September, 2024 | Developing Leaders

18Sep

What does an Executive Leadership Coach do?

Gabriella PeinigerExecutive Leadership Coaching, Leadership

An executive leadership coach is a specialised professional who works with senior leaders and executives to help them enhance their leadership skills, overcome challenges, and achieve their professional and organisational goals. The role of an executive leadership coach is multifaceted, combining elements of mentorship, strategic guidance, and personal development. Here’s a detailed look at what an executive leadership coach does:

Assessment and Diagnosis

Understanding Strengths and Weaknesses: Executive leadership coaches begin by assessing the leader’s strengths, weaknesses, leadership style, and areas for development. This often involves tools like 360-degree feedback, personality assessments, and leadership competency evaluations.
Identifying Key Challenges: The coach works with the executive to identify specific challenges they face in their role, such as managing complex relationships, strategic decision-making, or navigating organisational politics.

Personalised Coaching Plan

Goal Setting: Based on the assessments, the coach helps the executive set clear, actionable goals. These goals may focus on improving specific leadership skills, enhancing executive presence, or achieving certain business outcomes.
Customised Strategies: The coach develops a personalised coaching plan that includes strategies and activities designed to help the executive achieve their goals. This plan is tailored to the unique needs of the executive and the organisation.

Skill Development

Enhancing Leadership Skills: Executive coaches work on developing a range of leadership skills, such as strategic thinking, emotional intelligence, decision-making, communication, and conflict resolution.
Improving Executive Presence: The coach helps the executive refine their presence, including how they carry themselves, communicate with others, and influence those around them. This may involve public speaking coaching, media training, and techniques for projecting confidence and authority.

Strategic Guidance

Navigating Organisational Challenges: Executive coaches provide strategic advice on how to handle complex organisational issues, such as leading change initiatives, managing stakeholder relationships, or responding to crises.
Aligning Personal and Organisational Goals: Coaches help executives align their personal values and goals with the broader objectives of the organisation, ensuring that their leadership is both effective and authentic.

Accountability and Feedback

Regular Check-Ins: The coach holds regular sessions with the executive to review progress, provide feedback, and adjust the coaching plan as needed. This ongoing support ensures that the executive stays on track and continues to develop.
Providing Constructive Feedback: The coach offers honest, constructive feedback on the executive’s performance, helping them recognise blind spots and areas for improvement. This feedback is often based on observations from coaching sessions, as well as input from colleagues and other stakeholders.

Support Through Transitions

Leadership Transitions: Coaches assist executives during critical transitions, such as stepping into a new role, taking on additional responsibilities, or preparing for succession. They provide guidance on how to navigate these changes successfully.
Crisis Management: During times of crisis or significant organisational change, executive coaches offer support and strategies to help leaders manage stress, make tough decisions, and lead their teams through uncertainty.

Facilitating Personal Growth

Self-Awareness and Reflection: Executive coaches encourage leaders to engage in deep self-reflection, helping them become more self-aware and mindful of their impact on others. This self-awareness is crucial for personal growth and effective leadership.
Work-Life Balance: Coaches often work with executives on achieving a healthy work-life balance, managing stress, and avoiding burnout. This holistic approach ensures that the leader’s personal well-being is supported alongside their professional development.

Measuring Success

Tracking Progress: The coach and executive work together to measure progress against the goals set at the beginning of the coaching relationship. This might involve revisiting initial assessments, gathering feedback from others, and reflecting on the leader’s growth.
Celebrating Achievements: As goals are met and progress is made, the coach helps the executive recognise and celebrate their achievements, reinforcing positive changes and motivating continued growth.

Conclusion

An executive leadership coach plays a critical role in the development of senior leaders by offering personalised guidance, strategic advice, and ongoing support. Their work helps executives not only become more effective leaders but also align their leadership style with the needs of their organisation, leading to better outcomes for both the individual and the business. Whether it’s navigating complex challenges, enhancing leadership skills, or achieving personal growth, an executive coach is a valuable partner in an executive’s journey to success.

