Leadership Freedom: From cluttered thinking to clarity (#151)
The Confident Leader
BOOST YOUR LEADERSHIP IN UNCERTAIN TIMES
“Robin, my new COO isn’t working out. His resume was impeccable, and his references were glowing. I’m confused. What do I do?” said Sam, a CEO of a fast growing company. Our coaching conversation created clarity and a result that didn’t appear to even be possible.
“Clarity is compassion.” – Jay Lee (wise leader and pastor)
This Week’s Edition
Leaders who have a growth mindset can experience thinking issues that hold them back. Learn a technique (or two) to declutter your thinking, opening the way to clarity!
Clarify Your Thinking
Sam went on to describe his cluttered state, “Robin, I’ve got so many thoughts going through my mind, I can’t make sense of any of them. My thinking is like a bowl of spaghetti on this issue.”
- Can the COO keep pace with our leadership team?
- Can he do the job we hired him for?
- He is really qualified.
- Do I fire him now to save us all headaches?
- I really like him and want him on the team.
- Do I give him six or twelve months to get up to speed?
- I can’t afford to pay him this much money to onboard forever.
- The stakes are so high.
Cluttered thinking can tie up an otherwise intelligent and creative leader, rendering them paralyzed or impulsive.
Paralyzed: the leader may fail to act thereby missing opportunities or allowing a bad situation to persist too long.
Impulsive: taking action without all pertinent information or failing to allow certain situations to evolve and potentially resolve themselves.
Either reaction to cluttered thinking may generate negative collateral impact to the leader and/or the team.
Old Thinking: I just cannot order my thinking. My thoughts are so jumbled I cannot make sense of what to do. This feels awful. I’ll just do nothing… or something? Argh!
New Thinking: I’m not thinking straight right now. I need to process. I’ll call my thinking partner.
Thoughts Lead to Actions
I asked Sam some coaching questions. This revealed the depth of his thinking. Once he purged all his cluttered thoughts, we got to work.
Consider these two options to move from cluttered thinking to a clear head.
Option A: Get out of your head. Journal your thinking. Put pen to paper so you can visually see what you are thinking. Slowing down long enough to physically write your thoughts often will bring near immediate clarity to some of your cluttered thinking.
Option B: Call your thinking partner, someone who is outside the emotional vortex of the situation. Allow them to ask questions to help you verbally process.
Option A works well for those prone to internal processing. While, Option B is a good starting point for external or verbal processors.
Our coaching conversation generated an approach that Sam used that was highly customized to the COO’s distinct personality and unique style under pressure. It was effective.
Here is Sam’s text to me:
“Convo with COO was money! The approach we created was amazing! We got him exactly the structure he needs to feel secure. He’s completely committed. It was a quick recovery. Thanks.”
Boost Your Performance
Cluttered thinking is bondage to a leader. The freedom of clear thinking is a true gift and accretive to the leader, the team and the organization. Find out how to gain greater freedom of thinking in this week’s video.
What’s Your Opinion?
Who’s your thinking partner? Share it with me at robin.pou@robinpou.com.
If you are going to be a leader, you might as well be a good one. Don’t let doubt count you out. Have a confident week!
Robin Pou, Chief Advisor and Strategist
We live to make bad leadership extinct so forward this newsletter to others who strive to be confident leaders.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE CONFIDENT LEADER
Let’s Connect
Follow me on Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter.
What is “The Confident Leader”?
During the Covid-19 Pandemic, I began a video series called “Panic or Plan?” It was designed to equip leaders to navigate the doubt they experienced and to rise in the confidence they needed to lead during turbulent times. It took off. I then started this newsletter to equip leaders in the same fashion each week for the doubt that crashes across the bow of their leaderSHIP.