order to reach organizational goals. It’s not enough to persevere in hiring and retaining the right talent to do the job. It’s not enough to feel as though you averted another crisis, completed another long day, and made it through yet another challenge.

On a scale of 1-5, how fulfilled are you as a leader? In your work? Your life?

Perhaps it is time to redefine success.

In the past, success has often been defined by career achievements. But over the last four years, as we have faced unmatched crises and a new and seemingly foreign business landscape, this definition has fallen short. Business leaders are asking for more…not more money, not more opportunities, but for more personal fulfillment. They seek more ease in leading – and more of a personal reward for filling those big shoes.

The fact is, personal fulfillment doesn’t come from occasional exotic trips or long weekends to regroup and re-energize. True fulfillment encompasses both professional and personal aspects of life.

It doesn’t have to be this hard.

And lest you think that this is soft stuff, allow me to make a business case for your personal fulfillment.

Some outcomes from leaders who embrace this include positive energy and motivation, role modeling, improved communication, better decision-making, increased resilience, more empathy and understanding, positive culture, and higher employee retention. The list is significant.

James, CEO and founder of a tech company, had lost his motivation and energy despite his company’s growth and success.

“There’s no excitement in leading anymore,” he shared. “We reach goals, or we don’t – and the alarming thing is, I’m beginning not to care.”

James claimed an overwhelming workload and a constant pressure to perform. But after exploring this in depth with him, the real issue became apparent: there was a lack of alignment between his professional achievements and his personal values.

Digging deeper, I discovered that James’ definition of success was narrowly focused on business metrics, without having defined first his vision of personal fulfillment.

Further, after conducting a comprehensive assessment, it was clear that James did not know how to tap into his top strengths for energy, and his approach conflicted with his top values – a recipe for burnout.

This called for a coaching intervention to help James develop a new definition of success incorporating personal happiness and wellbeing alongside professional achievements.

The Jumpstart

As so many of my clients appreciate, we met for an initial two-day jumpstart away from the office to fast-track the process. This was helpful in elevating James’ sense of hope, energy, clarity, and direction. It was necessary to define James’ values, personal mission and vision before moving on to the business.

This is a key factor that is often missed and, if not done well, can create chronic conflict in the leadership experience. We redefined James’ strengths, as he had taken multiple assessments over time, some of which were not reliable and others which were limited in scope (note to the reader: assessments are not apples and apples – beware!) During that initial two days, we also created a strategic plan to align his daily activities and long-term goals with his newly defined success criteria. This plan addressed both his business leadership and life.

The Deep Dive

With this as our GPS, we then coached over the next year. This is deep and transformational work, including shifting habits and approaches formed over years of time, reshaping the stories that James told himself to open up more potential, and removing roadblocks and triggers that had previously held him in place.

The Result

James’ enthusiasm and joy of leading was re-energized. This had a cascade effect on his executive team and on the company, since a leader’s influence is significant on culture and outcomes. Some of the results for his company included increased productivity, better work-life balance, improved team morale, and overall business growth.

What about you? What is your personal definition of success?

Does it include both career achievements and personal fulfillment? Are you aligned in your values and tapping into your top strengths daily as you lead?

© Patti Cotton and patticotton.com. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express written permission from the author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that attribution is made to Patti Cotton and patticotton.com, with links thereto.

The Neuroscience of Leadership: Building Blocks of Cognitive Agility

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The Neuroscience of Leadership: Building Blocks of Cognitive Agility
Image Credit: Depositphotos

As a senior executive, you are the pilot of your organization, navigating through a turbulence of decisions that demand not only precision but also adaptability. Understanding the science behind effective leadership has never been more crucial.

Neuroscience sheds light on how you can continue to develop your cognitive agility. This will help you steer clear of decision fatigue and cognitive rigidity, and move confidently forward on a path of flexible and dynamic leadership.

The Challenge of Stagnancy

Jonathan, a seasoned CEO at the helm of a multinational corporation, called me at a critical point in his leadership. His company, once a leader in innovation, began showing signs of lagging behind more agile competitors. Jonathan’s decision-making process, once sharp and ahead of the curve, now seemed slower, almost predictable. When I met with him, our discussion revealed that decision fatigue and cognitive rigidity were creeping in. Each choice seemed harder than the last, and his once transformative ideas now felt like reruns of a tired show.

