Preventing Derailment

I was recently brought in by one of my organizational clients to work with an individual that is one of their top producers. John (alias) is regarded highly by his boss. He cannot stop praising John for consistently outperforming his performance goals. John has seen his star rise fast. He has been promoted two times in the past two years. He is now in a manager's role. John is seen by his superiors, peers and staff as intelligent, hard driving, and adept at solving problems. What no one saw before John reached his current role as a leader was his inability to adapt his behaviors from an effective "independent producer" to an effective "team producer".

 John has hit a bump in the road. John has not realized that in order to be effective in his new role requires that first he change his mindset and then his behaviors. John had to change and adapt from being:

• Autonomous to using teamwork and collaboration to accomplish results,
• Independent and working alone to working in groups and delegating authority, and
• 
  
  Overambitious and prone to anguish under stress to looking out for the welfare of his team and being composed and acting consistently.

Fortunately John's company did not give up on him. They provided John with the opportunity and support so that John had the chance to develop (without the fear that he would lose his job or be considered "undesirable for further advancement") the behaviors he needed in his role as leader.

My next several Blogs will go into further detail about the process of getting back "On Track"