Organisations are currently gripped in a whirlpool of change and chaos, for some organisations its entirely not of their own doing and almost out of their control, but for others they see the need to make a tough call, deliver hard decisions and drive for change.  Either way, what your leadership team does will determine how well or poorly the change or transformation goes.  Leadership drives the success of the change program.

In all my time coaching leaders in organisations, it never ceases to surprise me how little leaders understand about how their actions have an impact on staff and the culture.

The wider this gap gets the more dysfunctional the organisation seems to be.  Almost to the point where a total lack of self-awareness by leadership can bring a company to its knees.  I have seen, first hand, how a totally unaware leader behaved so poorly that within 3 months the top 10% of management left and the biggest 3 customers followed.

We understand it’s a brave new world out there and leaders do not have all the answers and do not always make the right decisions, (where in the past, we might have thought it was the case).  Introduce a level of self-unawareness into this mix and it’s a recipe for a cultural and values disaster, which will precede a collapse of the organisation.

With the rate of change and a confusing future, how would we expect our leaders to adapt quickly or know the answers to questions they’ve never been asked?  The answer is not in the classroom, that’s great for technical skills but leadership is about people skills. The classroom is a great place to gain knowledge but not a great place to gain people competency.  Situational development is the only real teacher in this realm.

With a lack of self-awareness how can you understand the reaction of your employees, their reactions to your actions, to your decisions, to the changes occurring around them, how are unaware managers meant to lead?

Leaders drive culture and behaviours in an organisation.

From my extensive change management experience, the times when I had 100% support from leadership teams across the board, the change went without a hitch.  When I was dealing with a leadership team who thought change was something all the employees should do and did not apply to them, the change has been a failure.

Therefore:

• Coaching supports leaders through constructive behaviours, this enables…
• Leaders to drive the culture and values, which creates…
• Change acceptance in an organisation.

Some leaders are natural change agents, many are not.  In fact, the higher up in management you go the more focus there is on structure, rigidity, rules and regulations, predictability and finances.  These concepts are not the corner stones of an agile organisation.

Senior Management activities by their very nature do not encourage change, change leadership does and coaching is what will help leaders bridge the gap.