Have you reached the limit of your current management model?
A series of real-life coaching vignettes from
SeaChangers’ associates
Coaching Conversations #4
It is in the order of things that, as our careers progress and we move up an organisation, something different is required of us as a manager. Persisting with the management model that worked at one level will soon be found wanting as we fail to come to grips with the challenges of working at the next level up. Failing to evolve a management model is one reason for a career to plateau. We get stuck part way up the organisational ladder, struggling as the Peter principle would have it “at the level of our incompetence” and are never seen as a candidate for further progression.
“The nature of management changes as you progress up an organisation and it is very clear when individuals are not evolving their approach accordingly. ”
There are clear symptoms that this is happening. For example, do you feel any of the following?
There are not enough hours in your working day to get everything done
You have no time to think, plan, prepare and generally get ahead of yourself
Out of control
That through being predominantly reactive you are missing something important
You spend too little time on the softer aspects of your role, principally people, relationships and developing yourself
Your work/life balance is tilted firmly in favour of work at the expense of all other aspects of life.
If you do feel that any of these symptoms apply to you as a manager then the chances are that your management model, the very way you conceive of and execute your role, has reached the limits of its applicability. The solution is to transition to the next level of management, the only questions being, what does that mean for me in practice and how do I make those changes? Finding your answers to those questions is the coaching conversation which is necessarily unique to each individual.
Author:
Simon Bennett
Having worked at the highest level in the industry Simon is acutely aware the most powerful leaders are those that can access the inner resources necessary to achieve their personal and leadership potential. His coaching blends process and content to help them access and apply those resources, at all times balancing the needs of the individual with those of the organisation.