Visit our Executive Leadership Coaching page on our website for more information

11Sep

Ask These 9 Questions When Hiring An Executive Leadership Coach

Michael PeinigerLeadership

questions to ask executive leadership coaching

Ask These 9 Questions When Hiring An Executive Leadership Coach

These 9 simple questions will help you identify the good from the bad, the amateur from the professional, the executive leadership coach worth paying for compared to the one that is an expensive waste of time. If you are talking or engaging a coach that can’t answer these 9 questions effectively – walk away! There are plenty of highly effective executive leadership coaches who can – and you deserve to work with someone that can back up what they say with action.

Question 1: Do you have a coach yourself?

High Effective Coaches Have a Coach Themselves

Do you have a coach yourself? If the answer is no – walk away. That person:

believes they have learnt everything there is to know in coaching (they don’t),
doesn’t believe in their product,
is more interested in selling the services than living the services,
has forgotten what it is like to be coached,
has stopped striving and learning in their profession.

Is that who you want to work with?

Work with the coach who has a coach themselves. They:

believe in the product they are selling,
are still seeking to learn and grow, irrespective of experience,
know what it is like to be coached,
clearly knows the feeling of being held to account and vulnerable with another person from both sides.

In an industry full of slick marketers, bold promises and low barriers to entry, look for the person who has a coach themselves and believes in the process.

Question 2: Are you an Accredited Coach?

A Credible Executive Leadership Coach Is Accredited. The International Coaching Federation (ICF) is the international governing body for coaching – and they have 3 levels of accreditation – Accredited Certified Coach (ACC), Professional Certified Coach (PCC) and Master Certified Coach (MCC). While you don’t have to be working with an MCC level coach, you should at least work with someone who has the ACC. As a minimum, the person has then had their coach recordings assessed by another certified coach, and they will have completed over 150 hours of coach training and done more than a 100 hours of coaching (for ACC – higher again for the higher levels).

Not only do you get someone who has completed some significant hours as a coach when you choose someone accredited, you also ensure that they have signed up to the coaching industries code of ethics and conduct.

Why Work With An Accredited Coach?

Working with an accredited Executive Leadership Coach has a number of benefits.

They:

are invested in professional development themselves, and will most likely respect your investment in doing the same,
are still seeking to learn and grow, irrespective of experience,
are likely not a ‘part time’ coach – this is their job and they want to attain high professional standards,
have been assessed and reviewed by someone else (the ICF) to verify their basic coaching standards,
have signed up to a professional code of ethics and conduct, and
have had at least 2 recorded coaching sessions pass a peer and have completed at least 10 mentor hours with an accredited coach themselves.

Question 3: What is your experience as a Leader?

A Credible Executive Leadership Coach Is An Experienced Leader

For all of the learning and reading a person has done, nothing can substitute having experience in a leadership role – making decisions, counselling / coaching and performance managing team members, holding other accountable for results, setting a clear vision – all of the things that you have to do as a leader.

It is also worth asking the types of teams and industries that the coach has experienced leadership in – does the experience they have compliment what you are looking to develop in your leadership skills? As a member of a team, a leader or a supervisor, you will have learnt that not every team is the same. Some teams (and businesses) are a dream to work with, and others take all of your skill and effort just to keep them on the straight and narrow.

Effective Leadership Coaches Have Made Mistakes

A credible executive leadership coach will have multiple leadership experiences leading teams, and be able to discuss freely and openly the mistakes that they made, how they recovered from them and what they learnt in the process. Any leadership coach that is unwilling to discuss their failures isn’t worth working with – because we have ALL made mistakes and done things we wish we could do over – and have subsequently learnt from.

I know that some of the best practical tools and tips that I have shared with my clients (and they have responded positively to) are those that were borne out of mistakes, and a desire to never repeat them. Both the Team Expectations Checklist and the AIR/BLEEDS model for personal responsibility came from seeking to correct mistakes with my team – and make a huge difference now.

