Do you know how you impact people when you enter a room? When presenting your case in an important meeting, does your voice change if challenged by a superior? Is your “default face” a blank stare or a scowl that discourages others from contributing? Do you always follow a humorous remark with a forced laugh? Do you fail to make and maintain eye contact when being introduced? Is your voice a whisper or an overbearing honk? As leaders, we all create an energetic impact on a room, a meeting space, and those in the room. We can all point to leaders who seem to command respect and project authenticity, confidence and integrity from the moment they enter a space.
And then there are those people whose style and mannerisms sabotage their leadership efforts by projecting weakness, insecurity and/or indecisiveness. There are innumerable ways in which effective leaders command a room energetically and just as many ways that ineffective leaders lose people. Furthermore, the set of personal attributes and characteristics that works for one leader may be inappropriate for another. And, depending upon the context of a meeting, a highly effective leader will carefully choose which attributes to lean into or tone down. What is required to hold the audience delivering a eulogy for a close friend will be very different than what is required to deliver the post-dinner keynote to a roomful of inebriated salespeople. The best leaders have range, in other words, the ability to tailor their delivery and impact perfectly for the context.
Again, do you know how you impact a room? If your answer is “No”, then you owe it to yourself to learn about your unintended impact ASAP! If you have a trusted mentor or peer in your workplace, tell them that you want them to help grow you as a leader and ask them to be brutally honest about your unintended leadership impact. If they work with you closely, they know how you show up! Whether they will give it to you straight may require some coaxing, so be very clear about your intentions. Tell them you need them to help grow you as a leader! You may not like what you hear, but I guarantee that knowing your unintended impact sooner and working to mitigate the negatives is far better than blundering along continuing to sabotage your efforts at leadership and career advancement. I challenge you to begin learning more about your unintended impact today!
The Leadership Circle Profile
While we are on the subject of impact, when have you had a 360° peer review that focuses entirely on your leadership effectiveness? You may want to consider the Leadership Circle Profile™, the only competency based 360° profile that measures two primary leadership domains – Creative leadership competencies and Reactive tendencies. The Leadership Circle Profile™ is designed to accelerate leadership effectiveness beyond traditional competency-based approaches. When it comes to developing leaders, training to competencies alone does not work very well. For more rapid and lasting results, it is crucial that you gain deeper insight into your behavior and what is driving it. The Leadership Circle Profile™ helps you understand the relationship between how you habitually think and how you behave – and how all this impacts your current level of leadership effectiveness. Once this awareness is established, leadership development can proceed. If you have an interest in learning more about the The Leadership Circle Profile™, please contact me.
First-time CEO Springboard
Have you recently been promoted to CEO of your organization? If so, what are your priorities for your first 90 days? What is your leadership stake? What is your commitment to your organization’s values and vision? How will you manage your board? How will you integrate with your senior team? Through my First-time CEO Springboard Coaching Program, I will help you achieve clarity regarding these questions and more. Please contact me for details.
With respect,
Peter Feer, CPCC, ACC
Executive Coac