From Reactive to Proactive

Why Senior Leaders Need Thinking Time

How to Get Your Strategic Clarity Back in the Noise

In the fast pace of business today, many senior leaders become wrapped up in day-to-day noise and lose sight of both the strategic altitude one needs to navigate and guide an organisation. This overwhelmed sensation isn’t just widespread, it also has potential to be incredibly damaging to leaders and their teams.

This article explains what happens and how executive coaching can offer assistance in gaining back clarity, focus and direction. Welcome to your own strategic thinking room, the place where titans of industry come for a change of perspective.

In fact, I tell my leader clients, that the fisrt thing they need to do is to book a space in their calendar to pause and relfect! Otherwise you’d be trapped in the treadmill and join the millions of overwhelmed leaders who lack focus and perspective. Think acting (consciously), rather than reacting!

The Issue: Things Are Getting Silly

As organisations expand and evolve, operational challenges multiply and leaders are frequently juggling various demands day to day. The bombardment can cause two huge problems: distraction and overwhelm. When leaders are struggling to manage the business day-to-day and aren’t spending a lot of time thinking about strategy, they can lose sight of that high-level view that is essential for decision making.

More than 60% of executives themselves say they devote less than a quarter of their time to strategic planning, on average, according to a new study by McKinsey.

The outcome? Not just an overstressed leader, but perhaps even an organisation that can’t think or adapt or prosper in the longer term. It is this gap that an executive coach can help bridge, a way to return to focus and purpose.

The Cost of Neglecting Coaching for Burned-Out Leaders

Ignoring the struggles that overwhelmed leaders face can have dire consequences for both themselves and the organizations they lead. Here’s what it looks like when we ignore this problem:

Sinking Engagement or Retention: Tired and disengaged leaders can’t be inspiring to their teams, leading to diminished employee motivation.
Leadership Burnout: Long-term pressure without strategic direction leads to burnout and the best leaders are less effective.
Isolated Teams: The pressure of the operation can lead to a separation between team members and hinder cooperation and communication.
Slower Breakthroughs: Lack of strategic direction can cause stall when it comes to creativity resulting in becoming lagged behind companions.

The resultant effects cause a vicious cycle of degradation in the organisation’s culture and productivity leading to a necessity for preventative actions. If you want a quick simple guide on how to prevent Burnout, download our fee Ebook: Bounce Back!

5 Important Steps to Enhance Overloaded Leader Coaching

Step 1: Set clear goals, which will provide sense of direction

The first step to taking back control is setting clear goals that are actionable. Leaders should be open about what they hope to accomplish in the short and long term. In doing so, they draft a playbook to dictate their day-to-day decisions, helping keep them in line with strategic goals. A useful exercise is to develop three SMART goals (specific, measureable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) that are aligned with the broader vision of what the organisation ultimately wants to achieve.

Step 2: Establish an atmosphere of open communication

Fostering a productive, transparent internal conversation can lead to greater clarity and group intelligence. For leaders, making ourselves vulnerable and requesting feedback not only builds trust, it submits power to employees. A peer-based feedback session may be such an essential mechanism, where team members freely express their thoughts and suggestions. There’s research to show that companies which advocate transparency experience a 25% higher level of employee satisfaction.

Step 3: Schedule strategic thinking time.

The importance of carved-out time for strategic introspection cannot be overstated. Leaders should set aside particular time slots each week for nothing other than strategic thought, without interference or distractions. Perhaps it wouldn’t do us any harm to have some scenarios in our heads, to write down and then imagine our future. This is a disciplined approach to maintaining the strategic perspective in the face of day-to-day distractions.

Step 4: Apply Principles of Mindfulness

Mindfulness when practiced, can do wonders for improving mental clarity and focus, among countless other psychological benefits. And those that return to their thoughts can also regain mental bandwidth of leaders by means as simple as practicing meditation or focusing on deep breathing, or occasional short walk. Daily meditating helps decrease stress and actually increases sound decision-making by refocusing your attention on what really matters in life.

Stage 5: External support through Coaching

Lastly, a great executive coach is someone who will change the game for you. They coach to have someone who gives you the unvarnished truth, and helps one become more balanced as a leader. They can help reveal blind spots, foster strategic conversations, and hone leadership skills in ways appropriate to the time. For instance, coaches can focus on specific tactics for improved time management and optimize roles to delegate effectively. Leadership is radio that listens but its primary function would be to understand how the radio is in order first (Goleman, D.). As cited by Goleman, the foundation for effective leadership is emotional intelligence which can be developed with a professional coach.

True Story: Life-Changing Coaching in Action

Take Miguel, a senior manager at a mid-sized technology company. Drowning in tactical work, he came to our executive coaching program for some equilibrium. In personalized coaching sessions, Miguel found clarity about his strategic focus and a way to delegate operational duties more efficiently which in just four months, lead his team to achieve 30% more. As he says:

“I used to be ran by my day. Now I run my day – with clarity, focus and calm.”

Conclusion

In a complicated world, coaching for frazzled leaders is no longer a nice-to-have: It’s becoming a must-have. When leaders focus on strategic clarity, both they and their organisation benefit from improved performance and an ability to sustain long-term growth. If you are ready to step back into a leadership space, click around in other resources, or set up a call about how working with an executive coach can allow you to better actualize your full potential.