Identifying the Real Problem

The real issue at play here was not a lack of effort or desire to innovate but rather outdated neural pathways that limited flexibility. This is not uncommon in seasoned leaders. Neuroscience tells us that our brains can fall into patterns of thinking that, while once efficient, can become constraining over time. In Jonathan’s case, his executive functions were trapped in a neurological rut, leading to a style of leadership that was increasingly rigid and resistant to change.

The Neuroscientific Approach

To tackle this, Jonathan needed solutions rooted in the insights of cognitive development. Cognitive agility is the brain’s ability to adapt to new information and circumstances. This adaptability is rooted in neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections. This means that even established leaders can cultivate a mind more conducive to innovation and flexibility.

Implementing Solutions

I worked with Jonathan to revive and strengthen his cognitive capacity, utilizing some of the following steps:

1. Mindful Reflection

He began with periods of mindful reflection, dedicating time to critically and openly evaluate past decisions. This practice encouraged his brain to consider multiple perspectives and alternative outcomes, laying the groundwork for more agile thinking.

2. Learning and Unlearning

He committed to learning something new every quarter, whether related to his industry or an entirely different field. This continuous learning helped to build new neural pathways, promoting cognitive flexibility.

3. Cognitive Diversity

He diversified his advisory circle to include thinkers from varied disciplines, ages, and backgrounds. This social neuroplasticity exposed his brain to a broader range of ideas and problem-solving approaches.

4. Challenging Assumptions

Jonathan applied the “Five Whys” technique to challenge his own assumptions, asking ‘why’ five times to get to the root of a particular belief or strategy. This helped to break down rigid thought patterns and build new, more adaptive ones.

5. Embracing Discomfort

He deliberately put himself in new, unfamiliar situations that required him to adapt on the fly, from improvisation workshops to cross-cultural negotiations.

Measurable Results

Six months into our work together, Jonathan’s leadership style showed tangible signs of transformation. He reported feeling more energized and less burdened by decision-making. His team noticed a more dynamic approach to strategy sessions, and the company began to regain its competitive edge. Brain-training exercises had not only rejuvenated Jonathan’s cognitive processes but also revitalized his organization’s culture of innovation.

Conclusion

Cognitive agility is not an innate talent but a skill that can be cultivated. Neuroscience does not merely suggest but demonstrates that leaders can enhance their cognitive flexibility, and in doing so, unlock a higher level of strategic and innovative thinking. As with Jonathan, embracing the principles of neuroplasticity can guide you away from the pitfalls of decision fatigue and towards a horizon of renewed leadership vigor.

In the fast-paced world of executive decision-making, the ability to adapt and thrive in the face of new challenges is what distinguishes exceptional leaders from the rest. The journey to cognitive agility begins with the understanding that our brains are our most flexible asset. The question remains: are you ready to rewire your executive brain for the future of leadership?

© Patti Cotton and patticotton.com. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express written permission from the author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that attribution is made to Patti Cotton and patticotton.com, with links thereto.

Is Your Compassion Hurting You in the Workplace?

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Is Your Compassion Hurting You in the Workplace?
Image Credit: Shutterstock

Is your ability to have compassion for your colleagues hurting you?

Some of you have told me that when you show you care for others in the workplace, you become drained of energy. You discover you are the “go-to” person when problems arise or when people need a shoulder to cry on.

Others have told me it is hard to make tough decisions that could negatively affect others, and still feel compassionate.

If either of these situations hit close to home, don’t blame it on compassion.

Blame it on poor boundaries and a misunderstanding of what compassion really is.

Do you need to stop showing others you care? Not at all.

But when I talk about compassion in the workplace, a lot of people bristle and throw words like “soppy,” and “gutless” around.

“We had a ‘fluffy’ CEO,” said one manager. “Everyone loved him. But he could never make the tough decisions we needed in order to hold people accountable.”

Others roll their eyes and tell me that when they show compassion, an endless stream of needy people line up at the office door for counseling, advice, and a sympathetic ear.

“I’m absolutely spent,” said Jan. “People have so many problems and see me as a mentor. I can be there for them because I listen well and really care about the people here. But it seems like when one problem disappears, another arrives, and they are back at my door the next week with something else.”

However, compassion is anything but gutless or fluffy. And it is not being the “therapist on call.”

True compassion takes great courage to embody – and it’s vital to good leadership.

Compassion means to hold others with positive intent, to feel concern for their well-being.

It does not mean to be on call to fix others’ problems. And it doesn’t mean avoiding making the right decisions even though some may not like how it affects them. It simply means that you need to care about others and hold them in positive light.

So what does compassion really look like in the workplace? And how do you practice it?