What Questions Should I Ask a Prospective Executive Leadership Coach?

Ask:

‘What experience have you had leading a team?’
‘What industries have you worked in and for how long?’
‘What was your toughest experience as a leader managing people?’
‘What was the biggest or most embarrassing mistake you made as a leader?’
‘How have your leadership experiences shaped your leadership style?’

A credible and experienced leadership coach should be able to provide you with solid, concrete examples of how they have led teams, the number of people they have led, and the impact that their leadership had upon the teams they were working with.

Question 4: What is your own Coaching style?

Developing Leaders coaches all bring their own style to the coaching process – which could include transformational coaching, ontological coaching or other backgrounds. Key for all coaches is the ability to apply executive leadership coaching – often a blend of coaching and training focussed on leadership skills, gaps and development, as well as executive coaching – focussed on adapting to the client need at the time working with them to provide further understanding of a problem or developing a solution.

While the nuances between coaches styles is more a discussion for the coaches, the key take-away is that an executive coach should have their own style of coaching that has been developed through experience, multiple clients and multiple circumstances.

What Questions Should I Ask a Prospective Executive Leadership Coach?

Ask:

‘What models do you use to aid your coaching?’
‘Can you outline the type of lessons / learning we can cover?’
‘Have you written your own models / lessons from experience?’

Listen to how they discuss their work and consider the following questions for yourself:

‘Does this sound like it will aid in my development as a leader?’
‘Will this person’s style compliment my own’

A credible and experienced leadership coach should be able to provide you with solid, concrete examples of their coaching style, how it changes depending on the client they are working with, and what they have noticed is more or less successful with their clients.

Question 5: Who else would you recommend?

If you are a great executive leadership coach, you know other great leadership coaches. More than that, you know them well enough to recommend them when you know that you aren’t the best fit for a client.

An effective leadership coach knows that they don’t appeal to everyone’s style and that fit is important. An effective coach in the industry will personally know several other effective leadership coaches of different styles that they can refer you to. Anyone that can’t is looking more for the sale and less for your welfare and development.

There are two very simple yet powerful questions that Developing Leaders Executive Coaches ask potential coaching clients to consider before the engage our services. They are:

Do you want to undertake executive coaching (or leadership coaching) with us?
Would you like to complete that coaching process with me?

Importantly, they are two distinct questions. Not every coach, nor every coaching provider, is the right fit for everyone looking for coaching. If a potential client doesn’t want to complete executive coaching with an IMLD, we can refer them on to some amazing executive coaches both in Melbourne and in other capital cities in Australia and South East Asia (in fact, in many parts of the world!)

In addition, while someone may love our Velocity Leadership CheckPoint and the leadership coaching that has been outlined, the individual coach may not be the best fit – perhaps the client is looking for someone with different experience, a different outlook, a different way of holding to account or even a different gender. The key is – it is the client choice and the fit of coach and client is important.

What Questions Should I Ask a Prospective Executive Leadership Coach?

Ask:

‘If you aren’t my best fit as a coach, who else would you recommend and why?’

A credible and experienced leadership coach should be able to provide you with several options of excellent leadership coaches who they would recommend. As all of the IMLD Executive Coaches also have a coach themselves – and have changed coaches multiple times depending on circumstance and need – we have many recommendations of coaches we can attest to through personal experience.

Question 6: What recommendations and success stories do you have?

This question seeks to get past the fancy website and the sales pitch. An effective executive leadership coach will have dozens of recommendations from previous clients that are happy with the work that was completed, and even happier to tell others about it. Look to the person’s website for testimonials and see what they have said about the process, where they started and what they learned. Look up some of the testimonial names on LinkedIn – are they real people in leadership roles? Do they work for the person ? (I know, yet several coaches I sought for myself had a small number of reviews, and those were from peers, not clients). Look up the reviews of the business as well as the leadership coach on Facebook, Google reviews and alike – can you find recommendations?

