are leader risks an excuse for bad behavior? · are leader risks an excuse for bad behavior? ! by...

ARE LEADER RISKS AN EXCUSE FOR BAD

BEHAVIOR?

By Nancy E. Parsons

President, CDR Assessment Group, Inc.

©2017 CDR Assessment Group, Inc., Sugar Land, TX. All rights reserved. www.cdrassessmentgroup.com email: [email protected]

Are Leader Risks an Excuse for Bad Behavior?

By Nancy E. Parsons

Badge of Honor I recall times when people displayed their styles inventory results, like MBTI (Myers-‐‑Briggs Type Indicator®), as a badge of honor, posting their designated letters, such as “ISTJ”, on their office doorways. Perhaps this was a good icebreaker or a light way to acknowledge one’s preferred communications style to a visitor. With some of the deeper and more robust assessments available, this may not be the best approach. This is particularly true with the results of the CDR Risk Assessment that measures risks for derailment. Risks are not a badge of honor, but rather are areas for caution and development. This is not to suggest that one’s risks should not be shared with team members and stakeholders, just not in this posted-‐‑on-‐‑the-‐‑wall way. Risks are ineffective, and in some cases, bad behaviors that we all inherently have to some degree when facing adversity or conflict. The good news is that they are also part of our normal personality. Without proper attention, however, they can lead to derailment. In the CDR Risk Assessment, the eleven Risk Scales are linked to Universal Leadership Derailers within the feedback report. These describe behaviors that can throw one’s career off track. So, these risks can be quite serious and detrimental to one’s performance, relationships and career goals if allowed to manifest without restraint.

Featuring: • Badge of Honor • What are Universal Leadership Derailers? • Linking Leadership Risk Factors to the Universal Derailers • I Y’am Who I Y’am and That’s All That I Y’am • What To Do About Your Risks?

o Analyzing My Risk Factors & Ways I Can Improve (Template) • Productively Sharing Your Risks with Others


What are Universal Leadership Derailers? “Leadership success and derailment largely depend upon two factors: 1) the perceptions of others about your performance which includes your relationships with them; and 2) your contributions or results produced for the good of the organization. Overwhelmingly, the first of these is the most critical in terms of leadership derailment. A leader may have produced outstanding results; yet if he/she has damaged relationships along the way, or has operated with a lack of integrity, derailment may be inevitable.“i Illustration 1 provides the 8 Universal Leadership Derailers and definitions from the CDR Leadership Risk Assessment.”

Universal Derailers Description

Erosion or betrayal of trust lack of integrity, loss of credibility, over-‐‑focus on personal agenda, failure to meet commitments

Failure to deliver and be accountable

slow to act, studies issues and solutions too long, waits for instruction, short on results

Failure to adapt resists change, difficulty with multiple priorities, lacks flexibility

Lack of courage and decisiveness

risk aversive, freezes under uncertainty, fails to assert views; avoids making decisions

Creating or endorsing a dysfunctional work environment

failure to support, inappropriate emotionality or lack of "ʺemotional intelligence"ʺ, hostile work environment

Failure to develop people and organization

fails to coach, mentor others, or provide developmental resources; and, unconcerned with bench strength, organizational growth planning issues

Lacks forward-‐‑looking and inspirational approach

lacks a vision, can'ʹt rally troops to produce; does not build enthusiasm toward stretch goals

Lack of objectivity and broadmindedness

narrow views, undervalues diversity, strives to preserve personal wishes and bias, not perceived as fair, does not consider sufficient views or sufficient data in decision making

Source: CDR Leadership Risk Assessment.


In mapping or linking the CDR Leadership Risk Factors to the Universal Derailers, below is an illustration of how these relate.

CDR Leadership Risk Factors vs. Potential Strengths – Linked to Universal Derailers

8 UNIVERSAL LEADERSHIP DERAILERS Trust

Erosion or

Betrayal

Failure to Deliver & Be Accountable

Failure to Adapt;

Inflexibility

Lack of Courage &

Decisiveness

Creates or Fosters

Dysfunctional Work

Environment

Failure to Develop People

Lacks Forward

Thinking or Inspirational

Approach

Lacks Objectivity

& Openness

False Advocate

Rule Breaker Egotist Hyper-Moody

Eccentric

Worrier Pleaser

Rule Breaker

False Advocate

Egotist

Perfectionist Worrier Cynic

Worrier Pleaser

Perfectionist

Egotist False

Advocate Rule Breaker

Cynic Hyper-Moody

Egotist Worrier Cynic

Detached

Cynic Perfectionist

Worrier

Egotist False

Advocate Rule

Breaker Upstager

CDR LEADERSHIP RISK ASSESSMENT SCALES LINKED TO DERAILERS

“I Y’am Who I Y’am and That’s All That I Y’am” Popeye the Sailor Man

“We have coached thousands of executives around the globe and have had only a few executives in all that time, who after going through the self-‐awareness assessment and coaching, have dug in their heels and said something like:

