Much of the writing on leadership (mine included!) concentrates on the positive stories and helpful hints, partly because it’s human nature to prefer the optimism. However, it’s also valuable to be aware of our blindspots and the traits we have that could potentially derail us in our leadership journeys. Career derailment typically occurs when an executive’s career is going well and should be progressing but it unintentionally fails. I’ve heard that roughly half of executives derail at least once in our careers (!) but given its nature, derailing isn’t widely publicised (unless high profile). 

It’s helpful for leaders to be sensitive to potential derailment of those around us too, especially in our own teams, so that we can offer support. There is some connection to burnout, although that is often caused by external factors wearing us down rather than inherent personality-based behavioural traits we have. The first step in dealing with our derailers is to recognise that we are fallible. And that imperfect human beings can still be amazing leaders. Acknowledging this frees us to learn to manage our derailers. 

Understanding derailers helps us better understand why talented leaders make poor decisions, overlook opportunities, alienate key people, and miss obvious trends, even when we genuinely want to do the right thing. Read more to see how our strengths and derailers are related, explore potential causes of stress, and unpack 11 behavioural traits that can cause leaders to fail. As you read, please reflect on yours, and their triggers, and do reach out to us if you’d like support in managing them on your own leadership journey. 

One of our corporate clients has been working on building their teams to be high(er)-performing, which is a worthy goal irrespective of whether you’re the function’s manager, a specific team’s leader, or a member of that team. Who wouldn’t want to be part of an awesome team?! Given the universal appeal of this goal, I thought it would be helpful to share some general tips on boosting team performance.

You’ve probably heard of the forming-storming-norming-performing-adjourning model of the stages a new team goes through. It’s also known as the FSNPA model and is built on Bruce Tuckman’s 1965 theory on the stages of group development. It highlights that conflict and tension arise as the team evolves. While that model is simple, I find teams (and their leaders) need more detail in order to diagnose the state of their team, and more direction in order to improve it. I therefore prefer another model, developed by Alan Drexler and David Sibbet, naturally called the “Drexler-Sibbet Team Performance Model”. 

Please be aware that shaping a high-performance team takes time, even with the conceptual support of a model, and willing participation of everyone involved. Developing humans (with all our brilliance, insecurities and quirks) is not as straightforward as a series of if-then processes. In fact, the stages in the Drexler-Sibbet approach don’t have to be linear – teams can move back and forth, repeating loops as needed. However, don’t be tempted to skip steps to speed up – you need to fully immerse the team in each one to ensure long-term success. Every group goes through every stage (even if they seem obvious or minor in your specific circumstances).

Read more to dive deeper into the stages of the Drexler-Sibbet model, which can help your team to discuss their purpose, build higher levels of trust and commitment, and reach their goals successfully (through disciplined execution). 

I’ve been listening to some personality-themed podcasts, exploring ‘cognitive functions’ i.e. how we make decisions. In this article, I attempt to distil some of this, exploring what each of four different types of people particularly value. I focus on one of our most important relationships at work: the relationship with our boss, and unpack each type considering what’s likely to be important to them. The underlying theory is that each type has different mental wiring, and they evaluate the world through this process i.e. how they believe the world ‘should’ be.

The four types are split by two dimensions: 
(i) thinking/logically-driven or feeling/people/emotionally-driven
(ii) structured/process-focused or flexible/opportunity-focused

You probably have a pretty good feeling of which type your boss might be, and which type you are – where these differ, it’s important to pay particular attention as valuing different things could lead to misunderstandings between you, especially in pressurised situations. 

Over the remainder of this article, I explore each type in turn, discussing what’s important to them. The more you can adjust your behaviour and delivery to give your boss what they value (while still being true to yourself), the better your relationship with them is likely to be, and the more you will meet their needs – which could lead to better increases, higher bonuses and more promotions. Read more to dive into the detail of each type.