In a research, people are asked how many of their former bosses would they again be willing to work for. Two out of three respondents, that is about 65 percent, reported that they would not be willing to work again for their former bosses. In another study, people were asked if their boss was competent or incompetent. What percentage of managers do you think were rated as incompetent by their subordinates? Sixty to 75 percent. What percentage of leaders, with a good performance history, failed subsequently to reach expected levels of achievement, and ended up stagnating in their career or even getting fired from their jobs? Almost 50 percent. In other words, one out of two bright and hardworking individuals, who do well in the initial phase of their career, subsequently get derailed. When we look at these statistics, most of us think of our bosses, but these findings are a warning sign for all of us. Why do so many bright people derail? What can we do to avoid this trap of leader derailment? In this video we will explore this question. There are two kinds of challenges that we'll discuss. We will begin with the first problem that is posed by transition. For example, promotion to a senior job, or a move to a new boss, or an unfamiliar challenge. Let us take an example: An eager and hard working technical professional took up a front-line leadership position in a startup company. Soon she faced a seemingly endless stream of operating problems, inexperience across the board, lack of clear procedures, disputes among her people, and uncooperative senior management. She did not create these problems, but now it was her job to resolve them. Given her position of interdependence, she had to learn to build relationships with people inside and outside of the organization. She had to let go of tactical details, and adopt a big picture perspective, work out clear priorities, and lead a team-based decision making. But her own approach, was to shut herself up in her office, and work long hours on a narrow set of familiar problems. Unfortunately, she neither sought nor received timely and helpful feedback. As she ran into one crisis after another, she found it more and more difficult to sustain her motivation. After some time, she was fired from her job. As we see from this case example, managerial derailment results from non-adaptation to new challenges of a different context. Changes in job assignment requires people to apply a different skill set. But derailed executives fail to notice the need to develop new strengths. They turn up the volume on those behaviors that they already do well, hoping that doing more of the same will save them. But, paradoxically, the same talents that once brought them early success, later lead to failure. And flaws and blind spots that seemed insignificant earlier in their careers, suddenly start to matter a great deal. When you move to a new role or a new context, you should reflect on your personality, skill, and experience profile. Then, you compare these with the demands of new job. On the basis of the realistic job review and assessment of risk factors, you'll create a plan for learning and adaptation. In other words, to avoid the derailment trap, you require one, realistic self-assessment, two, recognition of the need for new strengths, and three, conscious development of a broader set of skills and perspectives that can serve you in the new situation. Derailment is also caused by another related problem. The problem created by success. Yes, strangely, we also need to be wary of the unintended side effects of rapid and high success. Let's again look at a short case illustration. A leader was bright, ambitious, and highly action-oriented, and so received quick promotions to be made the head of a large project. Given his strong action bias, he had no tolerance for set procedures and little patience for considering multiple viewpoints. He was seen as abrasive and arrogant, but he believed that he was so successful because he could intimidate people and was not too bothered by individual sensitivities. The truth was, that he had been successful despite his arrogance. Sometimes people confuse correlation with causation. Occasionally, he received direct and indirect feedback on his dysfunctional behavior, but given his past success, he denied the importance of this feedback. He discounted the feedback givers, and continued with his earlier styles. Not surprisingly he could not build a team, did not trust people, and pursued his personal success so single-mindedly, that his colleagues and team members were not inclined to back him. The sources of his initial success became fatal flaws. Yet he was so self-absorbed, that he was unwilling to take responsibility for the shortcomings and learn from his mistakes. As the project was too large to be run in a centralized manner, performance took a beating. He was demoted to a smaller area. It has been found that most frequent cause of derailment is lack of people sensitivity. Most derailed managers were found to have relationship problems. Under stress, derailed managers tend to become even more oppressive and intimidating. Researchers point out that often, managerial failure is less about lacking the right stuff. It is more about having the wrong stuff - for instance, problems with interpersonal relations, inability to build a team, or inability to change or adapt during a transition. So what are the key lessons? First, we must realize that failure does not occur in one big swoop. It usually involves buildup of little problems that eventually reach a critical mass. For a leader, importance of self-awareness, self-reflection, and mindfulness cannot be overemphasized. We should be committed to understanding how people perceive us. In particular, we need awareness of how we tend to behave when we are under stress. Learning requires openness to honest feedback. Second, by strengthening our conversations with key stakeholders, we help clarify expectations, monitor progress on a wide set of criteria, and generate valuable feedback on what is going well, and what is not going well. These are of great value in sharpening our awareness of the context, improving our self-management, and honing our social skills. Third, in a changing context, over reliance on past package of our success factors can be dangerous. We should be committed to learning new skills, mindsets, and perspectives. We shall first believe that we can change. We should carefully choose our learning priorities, grow beyond initial strengths, and develop a broad repertoire of talents for the ever-changing demands. We should devote time and energy to building and maintaining network of developmental relationships for deriving feedback, advice, and emotional support. Finally, derailment research shows that change, stress, and lack of self-awareness are big threats. We can do little about change and stress. Enhanced self-awareness is therefore the key to avoiding the trap of derailment.
