Guest Blog: When Great Leaders Get Stuck

The following has been excerpted from The Leader’s Climb, by its co-authors, Paul Heagen and Bob Parsanko

The Leader’s Climb is a strikingly realistic tale of a talented, well-intended but aggressive CEO named Adam who finds himself “stuck” for the first time in his job, in his family relationships and even within himself. The story shows how leaders can unknowingly head down a path of decline in their business and personal lives when they lose sight of the fact that leadership is more about effectiveness than efficiency.

We see this struggle played out all too often as smart, caring, well- intentioned executives strain furiously to keep up with the world around them, stuffing a staggering amount of activity into their day, pushing back against a tidal wave of complexity and conflict, and applying the sheer force of personality or position to get things done and make decisions. It is coming at a cost.

The facts speak for themselves. A decade ago, the typical CEO stayed in the role for nine and a half years. Today? Only three and a half years.

Is there a way around or through this trap? Yes. The remedy we pose to leaders in this new era is in some ways radical, because it asks executives to do nearly the opposite of what their prior experiences and successes might dictate.

Awareness

When we are pressed (especially by time), our default mode is to think – rely on what we already know or have experienced. What we should do is sense. Sensing is taking in new information, perspectives, and conditions without the inclination to first judge them. This first step helps inoculate you from getting stuck when you apply old methods to new challenges. It is also key to self-awareness – one of the most essential qualities of leadership, and the one that most easily falls victim to speed.

Acceptance

It is human nature to overlook obstacles that stand in our path (or pretend they don’t exist)—or to fight like mad to overwhelm them. The forces we tend to fight may actually help us, or at least be turned, to achieve some greater accomplishment. It is the notion of not lowering ourselves to the fight. When we reach this point of acceptance—leaning in, as we call it—we are in a much better position to direct our energy away from wasteful battles.

Abundance

By creating an abundance of choices, we open ourselves up to better decisions. We understand this intellectually, but it takes a different kind of leader to keep many paths open prior to reaching that ultimate point of decision. Anyone who has ever had the luxury of sleeping on a decision and having new ideas or perspectives emerge in the morning knows this to be innately correct. Abundance means giving yourself choices and making decisions at the right time, not just make them to get them out of the way to move on to the next one.

Leadership is easy, until it gets hard. Time after time we see executives elbow these principles aside in the cauldron of their day, or even think they are abiding by them when they are not (or are simply methods to be used when convenient).

This approach is not for everyone. What our story of Adam (and the two “coaches” in the story – park ranger A.J. and home handyman Duncan) calls for is—no doubt—contrarian leadership. You must choose it. It won’t be handed to you. But true leadership demands the courage and stamina to go against the flow.

It really must come from within—you must summon an internal, almost visceral, resolve to go against the flow. It has to be fortified with a fierce belief that slowing down will help you get there faster, that leaning in to the opposition often provides you with more power than fighting it out, and that creating options almost invariably leads to better decisions.