Selfless Leader on steroids

You can have too much of a good thing - and this Leadership Circle Profile is an example of the price you pay.

The profile below is from a leader I've worked with for several years. It's his third LCP in five years. Each profile showed a significant shift to more Creative Leadership and a reduction in Reactive tendencies. He is an extraordinary leader, and his data (95th percentile Creative and LEI) along with the written comments confirms it - but something was off.

As organizations move toward empowered teams, flatter hierarchy, and less directive management, leaders often hold themselves back. One of the places this tends to show up is the score for Courageous Authenticity - self and other.

This leader created a story that, to lead well, he needed to remain backstage, coach his team from the side, and never step into the spotlight. Selfless Leader shifted from one of many Creative competencies to the primary focus of his leadership style. His self score for Courageous Authenticity provided the first clue. He knew something was missing - and so did his team and peers.

Over-indexing to Selfless Leader caused him to withhold his opinions in meetings, eliminate any hint of power and authority (both in Controlling and Achieving) and ultimately pay the price on Decisiveness and Achieves Results.

In our debrief, we discussed his passion for the organization's mission and desire to contribute at an enterprise and ecosystem level. To do this, he would need to bring his voice "center stage." For someone obsessed with selflessness, the fear of appearing arrogant and egotistical held him back - but his purpose, impact, and gift to others lay on the other side of that fear.

There is no safe way to be great - and no great way to stay safe.

Leading in more agile or self-managed structures requires leaders to bring their voice, energy, conviction, and passion to every interaction. Teams need your head, heart, and hands - not just your support and empowerment.

(Based on actual leader profile with edits to ensure confidentiality)