Skilled Coaches Have Recommendations

If the person doesn’t have 20 or 30 clear and identifiable recommendations or reviews, they haven’t yet proven themselves as an effective leadership coach. It is also important to separate the leadership coach from the leadership business – while the business may have many reviews for their stable of coaches, the one in front of you may not. Also ask if you could speak to a previous client about what they got from the coaching process. An effective leadership coach will not only be able to provide you with names, they will have at least 5 clients they could willingly provide you the phone / contact details of to discuss their coaching.

Executive Leadership Coach Review

Check their website or LinkedIn profile for 20 to 30 recommendations and reviews
Check reviews and people giving them are real and not from their own business
Separate the reviews of the business from the specific coach

Ask:

‘Can I speak to one or two of your previous clients to discuss what they learnt?’

Question 7 : What resources and tools do you have at your disposal?

This is a broad question, and it is seeking to understand the depth of knowledge of the leadership coach you will be working with. An effective Executive Leadership Coach talks about their field of expertise – either publicly in keynote speaking or webinars, online through videos or tutorials, or written in blogs / posts and articles. Take some time to read, listen or watch what they talk about and see if it resonates with you. Does this person talk about leadership / leadership skills in a way that appeals to you? If you can’t find your chosen leadership coach speaking about the topic of leadership in at least one of these mediums, walk away. Effective leadership coaches have a body of work that should be easy to find and demonstrate their understanding of the topic.

In addition, ask to review or discuss their coaching outcomes documents and their confidentiality policy – it should be clear and easily understood. You want to know before you undertake a coaching process who the information you discuss is going to be shared with, how long notes are kept and what the records process entails.

Executive Leadership Coach Review:

Their website for articles, tutorials and videos
Look for Youtube or Vimeo videos speaking on the topic
‘Google’ their name and search for things like ‘leadership articles’

Ask:

Where can I find articles or videos of you discussing and explaining leadership and / or coaching?’
‘Can I have a copy of your Coaching Outcomes documents?’
‘What is your policy on confidentiality’

Question 8: What Leadership Assessment tool do you use?

An effective Executive Leadership Coach will use some form of leadership assessment tool to assess the level of skill / behaviour you have at present, and highlight how they will help you develop from that baseline. There are a myriad of effective tools in the marketplace, just make sure that the tool provides useful information for you in its own right – it should be in plain language and discuss leadership behaviours. It should also measure behaviours that can develop and grow, that you easily relate specific behaviours to. The tool used should be more than a personality test, which are often generically written (4 types, 4 colours etc) and not designed to change over time.

Ensure the tool being used can be used again in several months time so that you can have a tangible measure of growth – after all, ‘what isn’t measured, isn’t done’. Most effective leadership coaches can provide you with a PDF of a standard report from their chosen leadership assessment tool, and many will provide an assessment / short debrief as part of their introductory process.

The Velocity Leadership CheckPoint

At Developing Leaders we use the Velocity Leadership CheckPoint to assess a leaders skills before every coaching and training program. It is a powerful tool in determining which behaviours a leader need the most improvement in, as well as help identify strengths and weaknesses as a leader. Skilled coaches can then essential insight on how you can develop those areas, as well as the links between leadership behaviours and results in your performance, your team culture and you business results.

Without a clear start point, many leadership coaches are ‘flying blind’ to determine what needs addressing in a leaders behaviour to become a better leader. The leader being coached may have an idea, however their view may be skewed by recent events, opinions of others or an avoidance of facing the real issues. An effective executive leadership coach uses a leadership assessment tool like the CheckPoint as an ‘extra tool in the toolbox’ for assisting leaders improve their performance. Without one, they are far less efficient and effective as a coach.

Executive Leadership Coach Review:

Ask:

‘What leadership assessment tool do you use?’
‘Can I have a copy of a standard / example leadership report’
‘Do you offer an assessment prior to committing to a coaching contract / process’

Question 9: How will you challenge me?

