Despite the thousands of print and internet resources available on the subject of effective leadership, it remains elusive. The number of leaders who fail is consistently estimated to be greater than 50%. The impact that ineffective leaders have on their teams and entire organizations can be devastating from both a human and financial perspective. It’s no wonder that leadership effectiveness continues to be at the top of organizations’ agendas.

At the heart of ineffective leadership is the concept of leader derailment. “Derail” is defined as “to cause to become deflected from a purpose; to reduce or delay the chances for success.” The Hogan Development Survey (HDS), sometimes referred to as the Derailer Report, is a tool that assesses 11 derailers that get in the way of leaders’ success. These behaviors typically emerge when leaders are under stress or when they become complacent and stop monitoring their behavior. Leadership involves building and maintaining a high-performing team, and the 11 behaviors identified by the HDS can potentially undermine leaders’ performance and make them and their teams less effective. Derailing moments can also have a lasting negative effect on leaders’ reputations because they tend to be memorable.

Once leaders’ derailers are identified via the HDS, coaches spend quite a bit of time helping them mitigate and rein in these behaviors. But how about getting a step ahead of derailers and preventing them from appearing in the first place? Just think of the angst and negative impact that could be avoided if leaders were to prevent derailing moments from even occurring. This is a subtle but meaningful difference in the coaching approach.

Case No. 1

Susan was high Excitable and visibly showed her frustration during staff meetings by raising her voice and using a confrontational tone with her direct reports. She and her coach identified some coping tools for her to use in these Excitable moments, including taking a deep breath, counting to 10 before saying anything, and trying to be cognizant of her tone of voice. Unfortunately, even though she made a midcourse correction during one of her Excitable moments, some damage had already been done, and her behavior gave her a reputation for being hotheaded. How much better would work be for all concerned if Susan could prevent Excitable moments altogether?

She and her coach worked to determine what triggered her Excitable moments so she could get ahead of them. She discovered that one of her triggers was when her direct reports did not meet agreed-upon deadlines. She began to try to anticipate discussions about missed deadlines before staff meetings, and she and her coach practiced how she would handle these situations and control her derailing behaviors. Ultimately, her calmer handling of missed deadlines promoted more effective team performance and also prevented reinforcement of her reputation as a hothead.

Case No. 2

John was high Mischievous and had earned a reputation for making snap decisions. Some of his decisions involved ill-advised risks, had made his team uncomfortable, and had resulted in negative consequences for the company. John had received feedback on his behavior in his Mischievous moments, and he tried to modify it by being less cavalier — but that wasn’t enough.

John and his coach did a deeper dive into trying to understand his behavior, and they determined that his trigger was when he was very comfortable with the subject matter. If he had done something successfully in the past, he wanted to act immediately, and he didn’t explore possible consequences. To get ahead of this derailer, he and his coach agreed that he would slow down his decision-making to afford time for a realistic appraisal of the likely consequences and possible alternative courses of action. He created a T-chart of pros and cons, and he developed a list of standard questions to explore the possible implications of his actions. When John learned to avoid being derailed, his team appreciated his more deliberate approach, and the quality of his decisions started to dispel his former reputation.

The Lesson

In both Susan and John’s situations, “forewarned was forearmed” in that they knew their derailers, they knew their triggers, and they stopped their derailing behaviors before they emerged. By managing their behaviors upstream, they were able to change the trajectories of their interactions, thus making their teams more effective and certainly making themselves more effective leaders.

The keys for coaches to help leaders prevent derailment are:

• identifying the leader’s derailers via the HDS assessment;
• enhancing the leader’s awareness of the effects his or her behavior has on others;
• enhancing the leader’s self-monitoring;
• identifying triggers that cause derailers to emerge; and
• developing coping strategies and tools to get ahead of derailers so derailing moments do not occur.

The old adage that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” applies to getting ahead of derailers, and leaders and coaches will do well to implement this impactful approach.

Note: For more on avoiding derailment, please join our July 16 webinar to hear Trish Kellett, director of the Hogan Coaching Network (HCN), and Karin Fulton and Kevin Asbjörnson, both highly experienced HCN coaches, elaborate.

At Hogan, we view the assessment results as the “what” (what are your strengths and areas for development?), the interpretation of your results by your Hogan coach as the “so what” (so what do these mean to me, and how do they impact my reputation and performance?), and the coaching discussion and action planning with your coach as the “now what” (now what can you do to be more effective?).

Further, we emphasize the importance of considering context in interpreting and acting on your assessment results. Consider factors such as your job requirements, the demands of your situation, the challenges you face, the business goals you need to achieve, the team you manage, and the culture of your organization. Behaviors that are strengths in one context could be derailers in another and vice versa, so context truly matters in interpreting and acting on your Hogan scores.

