Getting Back On Track
I took an assessment not too long ago that was designed to identify characteristics or behaviors that might derail someone in a management or leadership position. As it turned out, I have very few areas to be concerned about. The assessment told me that I was a bit too cautious at times, which was no surprise to me. And sometimes, I can be too direct when communicating, especially when I’m in a hurry or under stress. Yep, I’m aware of that too.
Derailed managers are those that showed great promise for advancement earlier in their careers, but have gotten way off track. If your career has stalled or you’ve been shown the door recently, you might want to look inward to see what went wrong. The Center for Creative Leadership says that managers who derail have problems in one or more of the following areas:
- Communicating on an interpersonal level and establishing strong relationships
- Hiring, building and leading a successful team
- Meeting business objectives
- Changing and adapting during transitions
- Having a broad functional orientation
The good news is that if a manager is aware of his potential derailers, he can get back on track and learn more effective behaviors through leadership training and feedback.
Filed under: Career StrategiesPermalink
John Agno said,
August 11, 2008 @ 5:26 am
Yes, the most important knowledge is self-knowledge. Self assessments, including 360-degree feedback, are a good place to begin the process of self knowledge but to get to that place of self-awareness, where there is great leverage, requires the help of a professional coach or mentor.
The purpose of any performance management system should be to guide the individual employee and groups toward desired outcomes, provide reinforcement and supply corrective feedback for making adjustments.
The 360-degree feedback report gives participants a fair and well-rounded impression of how others view their work. When the person who is rated agrees to share the results of this multi-rater assessment with management, the supervisor gets an overall perspective about the individual’s skills/abilities in order to facilitate process improvement, remove barriers to success and acquire needed resources. Feedback is provided from multiple sources (raters) including self, boss, peers, direct reports, and, in some cases, customers and suppliers.
Why use Multi-Rater assessments in Executive Coaching?
Allows the person being coached to gain perspectives from others in an objective, non-threatening, confidential manner.
Provides the individual with data for self-reflection and self-awareness.
Assists in identifying individual development needs and action items.
Helps surface patterns of behavior, especially when used in conjunction with other assessment tools during the coaching process.
Provides a platform for dialogue between the outside coach and the executive.