Leadership Coaching

Developing braver leaders

Mike McLaughlin, Elaine Cox

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317663515
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Leadership Coaching offers a new model of coaching for leadership development. It explains how the brave model extends existing leadership theories, and includes specific coaching processes and sense-making techniques to allow the reader to understand how the model would work in practice.

The book begins by asking why it is important for leaders to be brave. It provides an overview of existing leadership theories, and their limitations, as well as introducing the brave coaching approach and the elements that comprise the model. The book includes practical case studies that provide insights into the range of applications for the brave leadership coaching framework.

Based on academic research, and written in an accessible scholarly style, this book shows how coaching can assist in decision making, leading to a different, braver form of personal and corporate leadership. It should be of interest to students of management, leadership, coaching and mentoring, as well as professional coaches and leaders.

1 Introduction The challenge of brave leadership

DOI: 10.4324/9781315767468-1

Introduction

Martin Luther King Jr. notably argued that “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige and even his life for the welfare of others” (King, 1963, p.25). This focus on risk and standing up for others in the face of disagreement presupposes a certain bravery. This book introduces a framework that describes how coaching can help leaders think about where they stand in times of challenge and how they position themselves in relation to their followers and their organization. It suggests that the world needs leaders to be courageous and act bravely in the face of the challenges they encounter in order to create not only successful, but also sustainable businesses. This book then is about coaching leaders to be braver, helping them understand themselves and their organizations better so that they can create and uphold brave solutions to present-day and future problems.

In this introduction we first define leadership coaching and what we mean by bravery, and suggest how a new approach to coaching leaders can help them to develop and operate in ways that will better meet the needs of their organizations and society. The chapter discusses why it is important for leaders to be brave and examines the apparent dysfunction in leadership practice that appears to underpin the current “malaise around financial crisis, climate control and ethical debacles” (Ladegard & Gjerde, 2014, p.631), frequent organizational failures (Gardner et al., 2010) and occasional “public fiascos” (Brewer, 2014, p.1). Such disquiet, in our view, points to a gap in expectation and leadership development. Toward the end of the chapter we introduce a leadership coaching framework that can be used to try and recover this situation through heightened awareness of context, understanding of self and, since we consider decision making as the key aspect of leadership, the decision-making and implementation process in an organizational context.

What do we mean by leadership coaching?

Burns defined leadership as “… the reciprocal process of mobilizing, by persons with certain motives and values, various economic, political and other resources, in a context of competition and conflict, in order to realize goals independently or mutually held by both leaders and followers” (Burns, 1978, p.425).

When we talk about leadership coaching we use Burns’s definition of leadership as a benchmark, but we are also guided by Riddle’s definition of coaching as a formal process whereby “a qualified coach works with an organizational leader in a series of dynamic, private sessions designed to establish and achieve clear goals that will result in improved business effectiveness for the individual, as well as his or her team and organization” (Riddle, 2008, p.7). Our definition of coaching also aligns with one proposed by Bachkirova, Cox and Clutterbuck (2014, p.1): “Coaching is a human development process that involves structured, focused interaction and the use of appropriate strategies, tools and techniques to promote desirable and sustainable change for the benefit of the client and potentially for other stakeholders.”

We also like Edgar Schein’s (2006, p.18, emphasis in original) distinction between coaching in practice and other interventions:

• a coach “does not necessarily have in mind a pre-determined direction or outcome”;
• a coach does not have power over the client; and
• a client volunteers for coaching and is motivated to learn.

Schein argues that the ultimate skill of the coach is to “assess the moment to moment reality that will enable him or her to be in the appropriate role” (Schein, 2006, p.24). This suggests an immediacy that will enable two things for the leader: for the coaching to be absolutely relevant to the current situation; but more importantly, for the coaching to be appropriate for the level of development needed by the leader. This implies that the coach may have recourse to use a framework, model, or some other type of tool to guide the coaching relationship.

Ladegard and Gjerde (2014, p.632) describe leadership coaching as involving “one-on-one counselling of executives, leaders, and managers about work-related issues with the purpose of improving their leadership effectiveness.” They say that one of the benefits of coaching is that it provides “custom-tailored development,” and so it can take account of individual needs and starting points.

