“Leadership is an art, it’s not just something we do”
Research indicates over 75% of leaders remain in reactive behaviour, often avoiding difficult conversations and triggering hyper-vigilance within their teams. This creates an “intention-impact gap,” where good intentions don’t translate into desired outcomes.
Susanne and I discuss the antidote to this ‘immediacy’ and presence. Sounds simple right ? A surprising fact from executive coaching: many powerful leaders struggle with authentic self-expression. Suzanne shares a compelling anecdote from her mother’s barbershop, where high-profile clients found solace in being treated as simply “people,” not titles.
This highlights a core business lesson: authenticity builds connection, reducing the “lonely at the top” phenomenon. People stop seeing us and interacting with us as human beings when we lose touch with our true selves. Developing the courage to be “most fully yourself” is a priceless journey, transforming not just personal interactions but also team dynamics and organizational culture.
How often do you adjust your communication to fit perceived expectations rather than expressing your genuine thoughts?
The insights you’ll get from this episode are :
- This Could be Everything offers actionable exercises for leaders taken from life lessons, e.g. we perceive famous people as less human, powerful people are just people, we must learn how to interact with all types of people.
- It helps to pay attention to subtle clues, understand how to create a good interpersonal experience, enable people to relax, share things and get to know people – an interest in serving other people requires trusting yourself first.
- We can recognise authenticity, curiosity, warmth, and openness in people (as well as the opposite), particularly in a work scenario; faking it is uncomfortable for authentic people, and we must grant ourselves the freedom to be ourselves.
- Outward signs of leaders not trusting themselves are a lack of creativity, innovation, healthy debate, and challenge; not acknowledging the work of others – we can reflect on the quality of our conversations to learn about ourselves.
- Leadership coaching involves speaking truth to and challenging people in order to advance them – we can all have impact if we share with the intention to serve; leadership is about being brave enough to speak up and following your instinct.
- Immediacy is one of most important – but underutilised – aspects of coaching, because whatever is happening in the here and now gives a complete picture of how people act in other situations.
- It can be difficult to build the immediacy muscle without it feeling confrontational – there must be a feeling of safety to address real issues; this can be based on our own personal history of speaking truth but taking small risks improves it over time.
- To shift out of reactive behaviour leaders need self-compassion and an understanding of their behaviour – it is important to convert the inner critic into an inner champion in order to be able to serve others.
- Leaders need to foster a different mindset to focus on the positive despite the inevitable negative that comes with the job; they can act by taking on feedback, being curious, learning, adapting, connecting with themselves, being flexible, and having conversations.
- Artistic unity, as in a piece of art or music intended to create a feeling, is a means of communicating for alignment and results, requiring humanity and emotion to tell a good story – the message is nothing more and nothing less, but ignites hearts and minds; leadership is an art after all.
Find out more about Susanne and her work here :
