Using coaching to develop authentic leadership

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Using coaching to develop authentic leadership

• Gil Parsons
• OPP Ltd
• March 2009

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Experience of psychometrics and coaching

• Who at some time has completed a psychometric
  personality questionnaire?
• Who is BPS Level B qualified?
• Who is delivering coaching?

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Who is OPP?

• One of Europes leading business psychology firms
• Committed to helping organisations realise their
  full potential
• Working in more than 25 countries with many
  multinational organisations, including more than
  half of FTSE 100 companies
• Our products power the offerings of business
  schools and consultancies, who use our tools with
  industry-leading companies across the globe

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How you might know OPP
Qualifying training and products
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Our clients in Ireland include
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OPP Ireland academic institute clients
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Business benefits of our approach

• Ensuring the right people are managing in your
  organisation
• Providing clear feedback to managers to improve
  and adapt their management style
• Ensuring people managers have the tools and
  skills required to be effective in their roles
• Leading to
• Managers who are better prepared to motivate,
  develop, challenge and support their people
• Increased staff retention, greater productivity
  and the enhanced engagement within your
  organisation

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What is authentic leadership?

• Authentic
• genuine
• original
• of undisputed origin
• Leadership
• There is more than one way of being a great
  leader, but success as a leader boils down to two
  essential elements
• Understanding what organisations need from their
  leaders
• Finding a way of delivering that value thats
  authentic, consistent and aware

This above all to thine own self be
true Shakespeare
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Qualities of authentic leaders

• Know themselves and be themselves
• Recognise strengths, acknowledge weaknesses
• Empower and respect others
• Have courage
• Listen, have empathy
• Act with integrity
• Drive for excellence
• Trust others and behave in a trustworthy way
• Demonstrate passion in what they believe in
• Act consistently

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Who would you consider to be an authentic leader?
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The value of authentic leadership to an
organisation
If a leader is playing a role that isnt a true
expression of his authentic self followers will
sooner or later feel like theyve been
tricked Managing Authenticity The Paradox of
Great Leadership, Harvard Business Review, Dec
2005
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Self-awareness and authenticity

• Can you be an authentic leader if you lack self
  awareness?
• Know your
• Values, principles and beliefs
• Know your
• Skills and abilities, motivators, passions, your
  weaknesses
• Stressors and stress behaviour
• Know your
• Impact on others

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Coaching towards authentic leadership

• Can you coach someone to be authentic?
• Starting point is knowing yourself
• Understand your self
• Look to understand others
• Be aware of how others may perceive you
• Recognise your impact on others

Before you are a leader, success is all about
growing yourself. When you become a leader,
success is all about growing others Jack Welch
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Johari window

• you know

• you do not know

I know I do not know
private
public
unconscious
blind spots
Luft, J. and Ingham, H. (1955) "The Johari
window, a graphic model of interpersonal
awareness", Proceedings of the western training
laboratory in group development. Los Angeles
UCLA
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Importance of feedback

• Different people to gain feedback from
• Line management, peers, direct reports,
  colleagues,
• Customers
• Coach or mentor
• Different ways to obtain feedback
• 360 process
• Formal methods eg appraisal
• Directly asking others
• Observing others reactions
• Psychometric questionnaires

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Value of psychometrics in coaching

• Can get to heart of issues more quickly
• Provides data in a structured way
• Gives a framework to understand self and others
• Provides a comparison to others to encourage
  recognition of similarities and differences
• Can give an indication of how behaviour may be
  perceived by others

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The power relationship

• When using psychometrics in a coaching programme,
  consider impact on the coach/coachee relationship
• Consider when in the relationship the information
  is used
• Resist coming across as the expert
• Engage the coachee in discussion
• Recognise that psychometrics can be fallible
• Encourage coachee to
• Own the data
• Make sense of it for themselves

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Suggestions for using psychometrics in coaching

• Be client-centered
• Give a different perspective
• Use as starting point for a coaching conversation
• Feedback can provide challenges and raise
  questions
• Resulting discussion and insights are integrated
  within the coaching programme
• Dont provide excuses for behaviour
• Encourage reflection and self-awareness

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Using psychometrics to raise self awareness

• Leadership style
• Stressors and stress reactions
• Motivation
• Impact on organisational culture
• Organisational fit
• Recognising impact of role on self
• How others may potentially view behaviour

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The impact of personality on leader self-awareness

• Noelle Newhouse Scott Bedwell IPAT inc
• Examining differences between self and others
  ratings in multisource feedback
• Identify predictors of leader self-awareness and
  associated characteristics
• Self-awareness measured using discrepancy
  between self and other ratings
• Interpersonal aspects of leadership were most
  significant but modest
• Other factors eg timely feedback and
  organisational values were also relevant

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Leadership derailment and the role of personality

• J Leslie, Center for Creative Leadership, W
  Gentry, Center for Creative Leadership, R Bailey,
  OPP Ltd
• Examining links between personality and tendency
  for careers to stall or derail
• Derailment likely to occur if executive is
• Less trusting of other people
• More conceptual and abstract in thinking style
• Tending to be more revealing of personal
  information about themselves

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Conclusions

• Authentic leadership is a useful model in
  recognising success of different styles
• Self-awareness is the foundation in coaching
  towards authentic leadership
• Psychometrics, when used appropriately, can
  enhance self-awareness in an effective way
• Research supports the importance of
  self-awareness in leadership effectiveness

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Any questions?