It's like you're driving 200kph in second gear

Grit, self-reliance, and the desire to excel are all highly effective qualities early in a career. These same attributes can easily over-extend into liabilities when leaders take on more scope and complexity.

The Leadership Circle Profile below is from a Divisional President responsible for a large global business unit. He was one of the most intelligent and disciplined leaders I've ever coached but was completely under-leveraged.

He grew up in a family that prized self-reliance, personal agency, and winning. You not only had to be the best - but you needed to make it on your own. Asking for help was not something leaders (or winners) did.

He played competitive rugby as a boy and into University. He was never the fastest, strongest, or most talented athlete on the pitch, but he took pride in his willingness to work harder than anyone. He learned to push himself and his body past the point where most would give up. His capacity for hard work was inexhaustible - until it wasn't.

He had reached the limits of his Reactive strategy, and the Board was beginning to doubt whether he could be a successor to the CEO. He had the skills, smarts, and vision but was not leveraging the people around him. It was coming at a high cost in his personal life as well.

We discussed how he lived like he was driving down the motorway at 200kph in second gear. The engine was spinning furiously, but he remained unwilling to shift gears. He reasoned that everything would be okay if he kept pressing the gas. The sound of the engine revving gave him comfort - but the pedal was to the floor, and his motor was beginning to sputter.

For him to move to the next level, he would need to build more leverage into his leadership - and leadership leverage comes through relationship.

The unlocking move came from tapping into his sports background and focusing on experiments that fostered more Team Play—shifting from the star player to a player-coach. Asking for help was still a stretch, but he began to see his team as filled with potential to develop rather than individuals in need of direction.

He's still driving at 200kph, but we found third gear. Progress comes in stages.


(profile based on actual leader with modifications to ensure confidentiality)