Here is a quick checklist for you to sharpen your ability to show compassion and keep healthy boundaries:

1. When others bring you their problems, ask yourself the following:

a. Am I the right person to address this problem?

People may come to you because you have an ability to listen and sift through problems. However, the issue they bring to you might belong in another office. Is the problem of a work nature, and if so, who is the right decision-maker that can help them resolve it? Is the problem of a personal nature, and thus better discussed with those parties directly involved, or with a counselor? Begin to triage in this way so that you can redirect as appropriate.

b. Is the person bringing me the problem asking for help in solving it?

Sometimes, people just want a sympathetic ear. However, if you have someone who continues to come to you about a particular problem because you are good listener, you may want to ask them what they want to do about the situation. People can develop a chronic need for sympathy.

c. And finally, fixing others’ problems for them when they should be stretching their problem-solving skills doesn’t help them to grow.

Allow your employees and colleagues to “adult” by taking a coaching approach. Learn to ask them questions, such as, “How do you feel this should be handled? What possible solutions have you thought about?”

Then, if they are still stumped and you are the appropriate party to help them address the problem, help them to brainstorm with more possibilities, if needed.

2. Holding people accountable is compassionate and, you might say, the ultimate way to love others.

Confronting the tough stuff that holds your employees back will allow them to grow into more of their potential, be a greater contributor to their team, and thus support the enterprise more effectively. And that means that everybody wins.

3. Making tough decisions that may adversely affect some of your employees doesn’t mean you don’t care about them.

It means you ultimately care about everyone. Supporting a healthy enterprise provides good and meaningful work for the people who work there. Pleasing some people to the exclusion of the current and future health of the organization means hurting everyone.

Where in your practice of compassion do you need to recalibrate?

HOW MUCH

DO OTHERS REALLY TRUST YOU?

​Learn the two vital parts to trust and how they can help you become a more highly effective leader.

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A Multi-Million Dollar Company with No One Leading

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A Multi-Million Dollar Company with No One Leading

Mediation and Conflict Resolution

All names and other identifying information have been changed to protect confidentiality.

I was called to work with one of the largest construction companies in the Midwest, which was a recent merger of three very successful smaller construction companies.

“I want you to find out what’s wrong with these employees of mine,” said the president, looking at me across the desk. “These people aren’t putting in the sweat equity they should. In fact, I think a few of them are lazy – some need to be fired. Most are complaining that they haven’t gotten a raise in a long time, but before I go handing out candy, they need to show their stuff and get these back orders out.”

“Back orders?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said. “We have $40 Million in back orders we cannot fill, and the bank is telling me I have 90 days to get it fixed, or they are calling in the loan. We may fold before spring if these lazy employees don’t get cracking.”

The president (we will call him Max) gave me a bit of background about the company. He was formerly the owner of a smaller construction business. Two years prior, he had purchased another construction company, and then invited the president of a third company, Jim, to join him so that together, they formed the largest company in the industry in the Midwest.

As Max gave me more details about this very critical situation, I proposed that we meet with the other owner, Jim, as well as their new COO, Tom, to design a quick, impactful plan to get the back orders out and avoid the bank’s loan recall.

“Oh, no, I don’t want Tom in this. I’m still teaching Tom the ropes of the business, and I want to see how well he does before I give him more responsibility. And Jim and I aren’t, uh, talking to each other right now. He isn’t interested in this side of the business, anyway. He just stays out in his warehouse office and works on his invention.”

“His invention?”

“Listen,” Max shot back, “The co-owner doesn’t care about anything but sitting in his office down the street all day playing with some new product that is supposed to revolutionize the industry. I hate to admit it to you, but he hasn’t seen the financials for more than a year. I’ve been busy putting out other fires. It would be a little embarrassing for me to let him in on what’s happening right now.”

“You mean your co-owner doesn’t know the bank is threatening to recall the loan? That you have $40 Million in back orders you can’t fill?” I stammered.

Max just grinned sheepishly and stared at me.

At this point, dear Reader, you may be thinking this story is fabricated. After all, a real company cannot operate like this, can it? Yes, it can. I was there.

But it was due to fold – with problems obviously starting and ending at the very top.

“Max,” I said, “Before we do anything else, we have to let the co-owner and the COO in on the problem – you are going to need help and buy-in with the solution.”

“It’s all over, then,” he buried his face in his hands. “You don’t understand these guys – they don’t know how to run a business like I do. And they are difficult to deal with.”

