by Glenn Tschimpke
Staff Writer
How do you tell the chief operating officer he’s an unrefined, boorish sociopath with the interpersonal skills of a parking meter?
We can count the ways, but most of them aren’t constructive. Instead, companies looking to gently mold their senior leaders’ behavior to better fit the prevailing corporate culture turn to firms that specialize in changing undesirable behavior.
“Please don’t use the word undesirable,” urged Marsha Myers, executive vice president of Lee Hecht Harrison, a workforce strategy firm. “A better way to put it is behaviors that need to be modified.”
Resistance to change is part of the human condition. As leaders work their way through the ranks, certain behavioral traits are acquired to help them get ahead. However, a management style or skill that was effective as a mid-level manager may not translate well to the upper echelons.
“An example of a skill would be if you were an entrepreneur and you started a business and you were very, very decisive,” explained Myers. “You had to keep so focused that it was your main objective to get the business running. That would give you some skills where you really weren’t particularly collaborative. You made decisions on your own gut feeling. Let’s say your business grew and all of a sudden you have 50 people you have to deal with and you have a CFO or COO. Now you need to collaborate between those people and you need to delegate, whereas before you were able to do those things yourself.”
To help executives modify their behavior to better suit their jobs, Lee Hecht Harrison employs a few tools to help gauge the situation. First, superiors, peers and subordinates are invited to fill out assessments that measure the general workplace attitude toward the prevailing leadership.
“It’s totally confidential,” said Myers. “The person who you’re coaching is not going to know who said what. It’s usually a very good indication of how this person is perceived by the other people. Sometimes that in itself is a huge eye opener.”
Once the peer assessment is complete, Lee Hecht Harrison pairs the subject with an executive coach. Modifying behavior is a delicate process that must be handled with compassion and patience.
“The last thing that you want to do with somebody that’s being coached is to make them think that they need to be fixed,” said Myers. “That’s really not the case. What you’re doing is your working with one behavior that needs to be modified to fit into the business place they are currently working. A normal coaching situation will be a six month period of time because you really can’t accomplish a lot in less than that.”
While each person has his or her own idiosyncrasies and personality, Myers lists several common leadership problem areas:
• Inability to delegate. “Delegation is an interesting behavior and takes some working on for a lot of people.”
• Poor listening skills. “Listening is paramount — really understanding what people are saying and really paying attention.”
• Communication. The other half of listening. “The inability to communicate so others can really understand what you’re saying and what you’re expecting from them.”
• Time management. “Actually how to delegate your time and not to be mastered by your time.”
• Learning how to work out of crisis mode. Constant crises wear on employees and erode morale. “Everything is a crisis, everything needs done now: that can cause total chaos.”
Most executive coaches act as mentor and confidante and give their pupils plenty of latitude. There is little hovering unless there needs to be.
Myers recalls a situation with a 40-something chief operating officer of a medium-sized company who had communication problems.
“He was bright, well-positioned, everything, but just couldn’t get his message across to the people the way he needed to,” she said. “We worked with that person a lot in dealing with his e-mail communication, his verbal communication, body language and even when to tell the message and how to tell the message.”
The COO agreed to let his coach screen his e-mails, which often had an abrasive edge.
“What was interesting, at the end of the six month period, he would write his e-mail and go back and read it and say, ‘Oh no. They’re going to think this from that.’ He would be able to change his e-mail before he sent it out.”
While the active coaching period is six months, follow up surveys are conducted up to 18 months after the program start.
“Most people, once they see what can work for them, will start wanting to adapt it for their work style.”