Choosing an effective Executive Leadership Coach can be difficult if you haven’t thought though the best way to assess who you are getting. That is why we devised ‘The 9 Questions To Ask When Hiring An Executive Leadership Coach’. This is the last question – How will you challenge me (and yourself) through the coaching process?

While rapport and connection is very important through a coaching process, an effective leadership coach is not your best friend. While they will encourage you and cheer you on through your successes, they also need to be able to hold you to account for behaviours that aren’t helping you succeed and challenge your thinking and your actions. An effective leadership coach understands the difference between what you want to hear, and what you need to hear. They won’t be cold and emotionless – an effective leadership coach will discuss your development needs clearly and specifically, identify a path to develop and grow and guide / help / push you towards action to address shortfalls.

Further, ask about their own coaching process. An effective leadership coach knows that they don’t have all of the answers and are developing and growing themselves. An effective leadership has experienced the process of coaching for themselves, they understand the impact, the sticking points in their own development and can discuss it clearly with you. If your chosen coach doesn’t believe in the coaching process, why should you?

Executive Leadership Coach Review:

Ask:

‘How will you challenge me to develop my skills?’
‘What is the process if we disagree on a way forward?’
‘Do you have a coach at present?’
‘What did you learn through your coaching process?’

Through asking some or all of these questions, you should be able to ascertain not only if the person in front of you is an effective leadership coach, but if they are the right leadership coach to assist you in growing and developing as a leader.

What Next?

You don’t have to work through the decision alone! You also don’t have to jump in feet first and hire a leadership coach before you know if it will be useful (or cost effective). There are two simple and easy options to get started without a financial commitment:

Book in a short discovery call with Developing Leaders. Our experienced team can discuss your needs and see if a leadership coach is the best fit for your time, team and budget.
Complete a complimentary leadership assessment. The Velocity Leadership CheckPoint is Developing Leaders way of determining a leader’s strengths and areas of development. It can help you work out what specific areas you might need some help with, and whether a leadership coach is the right option to address it. It is free, easy and people say the debrief alone was worth completing to get started on addressing some leadership deficiencies.

Contact the team at Developing Leaders to become a leader that others choose to follow.

04Sep

How to Combat The Six Inefficiencies of Leadership

Gabriella PeinigerDeveloping Culture, Emerging Leaders Program, Executive Leadership Coaching, Leadership, Leadership Development, Leadership Essentials Program, Leadership Training

Leadership inefficiencies can manifest in various ways, and some of the most detrimental are rooted in negative emotional and behavioural patterns. These inefficiencies—shame, blame, leniency, defence, excuses, and exoneration—can undermine trust, hinder productivity, and create a toxic work environment. Understanding these patterns and their impact is essential for leaders who want to cultivate a positive and effective organisational culture. Here’s a breakdown of each inefficiency, along with examples to illustrate their effects:

1. Shame

Explanation: Shame as a leadership inefficiency occurs when leaders use shame as a tool to motivate or correct employees. This approach can lead to feelings of inadequacy and fear among team members, which ultimately diminishes their confidence and willingness to take risks.

Example: A leader publicly criticises an employee during a team meeting for missing a deadline, saying, “I’m disappointed in you; this is not the level of performance we expect.” Instead of addressing the issue privately and constructively, the leader’s approach shames the employee in front of their peers. As a result, the employee feels humiliated, their morale drops, and they become hesitant to take on new challenges, fearing further public embarrassment.

Do you ‘beat yourself up’ when things don’t work out the way you planned as a leader?

There are 6 ways a leader can be less efficient / less effective when it comes to leading themselves and others, having a net negative effect (the others being Blame, Leniency, Excuses, Exoneration and Defence).

Understanding your behaviours under stress is an important development step for a leader.

