Today’s executives frequently feel the far reaching impacts of both effective and ineffective leaders within their organizations. With rapidly changing requirements even good performers and high potentials can find themselves struggling with the demands of their roles. Both individual leaders and their organizations have a role to play in preventing sources of the most common problems.

Key derailment factors most often cited are:

• Difficulty adapting or changing.
• Lack of core interpersonal skills.
• Failure to build and lead a team.
• Having a functional perspective that is too narrow.
• Lack of adequate focus on results.
• Insufficient ability to conceptualize or problem solve complex issues.

An organization that provides its upward moving leaders with the right set of broad experiences, targeted feedback and mentoring can often prevent these issues all together. However, in some cases the right solution means finding a role that is more compatible with the leader’s core strengths.

‍

At the first signs of derailment, early intervention requires engaging both the individual leader and those with a vested interest in his/her success. While each situation has its own unique requirements a typical coaching process often includes.

• Initiating customized surveys from stakeholders (360 feedback).
• Assessment of key strengths, motivators, capabilities and development needs.
• Establishing goals, learning objectives and measures of progress.
• Creating a development plan involving action learning experiences, regular feedback and mentoring partners.
• Implementing targeted coaching with a realistic timeline for improvement.