Patti Cotton

Executive Coach & Career Strategist

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Three Ways Adversity Shapes Extraordinary Leadership

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Three Ways Adversity Shapes Extraordinary Leadership
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No one consciously seeks adversity. Oddly, however, confronting fear and uncertainty is what shapes extraordinary leadership.

How can confronting the challenging and unpredictable cause leaders to go from good to great?

And why do some rise to make significant impact for the world around them, while others cause irreparable damage?

It is not the negative challenge that damages – it is the way you respond to it that can make or break your leadership and the impact you cause.

Here are three ways adversity can shape extraordinary leadership.

1. Adversity calls for the “whole leader” to face challenge.

Both your cognitive (competencies) and your emotional (character) skills are called to action as you try to make meaning of the situation and decide how you will respond to it.

Many a leader has fallen because either a character trait has compromised best actions, or a particular competency is not strong enough to execute what needs to be done. In which area do you need to strengthen your own leadership? To begin this self-examination, see How Much Do Others Trust You, which outlines key traits and skills required to build trust and meet challenges effectively.

2. Adversity demands that we bring our best to the front while under pressure.

This is easier said than done. The positive traits with which you regularly lead can quickly become exaggerated and damaging in adverse situations.

For example, under normal conditions, you may enjoy confidence in your opinions while remaining balanced and open to the perspectives of others. However, under pressure, this confidence may turn into a closed-minded dogmatism that does not allow you to consider other alternatives.

Understanding not only how to manage your strengths, but also your tendencies under pressure is important to bringing good responses to bad circumstances. If you are not sure where your own “pressure points” lie, ask a couple of trusted colleagues who have seen you work under pressure. The feedback you receive may make a great difference in your ability to meet the future most effectively.

3. Adversity requires that we learn to make meaning of the new and unexpected.

Our ability to meet difficult circumstances requires that we are able to make meaning of these, and to consider new approaches to solve them. “We cannot solve problems with the same thinking that created them,” quipped Albert Einstein.

This is reflected as we look at Nelson Mandela’s life after his imprisonment of 27 years. The great civil rights leader and former South African president could have incited the country to civil war after being released. However, he saw that reconciliation – not retribution – was what would bring hope and healing to a divided nation. To do this, he had to make meaning of the injustices previously committed, look at a larger and new picture to consider his response, and develop the mindset and approach to meet the challenge.

Warren Bennis, leadership expert and author of On Becoming a Leader once said, “Until you make your life your own, you’re walking in borrowed clothes. Leaders, whatever their field, are made up as much of their experiences as their skills, like everyone else. Unlike everyone else, they use their experiences rather than being used by them.”

Given this, and the potential for you to make even more significant impact through your leadership, how will you choose to meet adversity?

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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Four Tips to Help You Build Good Political Skills

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Four Tips to Help You Build Good Political Skills
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The term “political shark” is well-known to many. We use this term in criticism because it has a negative connotation of someone who is self-serving and uses such savvy to do whatever it takes to move ahead.

But if you are a minnow and not a shark in this arena, it is time to learn how to swim better and faster. Because politically skilled people are able to maximize and leverage relationships in the world to foster connections, trust, and influence others – all things that are necessary for transformational leadership.

If you have everyone’s interest in mind – yours, theirs, and the organization’s interests – your ability to network and to influence others in order to accomplish personal and organizational goals can be transformational.

In fact, Gerald Ferris, a management and psychology professor at Florida State University, says that a political shark can be genuine, authentic, straightforward and effective, conjuring up a much different picture than most of us tend to have. Ferris says that there are four behaviors to political skill: social astuteness, interpersonal influence, networking ability, and apparent sincerity.

How do you develop this skill? How do you learn to navigate “workplace waters” to get things done in a way that is mutually beneficial?

Here are 4 tips to help you begin building your political skills.

1. Build your network.

Build it with many different groups, both inside and outside of the organization. Your networking ability is key to cultivating relationships. And relationships can develop into followership to help you reach targeted goals.

2. Listen deeply.

Be genuinely interested in your network, and listen deeply. Make the interpersonal connections to build bonds and trust. Tend and care for these connections with genuine interest.

