7 reasons why leaders experience slow growth the career

Seven reasons why leaders experience slow growth in the career

Despite superior technical competence, leaders sometimes experience slow growth. Most leaders generally grow very fast up until middle to senior middle level and then post that hit the ceiling.
At this stage, they feel very suffocated, their performance dips, and the job loses its charm. One can call it a typical mid-life crisis.

There are seven most common reasons for it:

1. Lack of executive presence: Executive presence essentially refers to what people are talking about you when you are not in the room. One of the main reasons why the growth of the leaders slows down after reaching a certain point is a lack of a powerful executive presence. A leader with a powerful executive presence can build long-term trust-based relationships. They have a charismatic persona and can lead and influence people towards a common beneficial goal.

2. Belief system: Another reason is that sometimes they consider good relationships with seniors as buttering. It is a form of a limiting belief. Having a good relationship with senior leaders does not mean buttering. One can have a good relationship with seniors based on mutual respect and appreciation for their skills, contribution, and experience.
However, these leaders fail to recognize that due to the limiting beliefs. This leads them to live a self-created isolated shell.

3. Do not network well across the organization: When the leaders do not network well and are only active within the department, their visibility and impact reduce. It comes in their growth as they are hardly known beyond their department. ‘
It is essential for leaders to consciously develop networking skills and interact with people across various departments.

4. Lack of bigger picture view: Leaders often get too focused on the immediate task and lack the big picture view. It makes them feel like they are performing, but since it does not tie in with the organizational vision, their efforts fail to create their desired impact. Due to this, in the various high-stakes meetings, they come across as someone with a very micro perspective. Hence perceptions are built about them, resulting in the loss of opportunities and higher roles.

5. Association with not-so-productive and positive companies: There are a lot of people in organizations who are infamous for engaging in corporate politics and gossiping. As the saying goes, you are a sum total of 5 people you closely interact with; we end up getting influenced by the thinking and energy of our office friends.
This impacts their image in front of the stakeholders and affects their overall charisma and energy. They fail to come across as potentially strong leaders, and hence it impacts their growth

6. Lot of activity, less action: Another reason that keeps leaders stuck after a point is when they are busy with a lot of activity but lack any concrete action. Being actionable is all about doing productive activities that get the desired results. It requires us to perform quality actions.
For example, one may be having meetings after meetings with stakeholders, but it may all be futile without any desired outcome.

7. Lack of objectivity and emotional intelligence: Low Emotional intelligence leads to frequent conflicts at work. It Results in drained out of energy and a waste of time. It also impacts the relationship with peers and other stakeholders. When leaders lack an objective outlook and emotional intelligence, they get involved in controversies that reduce their overall impact on others.
It impacts their growth.

How executive coaching gives impetus to a leader’s growth?
At a juncture like this, when a leader feels that they are not getting ahead in their career at a pace that they would like to, executive coaching leads to a lot of clarity.
It helps them become aware of their blind spots.
They become aware of their inner genius. A coach becomes like Jambawant in the story of Ramayana, who reminded Sri Hanumanji about his ability to fly and reach Lanka to find Seetaji. In the same way, an executive coach helps leaders get in touch with their inner genius.
The Coach helps them rediscover their greatness.
Executive coaching or leadership coaching is very common in the west. Now it is fast catching up in the Indian subcontinent as well.
It expedites the journey towards success for leaders.

How can an executive coach help the leaders?

Leaders often need a friend they can trust, share, and discuss their challenges. An executive coach is like a non-judgmental friend and asks powerful questions, which leads to greater clarity for the leaders.
An executive coach acts as a mirror for the leaders, in which they can see their genius, and he is more like a blank canvas where they can paint the picture of their vision and make it happen.

The first step towards one’s growth story starts with a conscious decision to invest in self-growth.