What happens if you aren’t self-aware?

A case study: Leading Blindly

 Marcus was a whirlwind of a character. He was what you typically imagine a sales director to be – driven, blunt, energetic, competitive and always chasing the results.

We began working together because he was causing conflict at board level. He was always pushing his opinions and blaming his peers for his underperformance. He was a nice guy, but not a good person to have on the team. He was full of front and bravado when I started working with him as his coach. It was difficult to see who the true Marcus was. He dodged questions, essentially telling me what he thought I wanted to hear – the perpetual salesman. He simply couldn’t reconcile the feedback he was getting with his own view of himself. 

After a couple of sessions together, I asked him to describe his favourite historical or fictional characters, and list which of their characteristics really appealed to him. First, he described the surfer, chilled, in the moment and simply looking for the next wave – no pressure, simply being. This was Marcus at home.

Then he described Del-Boy, the wheeler-dealer, cheeky chap that everyone loved. He was always onto the next deal but did so with humour and innocence. He said this was him in his early career. He was happy then.

Then he described Genghis Khan. The relentless leader, always charging forward with force, taking no prisoners and never stopping until he had succeeded. This was him now. He finally saw what others saw in him. He had become everything he had despised in his former bosses, yet that was who he had become.

His true style was Captain Kirk. Humble, a team player, a nice guy, always believing that together they could find a solution. Now we were ready to work together on how he could become the leader within.