In my book about derailed executives, The Prodigal Executive, I use Mark’s story to illustrate the point. His goal was to be a leader of his company. This is the goal he wanted to reach, but he kept getting off course. Like his own personal career GPS, I assisted him to find his way.
Mark (real story, not his real name) was a very bright, articulate, engaging and ambitious senior leader. He was educated at one of the finest universities in engineering. He thought like an engineer and had a long impressive resume with major international manufacturing companies. When I met Mark, I was called in to provide coaching to upgrade his skills so he could be part of the leadership of the company.
After a 360 degree feedback survey, the message back from his direct reports was that he did not show enough strength as a leader. He was not decisive enough to make tough decisions. Therefore, he allowed too many people issues to slide by. The result was resentment. Since he was trained as an engineer, he had not taken the time to develop his emotional intelligence.
Now Mark could have given up and just accepted a technical role in the organization.
During our coaching, I suggested to him that being stronger was part of being an effective leader. Showing strength was going to be critical. Since he truly wanted to be a leader, he took risks. As we worked together I kept giving him signals if he was on course or of course. There was one situation where he actually stopped an interview because he felt it was a waste of time for everyone. He stopped the interview with professionalism, but the message to his team was that he was strong enough. His leadership capital increased exponentially.
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