No business leader needs to be told that resistance to change can be the death of a company.
Inflexibility, an unwillingness to respond to changing market conditions, and the inability to evolve and grow with the changing needs of customers can be fatal.
But the same applies to people in leadership: a failure to evolve, learn, or adapt to new circumstances can cause damaging rifts between management and employees, particularly when ego is involved.
This is the specialty of Dan Tomal, owner of Tomal Consulting based in Wheaton, IL.
“Through my leadership consulting and coaching, I’ve noticed an array of negative traits and behaviors I call ‘leadership caveat dispositions,’” he explains.
These dispositions are common across different organizations and industries, and can undermine teamwork, production, and effective decision-making.
“Some of these consist of the need for control, feeling superior, ego-centering, the need to be right, fear of rejection, a need for attention, or exhibiting an incongruent leadership style,” Tomal says.
Open-mindedness towards changing these dispositions may be hard for a leader’s ego, but it can enable entirely new possibilities and change relationships as well as the company for the better.
Shifting leaders’ personal perspectives, whether through coaching, consultation, or other means, can change the way they do business.
This is an excerpt from a feature in the September/October 2021 issue of Produce Blueprints Magazine. Click here to read the whole issue.