These definitions support the purpose of this book, where we are focusing on coaching to promote change for the benefit of the leader, the organization and beyond. Our definition of leadership coaching, therefore, draws on all these characterizations and explanations and can be summarized as follows:

Leadership coaching is a one-to-one adult development process that uses appropriate strategies and techniques to optimize, enhance and transform individual leader understanding for the benefit of leaders themselves, their organizations and, ultimately, the society in which they operate.

What Do We Mean By “Brave”?

To define what we mean by brave, it is probably best to compare it to another word that is often used interchangeably with it: courage. The origin of the word courage is given in the Oxford English Dictionary as “middle English, denoting the heart as the seat of feelings, from old French, corage, from the Latin, ‘cor,’ ‘heart’.” Courage, it would seem, is closely connected to how we feel—specifically to overcoming emotions such as fear. Courage does not necessarily mean that any action is taken, but rather that a change in feeling is generated; that the “ability” to overcome adversity is there.

Hannah, Sweeney and Lester (2007) suggested that courageous actions require emotional and cognitive skills, not will alone. These authors also theorized that building positive emotional skills to reduce associations of fears may be an essential step before demonstrating courageous actions and autonomous motivation. Similarly, according to Pury and Kowalski (2007), courageous actions reflect individual readiness to: i) initiate the process, ii) show vulnerability and confront fears, iii) reflect on personal values and goals, and iv) understand potential consequences of actions based on values other than social expectations. On the other hand, being “brave” is defined as being ready to face and endure danger or pain; and showing courage is enduring or facing unpleasant conditions or behavior without showing fear. The word “brave” is also connected to action, to confronting a situation, to “face,” to “endure.” It could be argued, therefore, that courage is a necessary forerunner of bravery: the internal change from a state of fear to that of managing this emotion is courage, and that courage is a precursor to a brave action, or indeed a brave action through inaction.

Courage, then, is the capacity to overcome fear or pain. It is a state of mind—which can be mustered, plucked up and galvanized in order to enable us ultimately to face problems if we so choose, despite the fact that we may feel frightened. Courage is the determined choice to face problems, it is a means to an end, whereas bravery, we would argue, goes a step further—it includes the action beyond courage and so is an end in itself. So we would consider a brave leader to be one who has mastered their emotions and is ready and able to take action in the face of likely adversity. The operative word here is able. The courageous leader might not follow through with the brave action: s/he has the courage, but has not reached the point of action. The brave leader is one who is able to act in accordance with their courage.

Similarly, Peterson and Seligman (2004, p.232) confirm bravery as “not shrinking from challenge or pain; speaking up, standing up for convictions.” Drawing on Shelp’s (1984, p.354) definition, these authors cite bravery as “the disposition to voluntarily act, perhaps fearfully, in a dangerous circumstance, where the relevant risks are reasonably appraised, in an effort to obtain or preserve some perceived good for one self or others recognizing that the desired perceived good may not be realized.” Peterson and Seligman (2004) also reported how the concept of bravery has shifted over time, gradually changing from an emphasis on physical courage in war, for example, to embracing “the taking of social and economic risks as dictated by conscience” (p.216). Thus the change has been from physical valor on the battlefield towards the ability to act with moral bravery in social and organizational settings. According to Peterson and Seligman (2004, p.214), bravery has a significant rational association involving judgment: “an understanding of risk and an acceptance of the consequences of action.” Bravery, they argue, requires “the presence of danger, loss, risk, or potential injury. Without a sense of danger, risk, or vulnerability, there is no bravery in an act. Bravery is valuable because it allows people to dampen their immediate fearful response to danger and evaluate the appropriate course of action. It also involves the mastery of fear, rather than fearlessness” (ibid., p.216).

As an example of bravery in action, Katoch (2013) examined how ethical leadership and effective decision making may be developed effectively in the army. He highlighted how leadership is “the dynamic enabling-constraining process that occurs between people rather than the sole function of the individual leader” (p.164). This implies that followers consent to the leader taking control, especially in defining moments. Katoch goes on to say that “courage and humanity are the predominant emotional and interpersonal characteristics on display when a leader earns the right to lead […] Courage is the emotional strength that involves exercise of will to accomplish goals in the face of opposition, and is defined by the character strengths of bravery, persistence, integrity, and vitality” (ibid., p.164). So the leader’s role is to demonstrate bravery in defining moments and not to “shrink from threats, challenges, or difficulties” (ibid., p.164). Brave leaders “stand up for what they think is right, regardless of consequences and persevere in completing challenging tasks. They deal with the unknown and lead despite instability and unpredictability. They also display integrity and take responsibility for their feelings and actions […]” (ibid., p.164). Katoch goes on to explain how courage does not only comprise observable action, but is also reliant on the “cognitions, emotions, motivations and decisions that produce them” (ibid.).

