Hogan and Experd Consulting, an Indonesian authorized distributor of Hogan personality assessments, sponsored and participated in the International Coaching Federation’s Jakarta chapter’s International Coaching Week. Focusing on the theme “Reimagine the Future,” the event was held from May 16 through May 22, 2022. Eileen Rachman, CEO and founder of Experd Consulting, and Krista Pederson, managing director of Asia Pacific for Hogan Assessments, presented a 90-minute virtual session, “Personality Assessment–Based Coaching: Coaching the Dark Side.”

During the session, Rachman described how the Hogan Development Survey (HDS) examines the dark side of personality. She explained why coaching strategic self-awareness is important and why understanding the dark side is essential for performance improvement and success. Rachman pointed out that anchoring coaching with good data creates a solid foundation for the coaching session, and this can be achieved with a well-validated personality assessment.

Pederson followed up by sharing several coaching case studies involving the HDS. She described a process for increasing strategic self-awareness, targeting specific behaviors, and supporting incremental changes in coaching leaders. The coaching sessions eventually led to measurable improvement in performance for each leader, showing the power of a good tool in the hands of a competent coach and willing coachee.  

Rachman and Pederson’s session was well attended and highly interactive, with nearly 180 participants and many questions throughout the presentation. The presenters also held a Q&A session at the end and shared how coaches in Indonesia could attend Experd’s Hogan certification workshop to begin using the HDS in their coaching practices.

The International Coaching Week is an event held by ICF’s Jakarta chapter to enable global organizations, participants, and coaches to share their perspectives and best practices in coaching, and to encourage communication, collaboration, and shared learning.

If you are interested in more information about using personality assessments to coach the dark side, contact Hogan Assessments or your local Hogan distributor.

*This is a guest post authored by Annette Czernik, senior consultant at RELEVANT Managementberatung.

This year’s Coaching Day 2019, an international two-day congress for the coaching industry, was held November 15 and 16 in Munich, Germany. Once again, the event focused on future-oriented topics relating to agility, digitalization, and leadership. The diverse program was designed by the International Coach Federation (ICF) Germany with various speakers, experts, and insiders. RELEVANT Managementberatung was involved in different ways.

Panel Discussion

The panelists on the panel “Coaching & Digitalization – Opportunities, Threats & Ethical Aspects” discussed the introduction of digitalization into the coaching process in a very controversial way. There was a lot of curiosity but also restraint and resistance.

ICF Germany Prism Award

One of the highlights of Coaching Day 2019 was the presentation of the second Prism Award of ICF Germany, sponsored by RELEVANT. You can read about the importance of the ICF Prism Award here.

The Prism Award 2019 went to Adidas and Vodafone for their outstanding coaching programs. The jury’s special prize, awarded for the first time this year, went to Volkswagen for its differentiated system of interlocking coaching offerings, which was recognized as the “lighthouse of the industry.”

In his laudation to Adidas, René Kusch, PhD, said, “Other coaching programs can learn a lot from Adidas. In the competition for the German Prism Award, the jury particularly emphasized your commitment to the evaluation of the seemingly soft topic ‘coaching process.’ You have calculated the return on investment of your measure at 130%. Even if numerics cannot always take everything into consideration, numbers are the language that secures our community a place at the table of line managers. Your program is a great example of how coaching can make a real difference.”

Dr. Kusch praised Vodafone’s coaching program: “Vodafone is part of the spearhead of digitization in Germany. Your presentation will give us a glimpse of how Vodafone is helping to shape technological progress — perhaps we should say technological revolution. You are the first to put [5G] into operation. What is possible with it all fascinates me. Among other things, it is one of the prerequisites for autonomous vehicles. You have just teamed up with UnityMedia. The mobile phone industry is undergoing considerable upheaval. Your concept Coaching @ Vodafone is geared to the changes and challenges [the industry is facing]. You describe [strategic self-awareness] as a core competence at Vodafone. Your coaching uses content and methods to promote [Vodafone’s core competences]. Consistently. And it’s so fresh and modern that you don’t immediately notice this theoretical foundation.”