COVID-19 has created a context unlike any we’ve ever faced before, so we encourage you to review your Hogan results through a COVID-19 lens to determine what will make you more effective during this crisis. Is your “now what” (the actions you need to take based on your Hogan results) different than it was before? Here are a few points to consider.

1. What competencies and behaviors are critical for you to exhibit during the COVID-19 pandemic? Several examples are communication, innovation, and resilience. Perhaps you’re now managing a team of remote employees, so communicating frequently and clearly will be paramount. Perhaps you need to be more innovative than ever and encourage your team to create solutions to unique challenges presented by COVID-19. Perhaps you need to demonstrate resilience and be a calming influence for your team during this crisis.
2. Per your Hogan profile, do the competencies and behaviors you identified in no. 1 come naturally to you (key strengths), or will you need to consciously work on them (development areas)?

Using the competencies we identified above as examples (communicating clearly and frequently, innovating, and demonstrating resilience), let’s take a look at how Hogan scales can guide you. Make sure you consider not only the scales you typically associate with the identified competencies but also other scales that could contribute to your behavior. Look across the three reports: Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI), Hogan Development Survey (HDS), and Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI).

Communication: If you’re high on Sociability and Affiliation, you’re probably adept at communicating, and it will be both a priority for you and rewarding for you. However, if you’re lower on these scales, you’ll need to remind yourself to reach out to others and share information. Ask for feedback from your audience to ensure that your frequency and clarity are meeting their needs. If your Reserved score is high, make sure you’re not disappearing when times are tough. The team needs their leader even more, and you need to be more visible, even if it is in virtual terms.

Innovation: If you’re higher on Inquisitive and Learning Approach, you probably are open to ideas, have broad interests, and are skilled at innovating. You’ll need to make sure you encourage it in your team, as well. If you’re higher on Prudence, you might tend to micromanage or curtail discussions prematurely, so be sure to watch that. Also, if you’re higher on Imaginative, you’ll need to make sure you don’t overwhelm your team with too many ideas. If you’re lower on Inquisitive and Learning Approach, innovation might not come naturally to you, but you can certainly encourage it in your team members by being more open to their ideas, not cutting off discussions, and recognizing and rewarding their efforts. Acknowledging and celebrating contributions should come easy to you if you have a higher Recognition score, and if your score is lower, you can consciously emphasize this more.

Resilience: If you’re higher on the Adjustment scale and typically calm in the face of crises, you’ll need to leverage this fully given the turbulent times associated with COVID-19. Be aware, though, that you might not pick up on or relate to the stress that your team members are feeling, especially if they’re lower on Adjustment. If you have a lower Security score, you probably don’t need much role clarity or task clarity, and that will serve you well in the new environment. Recognize that your team members with higher Security will need more direction for a sense of stability during this time. If you’re higher on the Security scale yourself, realize that the world has shifted and you won’t have the same order you had in the past. Also, check your Interpersonal Sensitivity score to see what your natural tolerance level of others is, and be more patient and understanding with their reactions to COVID-19, especially if they’re higher on the Excitable scale.

3. Are your derailers appearing more often or are your behaviors more exaggerated?

Derailers typically come out when you’re under stress or dealing with ambiguity, but the stress and ambiguity you’re experiencing with COVID-19 is unlike anything we’ve seen before. So, recognize that your derailers might appear more often or more acutely. Self-awareness and self-monitoring are more crucial than ever now, so make sure you’re paying attention to how you’re acting and, more importantly, how others are perceiving you. If you’re upset or annoyed, it’s much easier to dash off a quick email from a remote location than it is to confront someone when you’re working together in person. Give yourself a chance to calm down and put the issue in perspective before emailing. Also, in the virtual world, others can’t see your facial expressions or hear your tone (unless you’re using a video platform), so make sure you choose your words wisely.

Reviewing your Hogan profile and determining which scales are most applicable and which behaviors you need to dial up or down will serve you well during the COVID-19 crisis. The experienced coaches of the Hogan Coaching Network are ready to assist you if you’d like professional guidance and a discussion to review your profile. They’re adept at virtual discussions and were conducting virtual feedback sessions long before the COVID-19 pandemic. If you’d like to schedule a one-hour session, please contact your Hogan consultant.

Ready to see what the Hogan Coaching Network can do for you?

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The dark side of personality concerns behaviors and attributes that derail people – getting them into trouble and making them less effective as leaders. Typically, these derailers appear when people are under stress (e.g., they have a tight deadline, they are dealing with ambiguity, etc.) or when they are not self-monitoring (e.g., they are around people with whom they can let down their guard and not manage their image).

