"It's Never Too Late to Become Who You Might Have been"   

 - George Elliot,  

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Greetings!

In my six years of coaching chief executives I have seen that many, if not most successful people continue to focus on learning more about the things they are already most knowledgeable about or even experts at, rather than studying things they know nothing about. I believe this speaks to a fundamental flaw that keeps many CEOs stuck in a rut that has a direct and negative impact on your leadership abilities.

I am not suggesting that you shouldn't continue to master the areas in life where we have talent or have demonstrated success. There is no end to what you can learn. In fact, I'm suggesting that the best way to do that is to challenge yourself to learn new things and even try things you have a high risk of failing at. I believe that it is in the situations where we fail that we can best observe things about ourselves that help us to improve.

Playing it safe and avoiding failure never produces personal growth - and rarely supports the growth of an organization. As leaders, we demand growth in our companies and that requires that we expect growth in our people. The obvious question is: how can you expect your people to push themselves to stretch if we as leaders are not demonstrating that behavior ourselves?

Marshall Goldsmith - the author of "What Got You Here Won't Get You There" - has coached the CEOs of some of the most successful and revered companies in the world. He notes that behaviors that keep successful CEOs from becoming more successful can be borne out of superstition - that some CEOs believe that their success is somehow linked to the things we have done in the past - and that continuing to do them is necessary to continued success. So like a baseball player that puts on his uniform in the same order each day in order to keep a hot hitting streak going - many CEOs operate out of a similar fear. In fact, Marshall Goldsmith suggests that "our success makes us superstitious."

From a psychological perspective, as noted in Goldsmith's book, "superstitious behavior comes from the mistaken belief that a specific activity that is followed by positive reinforcement is actually the cause of that positive reinforcement." This was behavior widely noted by the psychologist B.F. Skinner.

Goldsmith suggests that as leaders we often have a hard time separating the behaviors and qualities that support of our success how our success has occurred despite from the behaviors that actually get in our way. He suggests this is one of the principles that prevent people from getting from where they are to where they want to be. The basis of superstition is fear. In this case, it may be the fear that unless we continue what may amount to utterly silly behavior - or worse, destructive behavior, the success we have found will vanish.

Four Fatal Fears that Hold Us Back 

Psychiatrist Dr. Maxie Maultsby, a pioneer in Rational Behavior Therapy identified what he called our "Four Fatal Fears" suggesting these fears have an immobilizing effect by impeding our ability to interact effectively with others and take relevant action.

(Click here to to download PDF document for a more complete outline of these fears) 

• I fear failure; therefore I NEED to succeed.
• I fear being wrong; therefore I must be right.
• I fear rejection; therefore I need to be accepted.
• I fear being emotionally uncomfortable; therefore I need to be comfortable.

These fears are just part of our natural condition as human beings. We observe these tendencies in children all the time - and it would seem that we outgrow them as we adapt to the world and grow into independent adults. But it turns out we don't really outgrow these fears, and as adults they tend be the root of many of our more troublesome social behaviors. They make us rigid or arrogant - or unable to confront poor behaviors in others. As leaders, these tendencies are particularly problematic.

I believe that "CEO-purstitions" are rooted in these four fears as well - and is the same reason we tend to stay locked and focused on what we know.

My experience working with CEOs in groups and in my one-on-one sessions has demonstrated how powerful just having awareness of these tendencies is. Invariably whenever someone is frustrated by what is obviously their own behavior, one or more of these fears is at play. Simply asking which one it is tends to unlock the grasp of that behavior. Creating awareness is the first important step in working to eliminate the behavior.

Approach the World with a Beginners Mind to expand your boundaries.

As a practice, studying and learning things we no little or nothing about not only satisfies our thirst for knowledge - but the process itself can expand our own self-awareness. Zen Buddhism speaks to the benefits of having a "beginners mind." It is an approach to learning that suggests we can only become more self actualized - and attain a higher state of consciousness when operate in a mindset that is truly open to learning. Being an expert, rather than a beginner, tends to make us filter our experiences - and restrict what we allow to enter our consciousness. More simply stated, we hear what we want to hear, learn what we already know and don't fully challenge ourselves. More than just being curious, adopting a beginners mind forces us to recognize and push through those four fatal fears.

When we become more aware the things that drive us and those things that tend to keep us stuck where we are, we have an opportunity to grow and expand our personal boundaries. As leaders this is especially critical - because the limitations of the leader tend to be the boundaries of the organization. For your organization to grow - so must you as the leader.

Just as importantly, as leaders we must demonstrate the behaviors we want within our organizations. If you want to see growth or change - you must first demonstrate your own growth and change through your own Behavior. Effective leadership is as much about knowing what you need to be as it is about knowing what to do.

This is a football.

Vince Lombardi - the legendary football coach would start each season's practice holding a ball up in front a team of professional football players. He understood that the ONLY way to help improve the skills of highly accomplished football players was to bring them back to the basics - over and over again. He saw along that with success there is a tendency to believe that the way you improve is to build onto the advanced skills that we have mastered - when in fact, in order to add to the top, you must constantly strengthen the foundation.

Perhaps it's time to look around and see where you are. If you find that you are leading from a rut - work on strengthening your own foundation. Instead of reaching up and trying to pull yourself out, try expanding your foundation by learning about something outside of your comfort zone. You may find that it's not only easier to climb out with your legs, but that you can guide others to higher ground at the same time.

As always, wishing you a great and successful week ahead.  

Philip R. Liebman

Managing Director, Strat4

Group Chair, Vistage International

PS - NOTE to CEOs -  I have room for a few guests at two powerful workshop events this month.  These are both excellent opportunities to attend a Vistage meeting, as my guest, and discover why over 14,000 CEO members worldwide gain a measurable advantage when they join.

On September 14th - Bruce Brier will present "The Organized CEO - and will demonstrate how to be much more effective at managing your time, paper, projects, email, information, technology and dealings with people. This is a must attend for anyone wanting to take back control of their lives and better manage their organizations. 

On September 27th - Robert Devine presents "Build High Performance Organzizations." As the former CEO of Hartz Mountain - Bob addresses why and how you should bring "lean" into all your operations, "mistake proof" your organization and employ self-directed teams to realize change and drive performance. This is a must-attend for anyone looking to improve the performance of their organization.