Workshop: “How to Develop Humility in Alpha People”

On the second day, as part of HR BarCamp, RELEVANT held a workshop, “How to Develop Humility in Alpha People,” for interested attendees. The main focus was on charismatic managers, who typically show self-confidence, determination, and visionary thinking.

Charisma ensures that managers in companies are recognized. However, too much charisma can become a weakness. Many charismatic leaders with power become narcissists, which can have devastating effects on others.

Today, there are fewer ways for narcissistic leaders to hide misconduct. To meet the demands of the fourth industrial revolution, companies need leaders who can be effective through others. Humility allows leadership teams to deliver business results, be productive, and be effective.

In an interactive workshop session, we explored our views on

1. The difference between individual emergence and team effectiveness at work,
2. How emerging and effective leaders can be identified in organizations, and
3. How the coaching abilities of overly charismatic leaders can be improved with an empirically proven approach and discussed with candidates.

We enjoyed the intensive exchange with the participants and continued some of the discussions afterward. Strategic self-awareness is important to everyone, and we are delighted that we can make a significant contribution to this with the Hogan assessment suite.

If you are interested in delving into our workshop topic, we would like to give you access to our article, “Our View on New Leadership: How to Develop and Assess Humility in Charismatic Leaders,”  which we wrote with Robert Hogan, PhD, and Ryne Sherman, PhD. We are proud of the article with all modesty, and we are looking forward to your feedback!

We took a lot of food for thought, ideas, and insights from Coaching Day 2019. It was touching to see the joy of the winners of the ICF Germany Prism Award. And we were pleased about the possibilities of looking at the quality of coaching from different angles (e.g., with regard to ethics, the use of diagnostics, standardized processes, etc.). Next year we will be there again, and we are looking forward to it.

Are you already Hogan Certified but want to further hone your interpretation or feedback skills? Hogan has you covered.

Earlier this year, Hogan expanded its Global Learning offerings to include the Hogan Advanced Interpretation Workshop and the Hogan Advanced Feedback Workshop. Both workshops were introduced because of popular demand based on survey results from newly Hogan Certified users.

The one-day Hogan Advanced Interpretation Workshop was designed for practitioners looking to gain deeper interpretive insights from Hogan Assessment data. This course teaches professionals to:

• Connect Hogan data points across scales and assessments for more robust interpretations
• Extract maximum value from subscales
• Learn advanced interpretation techniques around low HDS and low MVPI scores

Skills acquired in this applied workshop prepare attendees to analyze Hogan data at a deeper level.

The one-day Hogan Advanced Feedback Workshop was designed for practitioners who wish to receive more extensive instruction and practice delivering effective Hogan feedback. This course teaches professionals to:

• Deliver Hogan feedback within a cohesive frame
• Apply best practices for Hogan feedback delivery
• Troubleshoot common issues, such as resistance to feedback
• Connect assessment results to job context
• Create developmental action plans

Skills acquired in this experiential workshop prepares participants to deliver high-impact Hogan feedback.

The remaining Hogan Advanced Interpretation Workshops in the US in 2019 include:

• Minneapolis, MN – September 12
• Portland, OR – September 19
• Washington, DC – September 26
• Chicago, IL – October 24
• Dallas, TX – November 14
• Atlanta, GA – December 5
• Portland, OR – December 5

The remaining Hogan Advanced Feedback Workshops in the US in 2019 include:

• Minneapolis, MN – September 12
• Washington, DC – September 26
• Chicago, IL – October 24
• Dallas, TX – November 14
• Atlanta, GA – December 5

For those who are not Hogan Certified, two-day Hogan Assessment Certification Workshops will be held during the two days prior to each advanced workshop in all host cities. Each of the two, one-day advanced workshops are also available upon request for those who have previously completed the Hogan Assessment Certification Workshop. Hogan Certified users can email training@hoganassessments.com to register for an advanced workshop separately.

For more information, visit www.hogancertification.com.

Hogan distributor, RELEVANT Management Consulting, has partnered with the International Coach Federation Germany chapter to present the inaugural German Prism Award, awarded to companies making a difference in the coaching community through professionalism, quality, and data.

