Coachfederation.org/ICFGlobal2012
Executive Personality Lens…
For VUCA challenges
Dorothy E. Siminovitch, Ph.D., MCC
(Canada/Turkey/USA)
Coachfederation.org/ICFGlobal2012
Coachfederation.org/ICFGlobal2012
Slide 2
VUCA: The New Normal
V: Volatility

U: Unpredictability 
Vision
Understanding
C: Complexity

Clarity
A: Ambiguity

Practices
Coachfederation.org/ICFGlobal2012
Slide 3
S.c.a.r.f (David Rock)
Neuroscience: Track threats to…
S
Status
C
Certainty
A
Achievement
R
Relatedness
F
Fairness
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Slide 4
Brain is wired to track
threats…amygdala
gets hijacked.
Executive-Leadership Coaching
• A “safe-emergency” place for the
vulnerability to explore and develop.
• Clinical body of knowledge has been
“disowned cousin” to coaching practice
…how do we “use” it?
• Raise awareness of “Choice” vs. “Coping”.
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Slide 5
Dilemma of Excellence
• Jim Collins’s Good to Great “L5 Leaders“
• The “normative leadership challenges"
are the talented but non-L5.
• How do “we” recognize talented
but flawed and serve them?
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Slide 6
Coaching = Perspective + Choices
• Nature versus nurture?
• How to see the rationale for irrational
behavior
• Emotional Intelligence-errors or omissions.
• Choice versus coping.
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Slide 7
Personality
“A typical, habitual way of reading the
environment and responding…”
Michael Maccoby
Productive Narcissist
Coaching Question:
"trait” versus “state”.
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Slide 8
Leader Effectiveness
The Big Five Characteristics tend to predict effectiveness:
1. Openness to Experience
2. Extraversion
3. Agreeableness
4. Conscientiousness
5. Emotional Stability
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Slide 9
Symptoms
Executive/ Signs
Symptoms
Derailment:
… o of Executive
Symptoms
Derailment
/ Signs
• Insensitivity (abrasive, intimidating, bullying)
• Being cold, aloof, or arrogant
• Betrayal of trust
• Over-managing / failure to delegate
• Overly ambitious
• Failure to staff effectively
• Unable to adapt to a boss with a different style
• Over-dependent upon an advocate or a mentor
• Having an “overriding personality defect”
Coachfederation.org/ICFGlobal2012
Slide 10
VUCA – SCARF induced habits … or central part of their personality?
“People create their own glass ceilings, limiting their success and their
contributions to the company. At worst, these otherwise highly
competent and valuable people destroy their own careers."
(Waldroop & Butler, 2001)
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Slide 11
Inability to understand
the world from the
perspective of others…
a lack of empathy.
Failure to recognize
when and how to
use power.
Root Cause
Failure to come to
terms with authority.
Coachfederation.org/ICFGlobal2012
Slide 12
Negative self image.
Lore: Is this client coachable?
Coachability
Characteristics
C0: Not coachable
Psychological/medical problems
C1: Extremely low
Narcissistic personality -- strongly independent …
{perfectionistic “OCD”}
C2: Very low
Resists or deflects feedback, explains away issues.
Negative to coaching process
C3: Fair
Complacent & unmotivated towards change
C4: Good
Assessment comes as a wake-up call
C5: Very good
Accepts feedback & has deep desire to improve
C6: Excellent
Has intrinsic need to grow, lifelong learner, selfdirected & realistic sense of self
Coachfederation.org/ICFGlobal2012
Slide 13
… not the L5 leader of Collins’ “Good to Great” research
Today's business leaders maintain a markedly higher profile than did
their predecessors of previous generations. A growing need for
visionary and charismatic leadership has brought to the fore
executives of a personality type psychologists call 'narcissistic'.
(Michael Maccoby, The Productive Narcissist)
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Slide 14
Difficult Leaders
The Perfectionist
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The “Dynamic” Leader
Slide 15
Here’s looking at
me, kid …
“A Narcissist is
someone who’s better
looking than you are.”
Gore Vidal
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Slide 16
The Dynamic Leader
• Energy and vision
Question:
What are the
strengths of
the Dynamic
Leader?
• Self-confidence & creativity
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• Positive contagion-resonance
• Mobilizing energy that aligns
toward the vision
• Contributes a motivation to
excellence (Kets de Vries)
Slide 17
Shadows of the “Destructive Narcissist”
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Not listening.
Oversensitivity to criticism -- not interested in feedback.
Tend to evade rule but tendency toward paranoia.
Overly competitive and controlling.
Isolation and grandiosity.
Anger and put downs.
Exaggeration, manipulation and lying.
Lack knowledge of impact on others.
Lose sense of reality due to need for positive mirroring -Emperor’s Clothes.
Coachfederation.org/ICFGlobal2012
Slide 18
"Master of The Universe"
