Taboo Topics in Leadership

A Manager at the global organisation reached out to me with respect to me coaching him.

He said the company provided him with a Mentor and also provided Executive Education but there were still gaps to be filled.

The Mentor is supposed to help with navigating the organisational culture etc.

The Executive Education programs were group programs with the typical content.

Yet these programs still not address some critical issues for this senior manager.

Unfortunately these programs separate Professional Development and Personal Development and fail to understand and treat with the impact that Personal Development has on Professional Development.

It's like not understanding how ones Emotional Intelligence (EQ) could actually cause them to make better use of their IQ.

A recent survey suggests that the TOP Challenges that most people in leadership positions face are:

1) Self Confidence

2) Team Performance

3) More Strategic

4) Influence and Respect

5) Delegation

6) Coach and Empower Team

Gallup says that ONLY 18% of managers are good at leading others.

Let's take #1 Confidence.

Confidence, or lack thereof, is the #1 reason that many leaders do not make decisions, do not delegate, do not coach and empower their team, can't effectively lead a team.

Yet there are very few leadership programs that actually address this in any great detail.

Lack of Confidence is really caused by unprocessed negative life experiences like hurt, regret, disappointment, trauma etc.

How many programs proactively and completely addresses how unprocessesed personal experiences impact a manager's ability to Effectively LEAD?

Very few or none.

When I told the manager that this is the real root cause of the critical gaps he has in his leadership he mentioned that he did not feel comfortable to address these in a group setting, especially in a corporate environment.

He felt it was too personal and therefore was guarded.

Companies often view these as issues for the leader to sort out personally.

However, whether done of their own or through the company's EAP the typical psychological approach does not deal adequately with the Root Cause nor can they connect the Manger's personal challenges with the Corporate Context.

The transformations we have seem from taking a Root Cause and Personal Development have been tremendous and numerous.

If more L&D, HR and Senior Managers are able to proactively discuss these Taboo Topics they can also rally to financially support programs that address these core issues.