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Preventing a Leadership Crash From Over-Correcting

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by Michelle Braden

Often when I read a book I find myself thinking, “Some of that was strong food for thought and some of it was a little too much for me.” When that happens, I try focusing on what is relevant so there is still a meaningful take-away rather than disregarding the entire book. Authors write to their personal extreme passion, and it’s good to remember that you do not have to agree with everything that is being said to learn something.

Leaders are very similar. We lead out of our own personal passions and values. Whether or not we are always conscious of them, they are present in our leadership. These passions and values are very close cousins to our “hot buttons

When our hot buttons are pushed, we can have a tendency to overreact or over-correct the situation just as an author may over-write to make their point. I find that overreacting or over-correcting frequently generates results opposite of what is really expected or desired.

Allow me to illustrate…

A few weeks ago, I was driving home from a meeting. I am embarrassed to admit I leaned over to pick something up (not paying attention as I should) and, when I did, I slightly went off the road. Normally this would not be a big deal… I would simply correct and get back on; however, when you combine the fact that I was in deep thought, my cruise was on about 72 mph and the startle of hitting the rumble strip, a recipe for disaster was about to unfold.

When I hit the rumble strip, instead of a gentle warning the noise of the strips is intended to give, it shook me from my deep thought and seriously startled me. I overreacted! I swerved (or should I say jerked) the steering wheel to the right. In just a split second my car swerved to the other lane, and I over corrected again to the left. It was in just a second I realized, “I think I might flip this baby.” Fortunately for me (and thanks to my guardian angels) I was able to get the car back under control. Before you know it, everything was back to normal. I settled down, regained confidence and was back to cruising at 72 mph (I was paying much closer to attention though).

Later that evening I was telling my husband and a friend about what happened over dinner. As I explained it, I realized the parallel between what happened to me and what happens when a leader “over-corrects.”
As leaders we can get lost in the moment, in our personal passions, thus losing focus on the big picture and responding without thinking or over-responding to drive our point home. I realize as leaders, being able to respond in crisis is a highly desired trait, but I also realize that there are times we cause the crisis ourselves (such as I did) from over-correcting. Either way, whether the crisis is self-induced or caused by someone else, over-correcting is rarely the answer and usually results in disaster – or near disaster, just as it did when I was driving.

Have you ever over-corrected (over responded or overreacted) as a leader? A perfect example would be, the team is working under the pressure of a deadline (now 8 days past due), a tight budget, everyone is exhausted, you just got an email that the engineering team has not been able to correct the “bug” yet, stakeholders are calling and your lead engineer just called in sick. How do you respond?

Some of you from just reading this can feel your chest tightening. I am sure your story is a little different but the stress is the same. Below are some steps to help you process through over-correcting in difficult situations. I encourage you to take just a minute to go through the questions below – they will help you to be more proactive next time and hopefully reduce the crisis response of over-correcting:

- Identify at least one situation where you overreacted/corrected

- What was happening?

- What hot-buttons were pushed (identify how those are related to your own personal passions and values)

- What was the outcome?

- How would you like the outcomes to have been different?

- How could you have responded differently to have created a different outcome?

- What will you do to create different outcomes in the future?

I would love to hear your feedback and suggestions.

 

About Michelle Braden

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Michelle Braden is the CEO of MSBCoach (an international coaching organization that focuses on executive coaching and leading employee engagement), founder of the Authentic Leadership Summit, the Emerging Executive Leadership Program and the Center for Employee Engagement. Michelle is also an adjunct facility member of the Center for Creative Leadership and the author of three leadership book, “Stand Out”, “Dare to Make a Difference” and “Bottom Line”. She is sought after by executives for coaching based upon her own leadership experience and ability to connect with leaders at a personal level. Michelle is known for “keeping it real”. Her passion is to work with leaders to identify what it takes to lead with authenticity which is knowing your values, key drivers, leadership and communication styles, hot buttons, desired responses and how to keep these areas in alignment. She coaches executives to inspire those they lead to find their work passions, take ownership of what they do, create balance and bring their best selves to work each day.
Most recently Michelle has worked with executives form the FRB of Richmond, UVA Medical Center, Darden Business School, ILuka Resources and Capital One Financial.


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