Jean Marie Messier
CEO, Vivendi
Nicknamed 'J6M'…
Jean Marie Messier, moimeme, maitre du monde
… resigned 2002.
Coachfederation.org/ICFGlobal2012
Slide 19
Lies – Then Admits to Everything
John Edwards
Former Senator, North Carolina
“Over the course of several
campaigns, I started to
believe that I was special
and became increasingly
egocentric and narcissistic.”
Coachfederation.org/ICFGlobal2012
Slide 20
"I’d like my life back."
Tony Hayward
CEO, BP
Tenure ended in
2010 due in large part
to the circumstances
of the Deepwater
Horizon oil spill.
Coachfederation.org/ICFGlobal2012
Slide 21
The man who could have been President!
Dominque Strauss Kahn
10th Managing Director of the
International Monetary Fund
Resigned after
allegations of “familiar”
misconduct, 2011.
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Slide 22
Protection: Embedded Enablement
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Slide 23
Failed Leadership
Conrad Black
CEO, Hollinger International
Sentenced to prison
for fraud in 2007.
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Slide 24
"…one big lie"
Bernie Madoff
Founder & CEO,
Bernard L. Madoff
Investment Securities LLC
65 billion ponzi scheme.
In prison for life.
Coachfederation.org/ICFGlobal2012
Slide 25
Shadows of the “Destructive Narcissist”
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Not listening.
Oversensitivity to criticism -- not interested in feedback.
Tend to evade rule but tendency toward paranoia.
Overly competitive and controlling.
Isolation and grandiosity.
Anger and put downs.
Exaggeration, manipulation and lying.
Lack knowledge of impact on others.
Lose sense of reality due to need for positive mirroring -Emperor’s Clothes.
Coachfederation.org/ICFGlobal2012
Slide 26
Quick Exercise
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Slide 27
Corporate Artist
Do you really want
to be like Steve Jobs?
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Slide 28
The Perfectionist
Leader
Question:
What is the
balance of
productivity
vs. negative
cost?
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1. How do we recognize?
2. Major preoccupations:
• Control: Self-others-"it"
• Order
• Perfection
3. Sources of strengths and
contributions.
Slide 29
Useful Perfectionism
• Fredrick Taylor & “Taylorism”
• Professions where “error free” is valued
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Pilots & Air Traffic Controllers
Surgeons/Dentists
Copy Editors
Quality Evaluators
Financial experts
Engineers (Design/Construction)
Coachfederation.org/ICFGlobal2012
Slide 30
Strengths and Dilemmas of Perfectionism
The strengths and burdens
of the successful but
punishing perfectionist.…
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Slide 31
Sacrifice and Devotion…
2 Days
after
resignation
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Slide 32
What goes wrong?
1. Perspective often gets lost.
2. Focus on control, order and perfection make it
hard to:
•
•
•
•
•
Empower others and delegate/make decisions
“Matter attached” vs. “People attached”
See the big picture
Tolerate deviations from expectations
Rigid and risk intolerant
Coachfederation.org/ICFGlobal2012
Slide 33
Quick Exercise
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Slide 34
What works when coaching perfectionists?
• It’s a matter of degree
• What is necessary to quality?
• Negotiate a plan that comes from their
input: What can you live with and let
others live with?
Coachfederation.org/ICFGlobal2012
Slide 35
A Gestalt Distinction for leader choices
Strategic Interaction
Intimate Interaction
• Connected to an agenda
• Richness of relationship(s)
(feedback & information)
• Future oriented
• Know what is important
to their bottom line
Coachfederation.org/ICFGlobal2012
• In the present moment
with no agenda -- needs
trust
Slide 36
How do we coach to strengthen
leadership agility in the face of VUCA?
Coachfederation.org/ICFGlobal2012
Slide 37
The Clinical-Coaching Divide
• A lens to recognize “emotional intelligence” deficits to “understand”
pattern without judgment. Paradoxical theory of change -- raise
awareness and people “choose” rather than coerced.
• Action research and 720: Outside-in and inside-out data help focus
on what is important -- data plus individual’s formative lifestory.
• Understanding “the” constant for coaching these clients. It informs
what questions need priority for cost/impact, even what brings
people into coaching.
• “Shugyo”-- the need to be accountable for one's deficits and
capable to choose---invite client with safe-emergency
• Practices: Agility -- the capacity to learn new options
when control and drama are outdated or retired.
Coachfederation.org/ICFGlobal2012
Slide 38
Catalyst Contact
Information
Dorothy Siminovitch
Ph.D., MCC
1-416-935-1554
1-216.464-5039
awareworks@aol.com
Coachfederation.org/ICFGlobal2012
The ICF values
your feedback.
Please take a
moment to complete
a session evaluation
form and return it to
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located at the back
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Slide 39