Shame is one of the most personally harmful. Brené Brown speaks on shame extensively in her books and Ted talks – I see it practically with leaders that have an over-developed sense of responsibility and when actions / tasks don’t meet expectations. They blame themselves – are hard on themselves – and stay stuck in their blame rather than moving forward.

For many, this feels like taking Responsibility for their actions, when in fact they are only owning the mistake – they are not moving forward and taking action on what can be done to address it.
Shame can be difficult to address – because others seeing it and pointing it out can make leaders feel even worse and ‘spiral’ further. But it can be addressed, by the leader as well as by peers and teams members, treading carefully but empathetically to move to responsibility and first actions.Is shame one of your default behaviours when you are tired, stressed and under the pump? There is something you can do about it.

2. Blame

Explanation: Blame occurs when leaders shift responsibility for failures or mistakes onto others, rather than taking accountability or addressing the root causes. This behaviour creates a culture of fear and finger-pointing, where employees are more focused on avoiding blame than on solving problems.

Example: After a project fails to meet its objectives, a leader blames the team for not working hard enough, saying, “This failure is on you; if you had put in more effort, we wouldn’t be in this situation.” Instead of analysing what went wrong and how to improve, the leader deflects responsibility, causing resentment and eroding trust within the team.

Does blame tarnish your leadership ability? Do you work (or have you worked) for a ‘blamer’?
Few behaviours look as bad for a leader or manager as blame. It can be detrimental to the team, and to our own credibility – yet for many, it can be a default behaviour under pressure and stress.

Blame is one of the 6 leadership inefficiencies of the AIR/ BLEEDS model that leaders can display when they are not at their best.

Why discuss this? Because awareness of your default behaviours under pressure and stress result in you being less likely to spend time there! Sharing your defaults with your team also mean they are less likely to hold these behaviours against you, or have permission to ‘check in’ with you to assist in getting you back to a more positive, efficient and effective state of mind.
Discussing default behaviours with your team can be a very powerful to establish and build trust – but it takes some knowledge and a degree of vulnerability – you are sharing some of your less desirable behaviours. But it is done to create a positive outcome.

To be effective, accountable and responsible leaders, it is worth look at our behaviours – both good and bad – particularly when under pressure and stress. Our behaviours impact us, our team and our business – they are an incredibly important aspect of leading others.

3. Leniency

Explanation: Leniency is the tendency to avoid holding employees accountable for their actions or performance, often to maintain harmony or avoid conflict. While leniency might seem compassionate, it can lead to a lack of discipline, inconsistent performance, and a perception of favouritism

Lenient leaders ‘let people off the hook’ for their performance – in the hope that not saying something will make it easier on them, and / or easier on the person. What can seem like an act of kindness or generosity can just mask what could be a bigger problem

Example: A leader consistently overlooks one team member’s poor performance because they have been with the company for a long time. The leader thinks, “I don’t want to upset them; they’ve been loyal.” However, this leniency causes frustration among other team members who are working hard and meeting expectations. Over time, the lack of accountability leads to a decline in overall team performance and morale.

‘It was only a little bit late’
‘I am sure it will be better next time’
‘I am sure they tried their best’
‘They are really busy at the moment, I’ll do it myself’
‘There is a lot going on at the moment – cut them some slack’
‘With work, kids and pandemic – they probably just missed it’

Leniency isn’t empathy – empathy is a genuine understanding of what someone else is going through and being able to relate / adjust accordingly. Leniency is often about making an assumption, and hoping that it will fix itself

Good leaders don’t let their team off the hook

Lenient leaders face 3️⃣ key problems that impact their leadership and the team culture:

1️⃣ They end up having to do more work themselves
2️⃣ They undermine the standards fo the team and reduce ‘the bar’ overall
3️⃣ Over time they get resentful and seek to blame others for issues that have stemmed from their own leniency.
Overcoming leniency as a leader requires several steps – and it starts by being very clear on expectations and understanding / discussing consequences (both positive and negative) for actions. It isn’t about ‘being hard’ or lacking in empathy – in fact quite the opposite.

