This commentary isn’t a Christmas tale about a Grinch who lives alone in a cave and despises the warmth of Whoville. Well, not exactly.
Dr. Seuss’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” in addition to being a timeless Christmas classic, is also a tale many leaders can identify with, a story about how some people simply do not fit.
The dilemma for organizations is that they hire for jobs based on what people do, but promote them into roles requiring leadership. They hire specialists but promote them into generalist positions.
People promoted into these situations can sometimes respond with Grinch-like emotions when they are expected to magically translate technical skills into top-notch people skills. It’s a classic case of what the executive leadership coach Marshall Goldsmith calls “What got you here won’t get you there.”
How important is talent development in an uncertain environment? In a recent CEO survey, 69% of CEOs report some form of restructuring during the course of the pandemic, and more than 28% reported laying off more than a quarter of their workforce.
With this kind of restructuring through uncertainty, it’s imperative that organizations get it right by keeping the talent that best positions them for the future. At least for the near term, according to 97% of CEOs, jobs will entail some form of remote work, with 57% of leaders rating “working well remotely” as their No. 1 issue.
The question then becomes, should we hire based on skills needed or on who the person is and how he or she fits within the organization’s culture? Do we hire for where we, as an organization, are or for where we need our people to take us? Technical skills may be the hardest to find, but they’re the easiest to teach, according to the Project Management Institute. However, 66% of organizations cite leadership skills as the biggest determinant of employee success.
These days, many high-performing organizations are using the pandemic as a backdrop to accelerate the trend of designing their teams for who can help them execute on strategic vision. Welcome to Whoville!
Emotional intelligence and the ability to collaborate, communicate, make decisions and take action are the soft leadership skills that the business world has been demanding for most of the last decade. The good news is that these leadership competencies can all be developed with a sound leadership development plan and intentional coaching.
In my practice, I like to focus leadership succession on three key levels of development: awareness, authenticity and trust. The high stress and uncertain environment of the global pandemic provide a great opportunity to practice all three.
Awareness starts with mindfulness of your emotions and behaviors, more specifically how those impact people around you. Emotions and behaviors are simply the expression of unmet needs, and understanding your emotions means understanding how to self-correct in high-stress situations.
Awareness of self leads to awareness of others, providing the foundation of healthy and authentic relationships. You are authentic when you show people through your emotions who you claim to be conveying with your words.
By being your authentic self, you garner the trust and develop the leadership needed to get others to help, even when they are working remotely. Being your authentic self and inspiring trust are how you persuade others to follow your vision of the future.
This brings us back to Dr. Seuss and the Whos. Dr. Seuss knew Whoville built a culture that motivated the Whos to belong, all with the exception of the Grinch. The Grinch had to go on an emotional journey of awareness to understand how his emotions and behaviors were affecting others. Through that journey he was able to build an authentic relationship with Cindy Lou based on trust. It was a violation of trust that caused the Grinch to rethink his actions and, consequently, his heart to grow three sizes. In the end, the Grinch discovered that happiness is found in the Whos in your life and the trust they place in you.
So the real question CEOs should be asking is, how are we developing our leaders to inspire others to be a part of Whoville?
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