The selection process and criteria were modeled after ICF’s International Prism Award, which has been granted annually since 2005 to companies that stand out through the establishment of a coaching culture with extraordinary results in difficult change processes. Past winners of this prestigious award include Coca Cola, SAP, Airbus, and several other prominent companies.

“Partnering with the ICF to present the first German Prism Award was a perfect opportunity for us,” says RELEVANT owner, Dr. René Kusch. “At RELEVANT, we are fully committed to advancing the coaching profession, and this award is symbolic of that commitment.”

Those nominated are coaching programs that have innovative concepts and/or have made a significant contribution to achieving important corporate goals. The award will be presented on November 16 during ICF Germany’s Coaching Day in Munich, and applications will be accepted through October 14.

“We look forward to a long and prosperous relationship with ICF Germany for many years to come,” says Kusch. “The ICF is the world’s premier coaching organization, and it is an honor to be involved in the early stages of something we believe will be a high-profile distinction for German coaching programs in the future.”

With four and a half months left in the year, you still have time to get Hogan Certified in the US in 2018. Hogan’s certification and learning programs will equip you to leverage Hogan’s powerful assessment tools to solve critical business problems. Whether you want to select high performers, develop your high potentials, coach executives, or build stronger teams, the first step is to become Hogan Certified.

Hogan offers both Level 1 and Level 2 Workshops.

The 2-day Level 1 Workshop provides and in-depth understanding of how to use and interpret the Hogan Assessment Suite, offering a comprehensive tutorial of three Hogan inventories – Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI); Hogan Development Survey (HDS); and the Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI). Participants attending both days and successfully completing the Level 1 curriculum will be certified to use and interpret the Hogan inventories.

The 1-day Level 2 Workshop prepares the learner to apply more advanced feedback models, properly set the frame for a Hogan feedback session, create developmental action plans, and understand best practices for presenting Hogan data.

Insights acquired during Level 1 and Level 2 Workshops will challenge and change the way you think about human nature, leadership, and performance. Outlined below is a detailed schedule of all remaining Hogan Certification Workshops across the US in 2018:

Level 1 Workshops

Chicago, IL – August 28-29

Minneapolis, MN – September 18-19

Atlanta, GA – October 2-3

Chicago, IL – October 16-17

Washington, DC – October 23-24

Tulsa, OK – November 6-7

San Antonio, TX – November 8-9

Boston, MA – December 4-5

Portland, OR – December 4-5

Atlanta, GA – December 11-12

Level 2 Workshops

Minneapolis, MN – September 20

Portland, OR – September 20

Atlanta, GA – October 4

Tulsa, OK – November 8

Portland, OR – December 6

Atlanta, GA – December 13

Register for a workshop today at www.hogancertification.com.

*This interview was originally published in Business Class Magazin – this is the translation of the Hungarian text. The original version can be found here.

We met Dr. Robert Hogan at the Four Seasons Budapest. He is an American psychologist and the founder of Hogan Assessments who has institutionalized the use of personality assessments for the enhancement of work performance, and whose organization serves more than half of the Fortune 500 companies. He visited Budapest for the “Future of Coaching in Organisations” international conference organized in April, and he took some time to meet us for a glass of Chardonnay.

Please summarize briefly the principles and main elements of the personality test which you have developed, and which is used so widely in the business world.

People who have power make decisions every day that affect those who have less power. They hire, promote or fire them. These decisions are usually based on work interviews with them, but this is the worst possible way to make a decision that has such an effect on a person’s life. My aim was to make employee evaluations – firings, promotions, hiring interviews – that is, the whole decision-making process – rational and empirical. So, I based it on defensible, scientific foundations. Over the years, we have built up a serious database – based on this we can demonstrate that if business leaders listen to us, they will make better decisions regarding their employees. And why is this important? The keys to success in business are money and people. Managers generally make rational decisions when comes to money, so why wouldn’t they want to make rational decisions when it comes to people?