Are you a lenient leader? What is your ‘go to’ lenient phrase?

Ensuring that you aren’t being lenient on your team doesn’t mean that you don’t care for them or don’t understand the issues / problems / challenges they are facing. In fact, it can demonstrate the opposite. Setting and maintaining a clear standard – whether that it is on the accuracy of work or adhering to deadlines, raises the standard of you and your team. That may take coaching and further training to ensure that it is maintained, and that is also part of being a leader.

4. Defence

Explanation: Defence as a leadership inefficiency occurs when leaders react defensively to feedback or criticism. Instead of being open to suggestions and improvements, defensive leaders feel attacked and respond by justifying their actions or dismissing the feedback.

Example: When a team member suggests a different approach to a project, the leader immediately responds, “I’ve been doing this for years; I know what works. We don’t need to change anything.” By being defensive, the leader shuts down constructive dialogue, discourages innovation, and prevents potential improvements that could benefit the organisation.

Question: Can you admit when you are a wrong? Put another way – are you a defensive leader?

Alternative: Do you work with someone who never (ever) admits that they are wrong? Instead of recognising a mistake or acknowledging an error, they ‘double down’, and try to convince you that they were right?

This is Defence – ‘digging in’ on a position or opinion when you should shift or change due to new information or circumstances.

Honestly, of all of the inefficient and ineffective behaviours that the BLEEDS part of the AIR / BLEEDS model discusses, I find leaders that use Defence as a default one of the hardest groups of people to work with.

At its lightest, Defence can be never admitting that you are wrong. When under stress and pressure, Defence can be more obstinate ie ‘I don’t accept the premise of your question’ being a recent statement that fits Defence perfectly.

In a team sense, ‘leaping to someone’s defence’ can be seen a good thing, but can create difficulty if the person does this without looking at the behaviour they are agreeing with first.

In my experience, this behaviour is seen less in junior or emerging leaders – it is often challenged by people in authority and questioned. It is prevalent in senior leaders who are not used to (or don’t like) their position or ideas to be challenged.

Defence is just one of the 6 BLEEDS behaviours that can result in ineffective or inefficient behaviour

5. Excuses

Explanation: Leaders who frequently make excuses for themselves or their team’s performance fail to take responsibility for shortcomings. This behaviour can lead to a culture where accountability is lacking, and employees feel that there are always justifications for not meeting goals.

Example: After missing a key deadline, a leader tells the team, “We didn’t have enough resources, and the timeline was unrealistic; it’s not our fault.” While there may be valid challenges, continually making excuses rather than finding solutions or learning from the experience prevents growth and improvement. The team may begin to adopt a similar mindset, leading to ongoing underperformance.

Are you an excuse maker? Is your leadership hampered by the excuses you make?

Do you have an excuse maker in your team?Are you told supposedly ‘legitimate reasons’ for things not getting done, but they just sound like excuses? ? Do you challenge them? Or do you hear them and look like you accept them – only to be annoyed that you ‘swallowed’ the excuse later? ?

Excuses are the bane of my existence. Not just the ones that I hear others say to cover for work / expectations that hadn’t been completed, but because of the excuses that I hear in my own head – the ones that I tell myself for work not being completed how / when I wanted it done.

Excuses are one of several ways in which teams / leaders underperform against the AIR / BLEEDS model – the others being Blame, Leniency, Exoneration, Defence and Shame.

Excuses can have a 3 fold negative effect on your team and business:

1️⃣ You lower your standards – particularly if you ‘accept’ your own excuses.
2️⃣ You lower the standards of your team. Accepting non-legitimate reasons for incomplete / lower standard / late work
3️⃣ You allow further excuses to breed. Having accepted an excuse once, you set yourself up to have to accept the same excuse again – or from others (setting a precedent).

