The leadership paradox nobody prepared us for
Priorities in Executive Coaching are changing
I don't remember a time when so many leaders have told me they feel they are leading in permanent uncertainty.
What used to feel like occasional disruption has become a constant backdrop to organizational life. Multiple waves of change overlap and reinforce one another, creating a pace that can be difficult to sustain.
Unparalleled demands
Today's leaders are expected to:
- manage multiple, simultaneous organizational changes
- make important decisions with incomplete information
- adapt to shifting priorities
- support their team through uncertainty
- and somehow remain calm and reassuring through it all.
So how does this work exactly? Well it doesn’t always. The global rise of workplace burnout is a clear sign that something is not quite right.
risk of exhaustion
When I work with leaders, I often ask a simple question:
"How many significant changes are you navigating right now?"
The answer surprises both of us.
It's often six, seven, or eight major changes happening simultaneously—and that's before we even consider events in their personal lives.
Change is not a problem, humans are built for change, but the pressure of a relentless accumulation of changes with no end is sight can lead to executive exhaustion, however brilliant and expert the leader might be.
Research tells a similar story. Leaders and managers are experiencing far more organizational change than they were just a decade ago. Something has shifted and I hear it in conversations every week.
THE STEADFASTNESS OF LEADERS
What I also notice is the steadfastness that many leaders demonstrate amidst the pressure. They are drawing more deeply on their inner resources than ever before. They turn to their values, judgment and capacity for reflection when facing complex, unpredictable disruptions. These qualities are their compass when there are no obvious answers.
The paradox is that these are often the very capacities that become harder to access when pressure is greatest.
Excessive, prolonged stress narrows our thinking. It triggers emotional reactivity, reduces perspective, creativity and judgement because our nervous system focuses on immediate survival rather than thoughtful leadership. This is one of the reasons I believe
self-leadership has become such an essential leadership capability.
STRENGTHENING SELF-LEADERSHIP IS A POSITIVE EXPERIENCE
You might think that self-leadership is a tough, arduous and strict exercise in discipline. Actually it's not. It's more about learning to understand your own humanity better, making best use of your strengths, and finding ways to live out your aspirations and your values, even in the midst of chaos.
Self-leadership is certainly not a luxury for quieter times, it's the practice of noticing and regulating our internal state, and creating the conditions for our best thinking, judgement, wisdom and leadership to emerge.
As the external world becomes less predictable, the leader's internal world becomes more important. After all, isn't that where everything starts?
HOW SELF-LEADERSHIP FITS IN EXECUTIVE COACHING
In my work with leaders, we address Self-Leadership as an important area for development, not because my clients are lacking, but because the workplace has become almost impossibly demanding. Our focus is for them to develop self-leadership skills and techniques, including self-coaching, that they can use autonomously at any time they need.
