PLN 46: When Your Leadership Style Stops Working

Time to Read: 4 mins 

Last week, one of the CEOs in my mastermind group approached me to chat about a challenging leadership situation.

"Susan" had been one of his best divisional leaders. She grew her region at a record pace, never missed a target, and had a team who continually sang her praises.

So when a bigger region opened up, moving her there felt like the obvious choice. It was the same role and the same responsibilities, just a new zip code. The senior leadership team agreed: it made sense.

Fast forward to today… it's nearly four months in, the region's results are slipping, and Susan is struggling to gain trust and traction with her new team.

The CEO has tried all the usual things: more check-ins, additional support, weekly mentor calls. But none of it is working. And he's struggling to understand how someone with her track record isn’t finding her footing in a role that's essentially the same.

So I pushed back a little.

Because, in my mind, I couldn’t see how it was “essentially the same.” She inherited a new team with different personalities, and there were office dynamics she hadn't had a hand in shaping.

So, yes. It was the same role. But it was a completely different job.

Plus, WHO Susan is doesn't operate in a vacuum. Right now, she's standing inside a system that looks nothing like the one she spent years mastering.

As I shared with him: Context matters, because it explains some of what shows up in us.

This doesn't mean you excuse the dip entirely, or stop expecting Susan to rise to the challenge. But if you ignore the context completely, and assume the issue lies with Susan's capabilities, then you might eventually find yourself dealing with the same challenges, but a different leader.

As we continued chatting, it became evident that Susan has the leadership skills. She knows how to delegate, give feedback, and make hard calls under pressure.

But those are all skills for leading others.

So I started asking him about her thought and language patterns, her activities and actions, her energy and motivation… I wanted to know how she was leading herself through this transition.

Those were questions he couldn’t answer. And this is where our conversation got juicy!

Because he then pushed back on me. And he asked if how she leads herself matters as much here as how she’s leading others.

So I shared with him how a team of researchers spent 8 months tracking 52 private bankers at an international bank. Half received self-leadership training. Half didn't.

Partway through the study, completely unplanned, the bank went through a real financial bailout that resulted in mass chaos, angry clients, and valid concerns over job security.

The bankers who'd been building their self-leadership held onto their ability to adapt and stayed satisfied with their work, even through the chaos. The ones who hadn't, didn't. Their adaptive performance stayed flat, and their job satisfaction significantly dropped.

Same crisis, same bank, but a completely different internal capacity to lead themselves through it.

(You can read the study here.)

That insight changed the conversation with the CEO completely. And now, focusing on how Susan leads herself is the developmental priority.

After all… Inner Leader —> Outer Impact.

And yes, I’ll die on that hill. 😜

💡 Practionable Takeaway

When things get challenging, it can be easy to question our competence. I want to challenge you to resist that urge and get curious about your self-leadership first.

1️⃣ Thought & language patterns: What am I telling myself about this situation, and is it accurate, or is it shaped by what used to work somewhere else?

2️⃣ Activities & actions: What am I doing on autopilot right now that made sense elsewhere, but hasn't actually been tested in this situation or environment?

3️⃣ Energy & motivation: What's fueling me, or draining me, in this moment, and what would help me reconnect to why this matters?

Notice what's different. Then decide, on purpose, how you're going to lead yourself through it.

That’s self-leadership in action!

🎥 Want to Go Deeper? 

The CEO couldn't answer my questions about Susan's thought patterns, actions, or motivation, because nobody had ever asked him to look at her that way before.

Most of us are the same about ourselves. We can list our skills without thinking twice... but our own patterns feel a bit blurrier.

If you want a clearer, ongoing picture of your own self-leadership, then take a few minutes out of your day to take the self-leadership assessment.

Check it out here >> Self-Leadership Assessment

I’ve recently upgraded the output to include a pdf report that provides insights on how you think, act, and motivate yourself, so you know exactly where to focus first.

To Your Success,

Laura 💜🧡

P.S. Have you ever had your own "same role, different job" moment? Hit reply and tell me about it. I'd love to know what changed for or about you in the process.