3. Be confidently respectful of others and yourself.

Your sincerity in respecting your interests, the interests of others, and of the organization makes the difference in developing strong followership and mentoring others to do the same.

4. Connect the dots.

Social astuteness is important to political navigation. Understanding how your interests and the interests of others can be mutually beneficial as they support the organization is what creates a true win-win situation.

Of these four steps, which one do you estimate you need to work on most? Mastering all four will help you not only to become more influential to get things done, but will also allow you to develop more meaningful, fruitful relationships.

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.

GET THE INFOGRAPHIC

Do You Suffer from Executive Isolation?

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Do You Suffer from Executive Isolation?
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Who is in your tribe?

It matters, if you want to remain effective and relevant as a leader.

If remaining so is important to you, you need a tribe that provides you with the nourishment you need to flourish. This tribe should fully support you in your endeavors. And it should also challenge when you do less than your best you so that you continue to strengthen your ability to lead.

Without this kind of tribe, leaders feel isolated and alone. They buy in to the false adage that “it’s lonely at the top.”

That stoicism will damage a leader’s ability to lead.

If this is you – if you are suffering from executive isolation – it is time to form your tribe.

Can you identify with any of the following?

  • 60% of all leaders quietly admit they didn’t feel fully prepared for their new role, and that it was necessary to hide this in order to build credibility with others. They reported feeling lonely and unsure because of a lack of support. If this is you, remember to differentiate between your ability to lead and the fact that there is a learning curve to any new role
  • Leaders must make tough decisions that others might not understand, so they do not feel free to share these or discuss them with others. They have nowhere they can take this to brainstorm and come up with creative solutions. If this is you, you are compromising your decision-making abilities and leadership effectiveness.
  • Leaders must hold a lot of confidential and/or sensitive information. This is stressful and burdensome, promoting a feeling of isolation. If this is you, the cost of this kind of stress can be far-reaching and hamper your ability to perform.
  • No leader has all the answers, but they seldom share this fact because they want their employees to have confidence in them and in the direction the company is headed. This is you, if you feel the need to keep significant thoughts and feelings to yourself.

Executive isolation – the dynamic that arises from the situations described above – is insidiously damaging to one’s leadership effectiveness.

A personal tribe for the leader is the solution.

Being part of a tribe where you can take your fears, doubts, and foibles, seems foreign to the person in power. How does that work for the person at the top? And what does it look like?

Here are the needed ingredients for a leader’s tribe (or for any tribe, for that matter!):

1. Nourishment

A leader’s tribe must provide nourishment in the form of healthy ways of relating, healthy connections, and deep and genuine bonds. Human connection is necessary to sustain life, and healthy human connection is necessary to support your highest and best.

2. Confidentiality

Respect for your situation and your stories is paramount. Feeling as though you can trust your tribe with all your “stuff” allows you to fully divulge what you need to without fear of compromise.

3. Support

Bringing deepest thoughts, fears, doubts, and aspirations can feel risky – yet every human being, no matter how accomplished, has them. Your vulnerability should be met by your tribe with genuine support so that you feel acknowledged, accepted, and able to confront where needed.

4. Challenge

Your tribe should love you where you are, and yet love you too much to allow you to stagnate there. You need to be challenged to grow, to smoothen rough edges, and to be called out when you are playing small. Frank feedback with love and respect is invaluable to your ability as leader to flourish and move successfully into the future.

5. Accountability

Your tribe should have your best interests in mind by holding you to your commitments. This is how true and lasting growth can best occur. If you do not have a source that provides this for you, the potential in you will go sadly untapped.

Leaders feel lonely and assume this is par for the course. Yet the right social connection with trusted tribe makes all the difference in how you can evoke continuous and honest growth in your ability to lead.

Who is in your tribe?

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.

GET THE INFOGRAPHIC

Three Things a Leader Needs to Get the Mojo Back

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Three Things a Leader Needs to Get the Mojo Back
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Leading is challenging.

But it should also be energizing and exciting.

If you as leader have lost the drive you used to feel, take heart – there are three things you need to focus on in order to get back on top of your game.

In fact, if your actions don’t inspire, motivate, and empower, it is time to regroup.

