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    You are here Home » executive development

    How to Expand Your Leadership Capacity

    Last updated on Dec 13, 2012 by Dan McCarthy · This post may contain affiliate links

    Guest post By Brian Gast:


    What’s your leadership capacity? I was 35 and the CEO of one
    of the fastest growing telecom companies in the US. I had created $400 million
    in value from an idea, was managing a 1,500 person company that everyone wanted
    to work for and a public company that was a darling of Wall Street.

    Then things got tough. Competition increased and my patience
    with my team decreased. I began to avoid real problems and became isolated from
    my board. I didn’t know it at the time but my capacity to lead was a lot lower
    than I thought. It took getting fired to wake up and realize that I was not
    going to sustain effective leadership by relying on an MBA and my natural
    talent.

    Anyone can stay calm and communicate clearly when things are
    going well. How do you respond when you have to have difficult conversations
    with a person who thinks very differently than you do? How about working for an
    unsupportive boss or inspiring the troops when slumping profits show no sign of
    improving? Such conditions test your leadership capacity. Is your capacity
    where you want it to be?

    Leadership capacity is a way to measure a leader’s ability
    to be effective in a wide variety of situations and conditions. The greater
    your ability to access the appropriate behavior at the appropriate time, the
    greater your leadership capacity.

    Executive Development
    and the Quadrant Model

    Consider this four quadrant model as a tool to assess and
    increase leadership capacity. Let’s start with a brief description of each
    quadrant.

    Acting:           This quadrant houses your
    ability to get things done, to deal with hard facts, to enforce boundaries, and
    to make and keep agreements.

    Thinking:
          This quadrant helps us
    analyze, maintain objectivity, see patterns, and reflect on options and
    possibilities.

    Feeling:
            This is where we find our
    Emotional Intelligence, our ability to connect with others, to have empathy, to
    maturely express our emotions, and to understand the affect our relationships
    have on our lives.

    Being:            This quadrant is the home of
    our Executive Presence, that intangible vibe we bring when we enter a room. It’s
    also where we access our vision and our ability to see the big picture, ask for
    what we want, observe contradictions and inconsistencies, and express gratitude
    and praise.

    Each quadrant has a mature or healthy state and each has
    “shadow” sides. The shadows reflect either too much or too little of the
    qualities of a quadrant. For example, too much Thinking energy can result in
    Analysis Paralysis or being a manipulator. Too little Feeling quadrant capacity
    and you become numb, stoic or distant.

    Your Success Becomes
    Your Undoing

    Successful leaders get bigger jobs because they’re strong in
    the Acting (working hard and strong) and the Thinking (high IQ and good
    political instincts) quadrants. Most leaders derail later in their careers for
    the same reason. They either overuse these two quadrants or they neglect
    developing their presence, emotional maturity or interpersonal skills.

    Another limitation to potential is a leader’s inability to
    move from one quadrant to another when events warrant different skills or a
    different way of being. I see this when a leader is convinced that his team
    needs to work harder when actually it is in desperate need of support, inspiration
    and a vision.

    Not only are single or double quadrant leaders lacking in
    leadership capacity they are often lacking in the area of personal fulfillment.
    They may lack the ability to affirm and support themselves internally or to
    believe in themselves enough to set healthy boundaries around how much they
    work. This means discontent at home gets brought to work and vice versa.

    Know Thy Bubble, Know
    Thyself

    I describe the four quadrants and their shadows in my book The Business of Wanting More: Why Some Executives
    Move from Success to Fulfillment and Others Don’t
    . The book also talks
    about how we come about our shadows. We live encased in a Bubble that distorts
    the way we see ourselves and the world. Our Bubble is filled with limiting beliefs.
    Executive development is the process of understanding this Bubble, the blind
    spots it creates, and examining the beliefs that drive our behavior.

    How to Increase Your
    Leadership Capacity

    The first step in increasing leadership capacity is to take
    an inventory of where you are on the Quadrant Map. In which quadrant are you
    strong and balanced? What are your shadow behaviors? Do you avoid conflict? Lose
    your temper? Show off? If you aren’t sure, ask someone you know who will tell
    you the truth. Ask that person, “In which of these four areas do you see that I
    have a blind spot, a persistent (not necessarily frequent) behavior that gets
    in the way of my effectiveness as a leader?”

    The next step is to create a vision for becoming a Four
    Quadrant Leader. Write down what that looks like and begin to create a roadmap
    to get from where you are to where you want to be. I notice that leaders who do
    this kind of planning begin to build their own Court of Support, a circle of
    peers and coaches that will challenge them to grow.

    Maybe it’s time to invest in expanding your executive
    capacity. You will not only experience benefits in your career and business but
    also in your relationships and level of personal fulfillment.

    Brian Gast is an executive coach, top team alignment expert,
    author, and speaker. He is the author of the book The Business of Wanting More: Why Some Executives Move from Success to
    Fulfillment and Others Don’t (released October 2012)
    . You can reach Brian
    at 303.707.1340,
    brian@briangast.com
    or
    www.briangast.com.

    « Are You Managing Penguins or Polar Bears?
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