I sat in stunned silence. Of course, you know that what was running through my mind was that Max didn’t know how to run a business either – and he was difficult to deal with, too.

How did the company come to this point? It starts and ends with leadership, doesn’t it? The health or lack of health in leadership is felt at every level of any enterprise. And there are several key factors that fell short in this particular case.

But I’ll talk about three important ones here:

1. Lack of clear roles and responsibilities.

Max and Jim had decided that Max would operate as CEO, but they didn’t know what this meant. And they never defined any responsibilities for either of them. Max fell into running the company because he liked being the boss. Jim busied himself with doing what he loved best – tinkering to invent a product that would put the company on the map. Max brought Tom in to fix the “employee problem,” but hadn’t allowed him to get near any employees, yet, except for a small satellite office at the other end of the state. Max said he “wanted to test Tom’s abilities, first.” This had been going on for months when I got there.

2. Lack of accountability.

As you can see from #1 above, none of the executive team was holding themselves or each other accountable. Max loved to sell and make deals, so this is what he was doing with investors – and yet, he wasn’t managing the directors and managers so that the company could run effectively.

Tom, the new COO, had tried to insert himself several times by proposing to oversee the management team, but Max shut him down each time, saying “You need to do what I’ve given you to do first so I can cut you loose.”

Max had, in fact, made the fatal mistake of assigning Tom to a small area of the company that had little to do with production and the problem at hand. And Max wasn’t investigating the real problem, either.

And then, there was Jim. Jim loved to tinker. Alone in his office all day. I still don’t know how he survived his original business before Max brought it on to combine it with his own.

3. Lack of communication.

How in the world did three men who held such high responsibilities find themselves in a place where no one knew what the others were doing – and the company was going down?

A multi-million dollar company with no one leading.

Why didn’t Max communicate? Max claimed that he couldn’t talk to Jim because the latter had a temper, so Max avoided keeping Jim up to date with financials, challenges, and other vital pieces of information. And Max claimed that Tom was too new to know what he was doing and so withheld information from him that could have helped Tom to help the company.

Why didn’t Jim communicate? He told me he thought Max was an arrogant idiot who was so hard-headed that it was impossible to talk with him. Jim said that Tom was a nice fellow, but he wasn’t sure he trusted him because Tom was always in Max’s office.

And Tom? Tom didn’t communicate with Max because he had asked too many questions too many times and been shut down to the point where he was silently contemplating quitting and moving his family back East. And he didn’t communicate with Jim, because Jim always had his door closed down at that warehouse office.

At every turn, there were unspoken conversations and unresolved conflict because people weren’t asking the hard questions, and providing tough information to each other.

Avoiding these critical conversations had resulted in one giant fiasco.

You can guess that the initial meeting with the four of us was not a gentle one. Tempers and voices flared, and it took some mediating to reach an agreement as to how to talk with each other and work through the problem so that we could get to the issues at hand. We finally reached consensus on what strategies to take, who would be responsible for what, and how to hold self and each other accountable through this critical process.

I frankly breathed a sigh of relief. Mediating and coaching conflict in such a situation are not easy, but we came out linking arms.

Sometime later, after leadership diverted the crisis, I would fire Max (yes, I have fired a couple of clients). I would have loved to stay on to help shift culture, and help the company excel. But Max was not willing to be transparent with Jim and Tom about some critical issues, and he wasn’t willing to work on his own leadership. He just kept blaming everyone and everything else. Shortly after I fired him, his board fired him as well.

I’m glad to say that Tom has taken over running the company, and has really turned things around. And Jim? He is still inventing things in his warehouse office that are bound to revolutionize the industry.

What poor style of leadership have you witnessed or heard about in the past?

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Patti Cotton is a CEO and former foreign diplomat. A sixth generation business owner, Patti not only coaches leaders – she has extensive experience in actually being one. Her experience, record of unprecedented success, and extensive training and certifications make her uniquely qualified to bring value to you and your team in the areas of leading self, leading others, and leading the enterprise.

Patti’s areas of focus include leadership and talent development, with specialization in leadership behavior and communication, conflict management, executive presence, succession planning, and strategic personal, leadership, and organizational growth.

With over 25 years of proven leadership experience, Patti works with individuals, teams, and organizations across diverse industries. As an executive coach, trainer, and Fortune 500 speaker, she will inspire, influence, and impact your organizational leaders to reach new heights of success in their personal and professional growth, and to improve performance across your organization.

For more information on how Patti Cotton can help you and your organization, click here.