As well as a rational element, Peterson and Seligman (2004, p.214) also suggested that bravery must involve moral judgment: “Bravery is usually considered doing what is right, including confronting the status quo or opposing an unhealthy idea, and as such, it takes on a moral tone.” This element of moral virtue is picked up by Annas (2005, p.639) who also proposed that “bravery can be shown in a wide variety of situations which have little or nothing in common with the dangerous and violent ones. Real bravery may be required, for example, in the unexciting context of a committee meeting.” We can see how the personal danger involved in bravery in business is less likely to be physical, as in military settings, and probably more likely to involve psychological (overcoming fear, anxiety, potential loss of status) or perhaps professional concerns (demotion, transfer, job loss). These personal and social concerns may sometimes be quite at odds with the organization’s values, or at least part of the organization.

Our definition of brave leadership draws on all these definitions of brave and can be described as action that:

• consciously ignores personal danger or personal gain;
• is rooted in significant personal and social values, such as responsibility and virtuousness;
• is grounded by an understanding of personal needs and character strengths or assets; and
• leads to an active decision to change a situation, or an active decision to maintain the status quo.

Bravery can be summarized as the act of facing threat and danger whilst feeling fear, but not being overcome by that fear to the point of immobility or retreat. However, there may be situations where the fear does in fact not need to be overcome in a straightforward sense. Imagine a situation where we notice our child is on the edge of a tall building and there is no barrier between them and the concrete precipice. Our fear of heights is not present in that moment, we do not have to overcome it, it does not exist in the sense that there is nothing to overcome, because something we value so dearly needs our attention. If we are physically capable of reaching that child, we are highly likely to take action. We may feel a dread, or a fear that we may not reach the child in time, but we are unlikely in that moment to be overcome by a fear for our own safety. We are not generally overcome by fear when our values need protecting: we do not have to shovel out the darkness to switch on the light. Our values are the light. Bravery arises from feelings such as passion, love and commitment, and compassion. In some sense it could be argued that bravery requires less energy than courage, which could necessitate finding a way to generate the emotional strength to overcome fear or lack. Bravery can elicit behaviors that may make a leader appear bigger than the crisis at hand.

Throughout the book, when we talk about bravery in the leadership context, we are describing leaders who have courage and who do not allow fear to prevent them from taking brave action and defending their principles, even if this involves risks and conflict.

A friend of ours works in a very challenging role within the police force. He faces dangerous situations regularly. He serves the community; he protects the community, both locally and more widely. He has a high moral and ethical standard, and often for those standards to be met, he has to be brave. This element is essential for him to do his job, to perform his duty. If a police officer can do that, very often thanklessly and often anonymously on our behalf, it is probably not too much to ask that our leaders (who are rarely, if ever, in such potential physical danger) do the same. Of course, it could be argued that facing a physical manifestation of danger can in some ways be easier to deal with than the more pervasive and subtle pressures that leaders have to endure. After all, the human race has evolved some adaptive neural (e.g. amygdalae) and hormonal (e.g. adrenaline and cortisol) strategies to deal effectively with physical threats. However, for our friend, bravery comes from the threat of having to deal with the psychological pressure of remaining true to his “code,” his moral compass, and the potential consequences of doing so, and therefore, there are distinct psychological challenges to be surmounted. So in this way, there are distinct similarities between his pressure and the pressures faced by leaders. Our friend can certainly feel fear, but he has a moral compulsion that allows him to be propelled through that fear, maybe even in some situations not even really feeling fear or thinking about behaviors as being brave, due to a distinct sense of doing what is “right...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• 1 Introduction The challenge of brave leadership
• 2 The Brave Story
• 3 Pulling Factors
• 4 Gravitational Factors
• 5 Finding Balance Emotional and moral self-awareness
• 6 The Brave Sphere
• 7 The Brave Decision
• 8 The Brave Action
• 9 The Trust Factor
• 10 Positioning Braver Leadership Coaching
• 11 The Brave Agenda
• References
• Index