NEW LEADER, NO TRAINING – THE CLASSIC SCENARIO

Great worker, task focused, liked by his peers and always gave 100% and then he was promoted. Meet Ben, we all know people like Ben. From all my meetings with Ben, I knew him to be a pleasant young man. So why did his team turn against him in a very short timeframe?

The CEO quickly assumed fault for the situation. They had thrown Ben into a position without the training to lead his team and this is where KPI stepped in. Ben is very coachable which means he wanted to make changes, he wanted to learn and he was willing to listen and take action. A situation where coaching is the right solution. The clien,t both the company and Ben, needed a solution that would have a quick outcome but a long term affect. Ben commenced on a one on one Leadership Coaching Program with KPI.

It was quickly discovered that Ben lacked self-awareness of how his behaviours were affecting his team. The team felt that Ben didn’t care about them, that he only cared about the work, that he was rushed and didn’t take time for them. His small mannerisms had turned into big issues for them. Quick solutions require cold hard facts delivered with a lot of care. We wanted to make Ben an awesome leader and that was our goal together. After a lot of discussion, teaching and listening Ben’s take away  messages from the first session were:

TIME = CARE

If you care about people, they will care about you. This meant slowing down his communication, being more genuine in his approach. Taking the time to talk to them and listening to them.

SET COALS

Ben was keeping all the information in his head. People can’t reach a target if you don’t put it out there. He needed to share and become more transparent about what pressures he was under to deliver.

BE RESPONSIBLE

Like the CEO, Ben needed to take responsibility for the failings of his team. If they were not delivering then there was something missing in his leadership style. If he stopped the blame game, it would teach them to also stop it. Ben put together his Action Commitment for the next week that he was to deliver. He made the commitment and stuck to it. What did he do?

TOOLBOX TALK

Ben was not a fan of these but realised they needed to happen. He covered everything from background of the job, timeframes, expectations and issues that were currently occurring. He asked for support from his team toward his new 2IC. He covered WHS and procedures he wanted to put in place to streamline processes and he even opened it up for questions.

BETTER COMMUNICATION

He thought about how he would say things, he slowed things down, he took time out to breath, stopped to talk to people instead of talking as he passed them.

This all happened in Week 1 and Ben continues to progress. Leadership takes time and practice. It is like every other skill that we learn and everyone can obtain it. This was the beginning of Ben’s 3 months Leadership Coaching Program. An amazing start by a bright and energetic young man who is willing to take action to change things.

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Feel free to reach out – I would love to have a chat about your business.