Several leaders I have known have been told they were inconsistent (myself included) – not through intention – but by having to correct for excuses that were used too often / taken too far. While I / we may have seen that a ‘boundary’ had been crossed – the rest of the team just saw behaviour being accepted, followed by very similar behaviour not being accepted – inconsistency.

How do you get past excuses / deal with excuses in your workplace?

1️⃣ The first step to is acknowledge them for what they are – in your behaviour and in others – and you might be first place to start.
2️⃣ Make clear – to yourself and your team – the standards that you will accept and the standards you won’t.
3️⃣ Understand that ‘the standard you walk past is the standard you accept’. Excuses are often used because they are often accepted – many leaders are unwilling to challenge excuses – they hear them and rather than saying something, walk away and get annoyed about it later.

6. Exoneration

Explanation: Exoneration occurs when leaders absolve themselves or others of responsibility for failures or mistakes, often to protect their reputation or avoid difficult decisions. This inefficiency can create a culture where accountability is absent, and employees do not feel responsible for their actions.

Example: A leader is aware that a department’s poor performance is due to a lack of clear direction from management, but instead of addressing the issue, they say, “It’s not my fault; the market conditions were against us.” By exonerating themselves from blame, the leader avoids addressing the real issues, leaving the underlying problems unresolved and allowing the cycle of failure to continue.

They say that ‘the standard you walk past is the standard you accept’. The principle that follows is that you shouldn’t walk past a poor standard (in your business, your team, your life) – you should take responsibility for it and do something about it.

What is Exoneration in the AIR / BLEEDS model? It is exactly the opposite. It is becoming aware of behaviour or task that isn’t at the correct AND walking right past it, behaving as if the behaviour didn’t happen. This isn’t a case of not seeing it or having your head ‘buried in the sand’, it is choosing to ignore the behaviour and letting it go.
Exoneration is more prevalent than you think in business and life.

You don’t have to look very far in either State or Federal politics to see exoneration at work.
Someone is known to have committed a crime, a rort, an improper behaviour – and there are no actions against the behaviour and there are little consequences. The person doing it takes no responsibility, and the leader / boss does not hold them to account – and the improper behaviour continues because it has been tacitly approved. Exoneration is hope that the behaviour will be ignored and others will forget about it.

Exoneration can have a huge negative impact on a business – just as much as the other BLEEDS components of Blame, Excuses, Leniency or Defence. When a standard is walked past by a leader – you tell every other person in the organisation that it is OK.

Why do people exonerate others for poor behaviour? In my humble opinion, it is often down to fear. Fear of consequences, fear of a difficult conversation, fear of being seen as ‘management’, fear of not being liked and probably most often – fear of being ‘called out’ for exactly the same behaviour.
What can you do if you thin you might be exonerating others rather than holding to account?

1️⃣ Get very clear on what standard you want to uphold in your organisation / business. State very clearly what they are, and why they are important to you.

2️⃣. Hold yourself to those standards – and be very clear and upfront if you miss them. One of the key reasons people exonerate others is because they find themselves wanting in the same area and don’t want to be seen as a hypocrite – so they let both people (themselves and the other) off.

3️⃣ Be clear on the consequences of actions in advance.

I Can Relate To At Least 2 Of These Behaviours!

Then welcome to being human! Shame, blame, leniency, defence, excuses, and exoneration are all leadership inefficiencies that can have detrimental effects on an organisation. They are also perfectly human emotions – they can also have a negative impact on how we are seen as leaders. These behaviours undermine trust, stifle innovation, and create a toxic work environment where employees are either too fearful or too disengaged to perform at their best. Effective leaders must recognise these inefficiencies in themselves and others, and actively work to foster a culture of accountability, openness, and continuous improvement. By doing so, they can build a more resilient, motivated, and high-performing team.

If you identify yourself with any of these inefficiencies, you can work through them as core content on several of our programs, including the Emerging Leaders Program, the Leadership Essentials Program and Executive Leadership Coaching.