Do you think it’s important for a good leader to have psychological or coaching experience?

It’s a good question. My views are based on scientific research and data. These data show that good leaders need to possess four attributes. They have to be honest – it’s important that they have a moral compass, so you don’t end up with liars, thieves or frauds. They shouldn’t make duplicitous decisions behind the backs of others. If they are not honest, then they will fail. For example, Bill Clinton was a liar, that’s why nobody was loyal to him in his government. The second requirement is to be competent – they have to know what to do and how they should do it. If you are always the boss, people turn to you for advice. If you don’t know what you are talking about, then you can’t give good advice, which has immediate consequences. For example, Barack Obama never led anything, he wasn’t ever the boss of anything, and so he failed.

Do you think he failed?

Yes, I think so, namely because he didn’t know what he was doing.

He was elected twice.

The reason behind this is the quality of his rivals. Many people don’t like Donald Trump, but what was the alternative?

Honesty and competence. Which other attributes are necessary?

The third is whether you are capable of making good decisions, or if you made a mistake, to admit it and fix it. Evidence shows that 50 percent of business decisions are bad. So you can’t always arrive at good decisions. The key to good judgement is to realize if you’ve made a bad decision, and to be able to fix it. Let me mention one more politician as an example, George W. Bush and the invasion of Iraq – which was a bad idea. Then, Bush raised the stakes and he didn’t leave the area. Bad decisions ruin the organisation, whether it’s a corporation or a political body. In the end, it’s important whether you have vision, whether you can explain why you are doing what you are doing, or what your objective is from which others can set their own. These are the four indispensable tools of a leader. Things like having to be kind to others are not among these. Meanwhile, I think a good leader has to be humble as well; he or she has to listen to the opinions of others. It’s important for him or her to be open, and it’s just as important that when he or she delegates a task to someone, he or she has confidence in that person. At the same time, a good leader is also a good manipulator – it doesn’t necessarily mean that he or she has to understand people, he or she just has to persuade them to follow him or her. To bring up another presidential example: although Ronald Reagan was an excellent manipulator, he couldn’t be truly appreciated because all his other attributes were imperfect.

They were politicians?

Exactly.

Aren’t business and political attitudes different? Don’t they require different skills and capabilities?

There are solid arguments which prove that really successful executives are humble and listen to their employees. They listen to feedback. They trust their people and they build teams. This is why Barack Obama failed – he never built a team, never talked to anyone, just sat in his office alone. You have to be able to build a team.

I suppose that you are aware of the highly successful series, “House of Cards” – what is your opinion of Frank Underwood; what kind of leader is the president in that series?

I liked the British version more. The BBC version was top-notch. Frank Underwood is a real leader. Politics are about this, people like him can collect votes, but then what will they add to the whole when they get to the top? I think this is a problem in the business world too: that in the end politicians rise above executives, but they are not experts in anything apart from getting themselves elected. Even campaign slogans are about this: for being able to make a change, they have to be elected first, but what do they actually do after having been elected? They try to remain in power, and for this they just say to the people whatever they want to hear. And this is just a kind of entertainment, nothing more. At the same time, as a corporate leader you have to do something to bring about change, you have to achieve something. An army general or the coach of an athletic team has to achieve victory; it’s not enough for him or her to be popular.

What caused you turn your attention towards the business sphere after leaving university, as a practicing psychologist?

I have always been interested in leadership and the business world. During my university years during the ‘60s and ‘70s, the general view among academics was that the personality of the leader is unimportant. If business was successful, they owed it to luck, not the personality of the leader. But I have never believed this. I had been practicing as an academic for a long time, and when I finally received my pay check, I started asking myself about the way ahead. Academic salaries are poor, and I didn’t want to live this way; I had to make money somehow. I knew that I was good at psychological evaluations, and that maybe I could profit from this, so I tried to make money from my interest, that is, from studying leaders.

It wasn’t easy to shape the way of thinking, you have been attacked by many.

