Maria is the executive stream leader in the international bank. She has been in this position for almost five months. Her supervisor supported her promotion. Now Maria works in a cross-functional team with more than two supervisors. In this matrix organisational structure, she is unsatisfied with the approval deadlines from the management side. The management constantly requests additional improvements in the project she held.
In coaching, Maria wants to understand
the current level of her influence on key stakeholders of the project,
how she is perceived by the team, by management, by partners
increase her confidence due to a decrease in the quantity of fault-finding of the management
create the new behavioural strategy
Why tracking your influence is so important for top managers.
While job performance is paramount, it’s not the only thing that matters. As you aim to rise in formal influence, your informal influence becomes relevant. Map your influence and track it. Consider the breadth and depth of your relationships, your communication effectiveness, access to resources (particularly information), reputation, credibility, charisma and more. - Stephanie Judd, Wolf & Heron
Based on brand management, the communications loop, where you track if your message is correctly understood (using marketing research), it’s also applicable to your branding as an expert or leader. How to set up this tool to increase your credibility?
We started with the circles of key stakeholders and what kind of leadership style is more suitable for each auditory.
The result of this brainstorming became the understanding that Maria is still more in the role of Administrator for the team and has a problem with delegating. She needs to demonstrate her leadership skills more, form actively the agenda, and not wait for the supervisor’s requests.
This is the often case I meet while coaching the managers in a new managing role. They used to be executors of someone else's will and don’t apply their force and confidence to establish agenda.
It’s partly the reason for poor delegation. Because as an expert she trusts herself, her own experience than the team. Of course, the team feels this distrust and reduces the level of responsibility for their performance.
We continued the survey on Maria’s Leadership Skills Wheel and how she evaluate her level. Upon finishing we spotted the trajectory of the coaching process and desirable results. The program was as follows:
Delegating: increasing trust in the team, defining the scope of tasks and levels of responsibility for delegating, workout the tracking results system
Boundaries: pros and cons, professional and personal. A clear understanding of the boundaries of personal comfort.
Role models: expert or manager or leader, pro and contra. Clear scheme of switching between roles.
Positioning results: the personal role of the leader, recognition of achievements, formation of career development ambitions, and the creation of alliances and allies.
Develop a system for tracking the impact she has on key stakeholders
The beauty of coaching is that the client draws on their wisdom and works out the most suitable solutions in time and under current circumstances.
In 3 months Maria showed huge growth in her leadership in the company. It was proved by the motivated team and appreciated management. Maria became more confident in her current position and could show her career ambitions for future development within the company. She received the feedback from HR leader that she was included in the list of the most perspective talents of the company.