Many times, these behaviors are an overuse of a key strength from the bright side of their personality. For example, a leader who is conscientious, detail-oriented and sets high standards on a day-to-day basis might become perfectionistic, nitpicky and micromanaging when under stress – driving his or her direct reports crazy and garnering the reputation for being impossible to please.

While overuse of strengths is certainly problematic, underuse of a behavior or trait can be equally derailing, but in a different way. Underuse is another shade of the dark side, and it can have significant impacts on a leader’s effectiveness, reputation and, ultimately, career. Underuse of behaviors is usually not as visible or memorable as overuse, but it can be equally damaging.

To illustrate this principle, consider leaders who overuse their enthusiasm and sense of urgency to the point that they are emotional, excitable and volatile. Their tempers and hot-headedness are usually very memorable to the people who witness their “excitable moments.” In contrast, a person who underuses enthusiasm and sense of urgency will most likely come across as boring, dispassionate and flat and will not be able to motivate anyone. In short, the person will not be viewed as a leader. While the underused behavior might not garner immediate attention the way an overused behavior does, the impression it creates will accumulate over time, adding to the person’s reputation of not being an effective leader, which can be a death knell to a career.

The throwaway line that captures the essence of this discussion is, “Overuse can get you fired, and underuse can get you passed over.” Although a simplistic view, it is not far from the truth. If coaches were asked to give behavioral examples of executives who were fired, they would quickly fill a flipchart with examples of overused strengths that resulted in over-the-top behaviors. If those same coaches were queried about executives who were fired for underused behaviors, they likely would have very little to report. However, if they were asked to recall people who were passed over for a promotion or whose careers hit a plateau, they would most likely come up with a list of underused behaviors that resulted in the person not being perceived as a leader – descriptors such as “no fire in the belly,” “too quiet,” “too slow to make decisions,” “trusting to the point of being naïve” and “lacking influencing skills.”

While it’s critical for leaders to have self-awareness and situational awareness regarding their overuse of behaviors, it’s equally important to have them regarding underuse, as underused behaviors can be “silent killers.” Leaders need to constantly be vigilant as to how they are coming across, who their audience is and what level of behavior is appropriate for the situation, and then adjust their behavior accordingly. Often, it is much more difficult for leaders to dial up underused behaviors than to dial down overused behaviors. This is because the dialed-up version of the behavior is so foreign to leaders who underuse them, and they feel that the behavior is unnatural. For example, a leader who is quiet and does not show much emotion will typically have a harder time speaking up and demonstrating emotion than the leader who is trying to rein in those behaviors.

Dialing Up Leadership Traits: Leader Emergence
Consider the case of Robert, a design engineer for a manufacturer of commercial aircraft­ electronic components. He worked primarily as an individual contributor and was a hard worker who seemed very calm and even-tempered under pressure. People viewed him as task-focused with little interest in engaging with people. He tended to work long hours and was not bothered by the fact that his attention to detail spilled over into work for others, which earned him a reputation as a grinder who got things done.

His hard work and solid performance brought him to the attention of the senior management team. He had the technical skills to be promoted to a new role as project leader of a cross-functional team. However, the senior managers were planning to pass him over, because the new role would require effective leadership, collaboration, communication and team-building skills that they felt would be too much of a stretch for his quiet, reserved nature and tendency to fade into the background in social situations.

Robert’s manager was very direct with him about those concerns and perceptions. Robert realized that if he were ever going to be promoted and achieve his potential, he needed to visibly demonstrate that he could dial up the traits that were crucial in the new role. He requested the help of a coach, and they embarked on a coaching initiative designed to develop the traits he needed: assertiveness, communication, being more approachable and sociable, and being less perfectionistic.

It was difficult at first for Robert, because he had to exert so much energy just exhibiting the behaviors. However, the new dialed-up versions became easier the more he practiced them, especially when he saw that they truly did make him more effective in his interactions. Robert’s commitment to change and his demonstration of the newer, more visible behaviors in front of the senior team members convinced them to promote him into the new role.

Leader emergence (the behaviors typically associated with overuse of strengths) is perhaps one of the most significant variables in career success. When leaders who are underusing traits are passed over due to executive presence concerns, it is a lose-lose for the leaders and the larger organization, as both the leaders’ good ideas and the good ideas of their teams often go unnoticed. Although dialing up underused behaviors can be difficult, with sufficient self-awareness, situational awareness, desire and determination on the part of the leader, it can be done.

This article was originally published on Training Industry on July 7, 2017 by Trish Kellett.