I have proven with my team that managerial attitude is indeed important. In the 1990s, we proved, scientifically and supported by data, that the role of personality is fundamental in how people perform in the workplace. Then in the beginning of the 2000s we proved that leadership characteristics are also determinants in leading a company to success. And in the middle of the 2000s I published that personality characteristics determine corporate results. It turned out that the successful operation of an organization depends on the formation of personal relationships within the organization. We have proven that if companies listen to us with these questions, they will earn more money, because they will hire more effective people for the corresponding positions.

Which skills do you think helped you to become so successful in your field?

First of all, our team has worked very hard. We do very high-quality work, and we pay attention to what our customers want. We have found the way to promote what we know. One has to work very hard; 90 percent of ventures go bust.  At first,we have had both good and difficult moments, but when you get that first big client, everything comes together immediately. In our case, this big client was the government. We received an order from the American government.

Hogan European Summit

April is a hectic time of the year for the crew at Hogan Assessments, and this year was no different. In fact, our staff was widely represented in both the US and Europe during a week full of events.

The week began with a group of Hogan representatives traveling to Budapest, Hungary to attend the Hogan European Summit, which was organized by Hogan’s Managing Director of Europe, Zsolt Feher.

Held at the famous Gerbeaud Café in historic downtown Budapest, the event aimed to foster collaboration among our European distributors to facilitate growth across the continent and enhance Hogan’s brand visibility.

Dr. Hogan delivered the opening keynote address to set the tone for the Summit, which was followed by discussions regarding EU PR and marketing strategy by MITTE Communications, 360 and Global Talent Survey updates by Peter Berry Consultancy, an interactive strategy session, and product updates.

Hogan CEO Scott Gregory discussed absentee leadership on day two. This is a relatively new topic in the industry, and was thoroughly covered by Scott in an article he wrote for Harvard Business Review. The keynote was followed by sessions covering strategy for selection research and presentation, a General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) update, distributor case study presentations, a Q&A session with Hogan Leadership, and an afternoon of sightseeing in Budapest.

We’re truly honored to have such a strong network of European distributors, and we look forward to future opportunities to bring everyone together in an effort to boost Hogan’s global presence.

ICF “Future of Coaching in Organisations” Conference

Several members of the Hogan team remained in Budapest for the International Coach Federation’s “Future of Coaching in Organisations” Conference held at the Akvárium Klub. The event, featuring Hogan as the primary sponsor, aimed to bring the future of coaching into focus, and identified which new trends, technologies, and tools will determine organizational development and coaching.

The event featured several world-renowned coaches, and included presentations from Hogan’s Dustin Hunter and Zsolt Feher, as well as a keynote address by Dr. Hogan on “Coaching the Uncoachable.” Overall, the event was a huge success, and offered Hogan Assessments the unique opportunity to develop an even stronger rapport with the international coaching community and the European market. On behalf of the team at Hogan Assessments, we would like to thank our friends at ICF for such an incredible experience.

Hogan Completes 10^th Consecutive Year as SIOP Platinum Sponsor 

Every year, Hogan Assessments is one of the most visible organizations at the annual Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) Conference, and this year’s event in Chicago was no different.

Celebrating the 10^th consecutive year as the Platinum Sponsor, the team at Hogan was strongly represented with 20 accepted submissions, again making Hogan one of the top non-academic organizations with the number of speakers featured on symposia, panel discussions, and posters.

Hogan staff members across all departments put in hundreds of hours of work in the weeks and months leading up to the conference to ensure Hogan is positioned as the premier organization in attendance. We would like to thank all of them for their hard work and dedication to making this year a huge success.

We would also like to thank everyone who was able to attend the annual University of Tulsa Wine Reception. When Bob and Joyce Hogan founded the TU I-O Psychology program decades ago, they had no idea it would develop such a strong pipeline of prestigious psychologists from future generations, including Hogan’s new CEO, Dr. Scott Gregory. Being able to connect with TU alumni at SIOP on an annual basis during this reception is a tremendous honor.

In closing, we would like to congratulate Sara Weston, who was the lucky recipient of the Apple Watch we gave away at the conference for posting a photo of the Hogan booth. The campaign was a lot of fun for everyone involved and, although only one person got a watch, Hogan donated $5 the ASPCA for every entry. So, your entry helped support a fantastic cause!

