Organization Politics and Executive Coaching:How to Navigate When You Don't Play Politics

Organizations are complex entities.  They have specific cultures and rules. Navigating the different channels: working up, down and across the organization while executing on strategic goals, makes successful leadership difficult.

Who are the influencers and who are the least powerful? How does an executive learn organizational savviness while remaining as positive as possible? How do you motivate your team and align with the senior management? What if you see yourself as” not being political”? What do you do then?

Executive coaching is a process that enables the executive to understand themselves, the team, the organization and the rules that are in play. It is a concrete process that results in deliberate behavior changes. By learning which behaviors work in what situations, the leader learns what success looks like.

Everyone is political. I am going to repeat that statement, everyone is political. Just as making no decision is making a decision (to do nothing), claiming not to be political is being political. And that has consequences. A good coach will work with the leader to understand themselves and all the aspects of the organization as they relate to the leader and the goals that are necessary for success. Being political does not mean betraying your values but rather understanding how to succeed in an environment and what the rules are. According to Ephraim Schacter, “executive coaches help senior leaders deliberately chose behaviors to optimize organizational results.” In other words, be political.

Tiger Moms and Executive Coaching: How they relate

There has so much been written in the last few weeks, both pro and con, about raising children in the “Chinese” tiger mom method. Included in this method is having high expectations, practicing behaviors that give rise to success, and being totally committed to that success. (I am not going to discuss what success means in this blog posting or go into Amy Chua’s book).

One of the underlying assumptions in this Tiger Mom philosophy is that intelligence is the most important piece and that focusing on those skills that enhance academic accomplishment, will lead to success. What is not stressed is the importance of Emotional Intelligence and how self-awareness and being socially savvy leads to higher levels of success.

From Willie Geist (no this is not sarcasm on my part) of Morning Joe who spoke of the best leaders are the ones who can build strategic relationships, or David Brooks of the NY Times who wrote, “They (the kids raised this way) grow up skilled and compliant but without audacity to be great”, the notion that there is more to happiness, success and greatness than academic excellence or high IQ.

So what does all this have to do with Executive Coaching?

Over the years, I would say that the majority of coaching I have done is to enhance and build on executives’ emotional intelligence. Executive coaching is first and foremost about believing that the executive will succeed. It is similar to the tiger moms’ belief that the child will succeed. Both the coach and the tiger mom look at building new skills through practicing new behaviors. One of the major differences, and there are many, is that my executive coaching stresses the importance of emotional intelligence. It is as important, if not, more important that the technical and scientific skills that got the executive to their current position. Many executives reach a level where leadership is required and that means knowing yourself and how to get others motivated to reach a goal. This is where EIQ comes in.

The people at the top are not always the smartest in terms of IQ, but most have superb emotional intelligence.

Can We Change?

Yesterday I had lunch with an old friend who is also the COO of a major organization. He asked me if people can really change. If someone as high up and capable as he is questions this possibility how can I convince him?
YES people can change behaviors. With practice, positive rewards and a change in their belief system, they can be different. I have seen it work.