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Alone at the Business Helm

Written by: Michael Heah

Article Overview: What would you say to a newly-appointed CEO who perceives that the people in his company are rejecting his leadership? Is it a matter of giving time to them to adjust to his leadership style? Or could it be some other reason?

Alone at the Business Helm

The other day, I received an email whose contents ran as follows:

"I have been the Chief Operating Officer of this company for less than a year but I could feel the people here are rejecting my leadership. They avoid me; they are not open to me and they are unusually quiet at meetings even though I tried hard to get them to speak up. I am not sure whether it is my 'straight talk' ways they are rejecting or it is something else. Although on the sales side, things are good, the workplace environment is another thing. What is your analysis of my situation?"

And this is my take on the situation:

"It all boils down to one thing - their trust in you. Unfortunately, the trust you get from your customers in the marketplace does not automatically help you gain the trust from employees in your organization. There is less 'buffer' there. In an organization, little is forgotten, especially when you are a top leader where your visibility is very prominent. There are also more interactions in the workplace and you cannot simply back off from an employer-employee relationship whenever you want. However in a business relationship you can do so when you cannot agree to each other's terms. So find out what is truly lacking and what needs to be done to repair this 'trust'; otherwise things will slip further down."

Coaches, regardless of their coaching niches, use powerful questions to raise the client's self awareness and elicit client-generated solutions. My questions to the writer would include the following:

How connected are your people with you?

• How effective are you at this stage of the relationship?
• In your soul searching, find out what is missing in this relationship. How can you find out?
• What can you do now to repair the 'trust'?
• What will you do next?

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Article Tags: coaching niches, coaching relationship, leadership style, self awareness



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