*This article was written by Rob Field, Learning and Development Director at Advanced People Strategies.

Leadership is the most important single factor determining success in business. At Hogan, we believe good leaders are those who are able to build and maintain high performing teams. At Blue Coach, Srdjan Vukcevic, the company’s founder and CEO, has been able to do that and so much more.

In addition to assembling a team that has positioned Blue Coach as Montenegro’s premier firm in delivering executive coaching, management consulting, and assessment-based solutions, Srdjan and his team have the opportunity to help others do that same at their organizations. As the Chinese proverb says: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” 

In the first edition of the Distributor Spotlight Series for 2018, Srdjan provides a breakdown of the services Blue Coach offers, and how combining his team’s expertise with Hogan’s assessments has made a significant impact across a variety of industries and organizations.

Blue Coach’s vision is to be the best we can be, to continue to learn and grow for the sake of our company, clients, and community, and eventually become a widely recognized brand in the HR and leadership development industry. We appreciate our clients and partners and the confidence they have placed and continue to place in us. We strive to excel in our industry by being as scientific and professional as we can be. Our focus on customer service and customer experience is something we are very proud of.

Blue Coach is known as the pioneer of the executive coaching industry in Montenegro and the Adriatic – SEE region. For the past 10 years, we have been working with executives, business owners, and their teams in order to measurably/significantly improve their leadership and organizational effectiveness. Our client list includes multi-national corporations covering a wide range of industries and over 100 privately owned companies. Since 2014, we have been an official distributor of Hogan Assessments and, even though we started our company in 2008, we feel the real growth of our business started in 2014 when we partnered with Hogan.

We love Hogan. Period. It influences our business decisions, our life decisions, and we feel completely fulfilled with the work we are all doing together. Its powerful insights into human nature and how that translates into the real world of business, leadership, and performance is outstanding. All of our coaches and consultants rely heavily on Hogan to assess, decide about leadership areas for improvement, and for conducting our executive coaching sessions and programs. We know how to coach and with Hogan we know better what to coach and how to coach it for the sake of the company and for the leader being coached.

As in sports, coaching is never about bringing out positive aspects. Athletes are used to constant day-to-day feedback about their performance. Also, everything is immediately visible in sports and feedback is necessary for skilled performance. Only the best can survive the feedback and play.

Why is this different in organizations? There are at least two reasons: time and visibility – results are not immediate and publicly visible like they are in sports. This gives space for troubadours to move up the ladder, to hide, and play politics instead of achieving results. All the Hogan science talks clearly about this and that is why we at Blue Coach can connect to this and find it in our business practice. Better yet – with Hogan we can see how likely it is for this to happen.

Successful people know what they are good at. They need a real life sparring partner to fine-tune their leadership behavior and bring to the surface the negative, the shortcomings, the derailers, and the overused strengths. Coaching is also about acting as a behavioral conscience for the leader. That means that you know what they are doing wrong and that you are consistent in getting them back on performance track – either by addressing the delusions or by clearing up for the natural way of constant feedback to flow from the team and to the team.

Blue Coach also works with sports coaches and athletes to develop effective inter/intrapersonal strategies and to achieve better results. Similar to common leadership development initiatives, Blue Coach helps coaches and athletes become strategically self-aware of how others perceive them. With this information, they can see a clear path to develop both personally and professionally.

The Hogan research team and Blue Coach together explored personality in sports context. Namely, with the collaborative support of the Montenegrin Olympic Committee, our research on sports performance and observations of team success (or lack of it) shows clear evidence of the influential role of personality in individual performance and social team interactions. Great athletes look alike and great coaches look alike as well.

We believe that great athletes and successful coaches, as well as great leaders, never accept that they have achieved the ultimate success, and therefore are always working to get better. As Dragan Adzic, a two-time consecutive World Handball Coach of the Year says, “…respect what you have already achieved, and do your best to achieve even more.”

Let’s talk and work!

info@bluecoach.me

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.