David DeHaven: Becoming a Leader
To become a leader, to stand out from the crowd, and to take on responsibility for others is a threatening experience for most people. David DeHaven is an Executive Coach, Business Strategist, passionate educator and dedicated Father. Their first experience is often a feeling of being very exposed. To be successful in these early stages new leaders needs to find effective ways to protect themselves. The more effective their protection the more confidence they have to lead.
The nature of a leader’s protection can be seen as stages along their journey of development:
Stage 1 — Power
During this stage the new leader has a tendency to enjoy the ‘protection of power’ that has been afforded them with their new leadership role. To gain the confidence to lead other people these leaders tend to rely on, and be supported by, the power of their position in the organisational hierarchy, the power they can borrow from their superiors, or the power of rule book. In essence the new leader losses their sense of self and becomes the role.
Stage 2 — Inclusion
In time the leader’s confidence grows, along with a desire to look around and learn from more experienced leaders. At this stage the leader will tend to want to find a role model. The leader should be able to see elements of their own self in their role model. This helps the leader to identify with their role model and gain confidence from the logic that the role model is a successful leader, the role model is similar to me, therefore I can be a successful leader. After overusing their power leaders at this stage often want to repair relationships and feel included with their peers and their direct reports. This sense of inclusion provides the leader with the protection they desire. Therefore, it is vital that the role model they have chosen is also acceptable to the leader’s peers and direct reports.
Stage 3 — Competence
By this stage in their journey of development leaders will have gained enough confidence to stand out from the crowd and assert their emerging authenticity. They now tend to gain their protection and confidence from being the expert in a particular aspect of the business, organisation or service. Leaders who operate from this level have some appreciation of what they are actually like as a leader and will attempt to find their niche or cultivate relationships that are in tune with who they are. However, they tend not to be entirely confident with their authenticity and may overly assert their expertise, i.e. when there is a conflict of opinions, or when they are under pressure. They are likely to dismiss feedback from those they don’t see as experts in their field.
Stage 4 — Delivery
By the time leaders get to this stage in their journey of development they have usually been able to construct their identity as a leader. This is the combination of the aspects of the previous stages that have been successful for them. In essence the leader has created a workplace persona that feels very authentic and gives them a high level of confidence. This confidence generally gives them the ability to effectively challenge and support other people, create a positive high performing team atmosphere, and foster collaboration. They tend to use this confidence to focus their team on achieving goals and objectives as a means of protecting their right to be authentic. Whilst they are aware of their own authenticity they tend not to invite others to question their own system of values and beliefs which supports their sense of self. Instead they tend to spend so much time maintaining their sense of self that they may not see the possibilities for transformation.