‘Well, that is who I am… and my people will just need to deal with it.’ In the end, failure to accept and address the impact of one’s risks or ineffective behaviors is a losing proposition for a leader. Every leader has true talent, strengths, gifts and needs. Every leader also has built in baggage when it comes to performance with their personal assortment of risk factors. These are one’s ineffective coping behaviors that undermine effectiveness.” Gone unchecked or allowed to run amok, Risk Factors have thrown the careers of even the most prominent executives’ off track. Of the handful of executives we worked with who outright rejected the importance of paying attention to and doing something productive with their assessment results, all were eventually fired or forced out and replaced. Their decision to expect others to just deal with them as they were, did not pay off.”ii


What To Do About Your Risks?

1. Most important: Identify your specific array of risks with an appropriate assessment. 2. Next, analyze how your risks impact you. An executive or leadership coach or trained

mentor is highly recommended as you work through this process. Here is an example template:

ANALYZING MY RISK FACTORS & WAYS I CAN IMPROVE

My Risks

What caused this Risk to show most recently?

What happened? What was the risk behavior?

What was the impact?

What can I do differently?

Upstager Getting too energized during enjoyable discussion with colleagues

Dominated too much of the air time

Came off as negative, overbearing, was a time hog

Ask more questions, self-facilitate, deploy active listening skills, control my enthusiasm

Egotist Overly eager to perform well and show my knowledge during presentation to Board

Did not sufficiently recognize the contributions of other team members

Offended team; angered and hurt team members. Damaged team cooperativeness.

Try to relax more when I present. Build team member recognition into my presentation notes or slides so that I don’t miss again!

Apologize… Rebuild…

Worrier Fear of making sure I was 100% right. I was in a staff meeting.

As a director, at a meeting with my peers and boss I knew I had the right answer, but didn’t speak up. I wasn’t 100% confident that someone would not find a flaw.

The team made the wrong decision. Now we have to fix a costly mess which would have been avoided had I chimed in!

1) Find a mentor to help me practice speaking up in the moment. 2) Share my risks with a peer who will prompt me with questions to help bring out my thoughts. 3) Register to take an “assertiveness” training class.

While you cannot train or wish away your inherent risk factors, you can make big strides to improve your risk reactions under adversity. You can adopt ways to prevent, neutralize and manage these tendencies more productively. In baseball terminology, leaders can “improve their batting average” significantly when it comes to managing their risks.


Productively Sharing Your Risks with Others Rather than wearing risks like a badge of honor or embracing these as the “this is who I am – so get over it” stubborn approach, there is merit to sharing Risks with team members for feedback and development. This is recommended after team members have gone through personal development steps (typically part of one-‐‑to-‐‑one coaching) as outlined above. A professionally facilitated team building approach to help team members understand one another'ʹs risks can go a long way to improving team collaboration. Equipped with this knowledge, team members can improve communications, gain a better understanding of stress points, and support each other’s development. Team development is helpful because frequently risks are misinterpreted and can cause unnecessary conflicts or failed communications. For example, if a leader has a high risk as “Detached”, others may view this as a lack of interest or even snobbery. Yet, when the leader withdraws, it may be because he or she is retreating due to adversity, being overwhelmed, being offended, or having their buttons pushed. If Risk Data is shared by the team and subsequently this leader withdraws for any significant period of time, other team members may now have the wherewithal to check in and say, “Are you okay? Is something bothering you? I noticed you haven’t been present for a while.” This is far better than assuming the leader doesn’t care or is self-‐‑absorbed. The fact is, the leader may be struggling or stuck and some supportive dialogue or brainstorming may help. We had one client company in the chemical industry have their highest aggregate risk trends for more than 100 leaders as “Detached.” This is common for engineering and technical fields. During a workshop, a couple of these leaders were in denial and said,

“This cannot be true, after all, we have an Open Door Policy.” Then other leaders in the workshop chimed in and said, “Well, that may be so. However, why is it then -‐-‐ that your office doors (in corporate) are always shut when we are there?” Everyone chuckled at the well-‐made point.

Conclusion In order for leaders to show due respect for their employees and stakeholders, and acknowledging that all of us have our own assortment of risk factors, there is no excuse for not managing our risks more productively. Simply put: bad leader behaviors are bad for business.

i CDR Risk Assessment, CDR Assessment Group, Inc.: author. 1998 ii Blog article: Parsons, Nancy, E., “Six Profiles that Reject Feedback” December, 2015, http://cdrassessmentgroup.com/six-leader-profiles-that-reject-feedback/

are leader risks an excuse for bad behavior? · are leader risks an excuse for bad behavior? ! by...

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