How to Manage Your Derailers So You Stay on Track

Consider these two statistics: (1) Thirty-nine percent of employees leave their jobs due to dissatisfaction with management; and (2) Managers account for roughly 75 percent of the variation in organizational climate. It doesn’t take long to realize that any leadership derailers you may have –any deep-rooted aspects of personality that can derail your performance as a manager, such as arrogance, melodrama, volatility, habitual distrust, and aloofness – can have a demoralizing, performance-sapping effect on your sales team that results in frequent turnover. And while many leaders understand this issue intellectually, they find that addressing the problem is a whole lot easier said than done.

“We coach people to understand, accept, and manage their derailers, but the only way you get ahead in many company cultures is by denying your derailers,” observe David Dotlich, Peter Cairo, and Stephen Rhinesmith, all of Mercer Delta Executive Learning Center and authors of Head, Heart & Guts: How the World’s Best Companies Develop Complete Leaders (Jossey-Bass, 2006). “This paradox presents a challenge for leaders, who often recognize that they have certain traits that tend to get them in trouble but who know that confessing to these weaknesses will forever be held, or even used against them.”
So what can you do if openly acknowledging your weaknesses is not an option in your organization? Dotlich, Cairo, and Rhinesmith offer these three methods for starting to get your derailers under control:

1. Focus attention on the private moment of self-doubt. The first step to managing a derailer is to see it for what it is – an ingrained pattern of behavior that often surfaces under stress. And to see it for what it is, you must pay attention to those private moments of self-doubt – those episodesof anxiety you get at night when you start wondering, for instance, whether your overly-cautious behaviors are hurting rather than helping the company. Typically, the anxiety fades with the first light of day and disappears entirely when you return to your routine. But that self-doubt warrants focus and reflection, say the authors.

2. Identify the pattern. People often rationalize their failure-inducing behaviors by telling themselves it was the result of circumstance. You lost your temper because the negotiation was tense, or you agreed to something you knew was wrong because the customer was particularly demanding. “Cognitively, they may grasp that their behavior was counterproductive, but they don’t see any need to change,” say the authors. “It is only when they glimpse this behavior as part of a pattern over which they have some control that they take notice.” So how do you do this? Take some time to identify the derailing behavior and how it was repeated in situations A, B, and C. Explore why you reacted the way you did and consider how your derailer limited your options. When leaders realize, through this kind of reflection, that they are “locked into one type of response because of their derailer, they are justifiably alarmed. This alarm often prompts the type of reflection and awareness that help them learn to manage their derailers,” point out Dotlich, Cairo, and Rhinesmith.

3. Present evidence linking the derailer to a negative work outcome. Often, business leaders will get through the first two steps – identifying and accepting their derailer and identifying the pattern that triggers it – but then they convince themselves that the derailer doesn’t affect their productivity. They may tell themselves that their mood swings are part of their charismatic leadership style and their sudden enthusiasms and tirades are necessary to keep their sales team on their toes. Or that their perfectionism ensured a big business deal went through without a hitch. It is only when leaders grasp that their perfectionism also resulted in four lost business opportunities in five years that they’re willing to take derailers to heart. Take a hard, careful look at your sales team. Are they leaving in unusually high numbers? Do they withhold bad news or present it reluctantly for fear of triggering your anger? Are key customers leaving because of your habitual distrust? Your recognition of how your derailers affect your work performance will be the catalyst for change.

No leader can present him/herself as weak or self-doubting, but if you refuse to face and manage your derailers, you will hurt your company’s performance. On the other hand, having the guts to acknowledge and manage your derailers will lift the performance of your entire team. “We have found that admitting to not having all the answers encourages others to learn, and acknowledging weaknesses, especially those that others already perceive, actually makes leaders stronger,” say Dotlich, Cairo, and Rhinesmith.

For more information on this topic, or for coaching to help you manage your derailers, visit www.mercerdelta.com.