Inspire

When your employees are inspired, great things happen. People follow inspiration. As you inspire, your workforce feels a sense of belonging and commitment, and they become more engaged and productive.

And, lest you think you must be charismatic in order to be inspirational, take heart. In a recent employee poll, traits such as humility, empathy, openness, and high regard for others were named among the 33 traits identified as being inspirational (Eric Garton – “How to Be an Inspiring Leader,” Harvard Business Review, April 2017 ).

Motivate

When you bring passion and positive energy to your workforce, you spread an infectious attitude that supports high morale and keeps stress at lower levels.

Incentivizing your employees to do their very best goes far beyond offering higher wages. Find out what motivates your executive team members (hint: each will have something different to share). Things like feeling a part of the company’s success, learning to move a career ahead, personal development to step into higher personal leadership, receiving acknowledgement and recognition in a certain way – these are just a few examples of what really motivates people.

Do this – and teach your team to do likewise with their own teams. You’ll create an incredibly motivated workforce and a higher level of retention.

Empower

Demonstrate trust. Clarify the ends instead of the means, provide them with any non-negotiable parameters, and then let them spread their wings.

Explore where you can delegate, outline your expectations as far as results, and simply be on hand for questions.

Don’t know where to start? Ask them. What projects or responsibilities might they like to assume in order to flex their leadership skills?

And here’s a question I use with my clients to help them think outside the box: If you decided to take a six-month sabbatical, what would you need to delegate in order to feel that the company could move ahead as per usual?

If you will work on these three areas, you will find that you have not only reanimated your workforce, you will also recapture your own drive and commitment to lead. A win-win.

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.

GET THE INFOGRAPHIC

What Should Keep a Leader Awake at Night

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What Should Keep a Leader Awake at Night
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As a leader, you are consumed with many moving parts.

These are some of the cycle of thoughts that keep you awake at night.

  • Holding on to good talent.
  • Keeping the business units aligned and performing at their best.
  • Increasing revenue while keeping costs down.

But what should keep you as a leader awake at night is a bit different.

Facing this issue head on will help you rest well, because it has a universal effect on all those areas that are the current causes of sleep deprivation for most leaders.

It has to do with moving into the future successfully. And there are three steps you can take that will help propel you forward.

The organization of the future is already here. It is yours, if you want to accept the challenge. Three things will help you set the right foundation so you can move forward with much greater ease. You’ll find them outlined below, along with some great reading materials to help you do so.

Three Ways to Help Move Your Organization into the Future

1. Assess your ability to adapt.

How effectively do you flex with change?

These days, it is no longer a question of coping. We work in a global marketplace, where a business shift in China means impact on business in Southern California. Agility is de facto a top focus for the leader. Do you find yourself resisting change or embracing it?

For more on a growth mindset that will help you sharpen your agility and adaptability, the following book will help: Mindset by Carol Dweck, PhD.

2. Maximizing your talent.

At the team level, you should be asking yourself how you can empower your team to help you lead. You may already be great at empowering great talent, but have you thought about pooling their brain trust on issues you normally own as part of your bailiwick?

Begin to bring your executive team together on issues you normally take care of, and present these for discussion and learning. Not only will you be mentoring at a greater level for succession planning, you may also learn a few things that will help your decisions to become your best.

For more on “teams leading teams,” see the article “The Symphonic C-Suite: Teams Leading Teams” by Deloitte experts Agarwal, Bersin, Lahiri, Schwartz, and Volini.

3. How can you get ahead of the curve?

Can you actually predict trends before they happen? If so, your competitive edge will now take you firmly – and first – into the future.

Does this sound impossible? You can actually grow your visioning skills to make the “what if” a palpable tool for your strategic planning.

To flex your ability in this, begin by reading the book Anticipate: The Art of Leading By Looking Ahead by Rob-Jan de Jong, PhD. Expand your visionary capacity with practical tools provided by this Wharton professor to change your ability to stay ahead of the curve.

Here is what we know: the organization of the future is here. Whether we accept the challenge depends on continuously sharpening the skills to do so. Let me know how you enjoy these resources.

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.

GET THE INFOGRAPHIC