So why are employees limiting themselves and why aren’t companies getting the best from their people?

Here are the five barriers that they have identified:

Barrier 1 – Over-emphasising Personal Goals

The narrow pursuit of goals can lead to self-protection and self-promotion, neither of which fosters other people’s success.  True leadership is about making other people better as a result of your presence and making sure your impact endures in your absence.

Barrier 2 – Protecting your Public Image

Being overly distracted by your image – the ideal that you have created in your mind can inhibit learning and risk taking.  For instance, the need to be seen as likable can keep you from asking tough questions or challenging existing norms.  The need to be seen as decisive can cause you to shut down critical feedback loops.  At some point in the leadership journey ambitious people must chose between image and impact, between looking powerful and empowering others.

Barrier 3 – Turning Competitors into Enemies

Distorting other people is a common response to conflict, but it carries significant leadership cost.  It severs your links to reality, making you reliably incapable of exerting influence.  As you turn others into caricatures you risk becoming a caricature yourself.

Barrier 4 – Going it Alone

Effective leaders have a strong team that help provide perspective, grounding and faith.  Your team members can be family; colleagues; friends; a mentor; an executive coach; people who believe in your desire and ability to lead.

Barrier 5 – Waiting for Permission

Healthy organisations reward people who decide on their own to lead.  Patience can be valuable but it can also undermine potential by persuading us to keep our heads down and soldier on, waiting for someone to recognise our efforts.  Many of the leaders studied by this group didn’t wait for formal authority to begin to make changes, they all simply began to use whatever informal power they had.

Sometimes it is hard to stand back and identify these self-limiting behaviours yourself.  This is where feedback is important, your colleagues and your team can be a valuable source of input, it is also where Executive Coaching can play a key role.  Having a concentrated period of self-reflection is a rare experience for most senior executives and in our experience when the outcome of this reflection is worked through with a coach, the benefits to the leader can be significant.

The full article is available at: Harvard Business Review January-February 2011

https://hbr.org/2011/01/managing-yourself-stop-holding-yourself-back