In the past decade, we’ve seen remarkable innovations and extraordinary technological advancements change the way we live, play, and conduct business.

Today, anyone with a smartphone has access to general artificial intelligence. We can easily manage everyday tasks (Google Assistant), send money (Venmo), travel about town (autonomous taxis in some U.S. cities), and answer our doors—from anywhere (Ring).

In the world of sports, racing sailboats have gone from large, single wooden hulls to aerodynamic vessels of flight. Their once canvas sails are now wings that carry the team on two or three small hydro-foils faster than the speed of wind.

Simulators and virtual reality are now a part of learning and training. Organizations have become data-driven cultures, led by Chief Data Officers, who work with data scientists and computers that process hundreds of hypothetical questions and answers.

And incredibly, we’re just getting started.

The most notable innovations are the direct result of disruptors: leaders who changed the game. They transformed existing markets (or created new ones) by focusing on convenience, simplicity, accessibility, or affordability. Disruptive leaders learned to innovate more quickly, cheaply, and with less risk. But this is no easy feat, especially in today’s accelerated environment. For many, disruption causes anxiety, fear, and leads to disruption fatigue.

Ignoring the problem, or worse, feeding the fear, are not real solutions. Leadership in the time of disruption calls for a two-prong approach: improving current product performance and developing new disruptive technology.

In many cases, starting, re-tooling, and scaling a business is easier than ever before. But achieving and maintaining success is another matter. While rapid innovation and new technologies allow for faster speed to market, there are considerable risks and impacts.

Leadership in a time of disruption calls for an examination of mission and vision. It requires a clear understanding of current, as well as potential future disruptors. To succeed, leaders, executives, and managers must lead with careful consideration and mindful intention.  

The Great Paradox

While disruptors are innovators, not all innovators are disruptors. Disruption changes how we think, behave, do business, learn, and live life. Disruptive innovation displaces an existing market, industry, or technology, and produces something new, more efficient, and worthwhile.

Researcher, professor, and author Clayton Christiansen described disruptive innovation as a corporate effort to redefine quality, adopt new technologies, and anticipate customers’ future needs. To put it simply, instead of trying to best their competitors, disruptors change the game.

In The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail(Harvard Business Review Press, 2016), Christiansen shares his research on success sustainability, and the great paradox of two principles taught in business schools: that you should always listen to and respond to the needs of your best customers, and that you should focus on investments of those innovations that promise the highest returns. But according to Christianson, these two principles “sow the seeds of every successful company’s ultimate demise.”

Most sustaining technologies foster improved product performance; they are discontinuous, radical, or incremental, explains Christiansen. Disruptive technologies result in worse product performance—at least in the near-term; they underperform established products in mainstream markets. But, they have other features that a few fringe (and generally new) customers value.

Are we burned-out on the hype?

The word “disruptive” evokes memories of school children unable to self-soothe or stabilize feelings, passionate entrepreneurs sharing their vision, and bosses who are feeling the pressure from their bosses or shareholders.

In an interview with The Guardian, Georgia Institute of Technology Professor Ian Bogost shared with Leigh Alexander, “The big difference between even disruptive innovation and plain disruption is that the former was focused on some improvement to a product or service or sector or community, while the latter is looking first at what it can destroy. Everything is fire and brimstone.”

When Christiansen first used the phrase “disruptive innovation” it evoked possibility, excitement, and hope. Today it signals uncertainty and change. Leadership in the time of disruption requires that leaders address fear, before it takes hold.

When Fear Takes Hold

A fear-based culture is not always easy to spot, at least at first. Indicators to watch for include:

1. Workers overly focus on daily goals.
2. Supervisors overly focus on results, infractions, and order
3. Problems are ignored
4. Communication is via rumor
5. Uncertainty and suspicion are status-quo
6. Stress and illness are common
7. The blame game (and CYA) run rampant
8. Collaboration does not exist
9. Advancement is rare
10. Team-players are identified by their willingness to support the culture of fear
11. Mistakes are not tolerated

Certainly, a healthy level of fear is vital for individuals and organizations. However, leaders contribute to a culture of fear by doing nothing; unfortunately, these leaders are often unaware that their leadership is fear-based. Instead of trusting (and inspiring) their colleagues and employees, they employ fear as a means to control. These leaders also create silos within their organization (isolating lines of business, departments, teams, and individuals) and set unrealistic goals and expectations.

Fear-based leaders may have good intentions, but when their own fears are left unaddressed, they manifest into a heightened sense of urgency.

In a recent HBR article, researchers examined what happens when leaders and organizations emphasize urgent action over thoughtful consideration.

In the study, Research: Organizations That Move Fast Really Do Break Things, (HBR 2020), a “move fast and break things” attitude exposes fast-growing organizations to significant risks. Psychologists refer to this tendency as “locomotion goal pursuit.” Organizations who emphasize urgent action over thoughtful consideration are more likely to have unethical decision making.

The researchers found that by offsetting a strong locomotion motivation with a strong assessment motivation, an organization can grow conscientiously.

What Great Leaders Do in Disruptive Times

We’ve moved past the industrial age to the information age, where data, blockchain, and quantum computers may prove to be the great disruptors in every economy, sector, segment, and industry. Understanding the basics of these technologies can help leaders address fears and engage all stakeholders in the development of strategies and tactics for sustainable technologies and disruptive innovations.

Examine your assumptions. What do you know about disruptive innovation? What do your employees know? Here are just a few topics to consider:

Data: Facebook, Google and Twitter now collect 5.6 billion bits of data per day. And in just the first three weeks of February 2020, HBR published 11 articles on the subject of data. How are you using data? Do your employees understand how their data is being collected and used?

Blockchain: a growing list of records that are linked using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data. The data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without alteration of all subsequent blocks, which requires consensus of the network majority. Reuters has created a graphic of this process.

Quantum computers:  a handful of companies have introduced prototype quantum computers. The fundamental component is the quantum bit, or qubit, which can have a value of 0 or 1 at the same time. This allows quantum computers to consider and evaluate many outcomes simultaneously, thereby increasing their calculating power exponentially.

Mission, Values, and a Triple-Bottom Line

Review your mission, values, and understanding of a Triple-Bottom Line.

Twenty-five years ago, John Elkington coined the phrase “Triple Bottom Line.” In 2018, he pointed out the misuse as an accounting framework, where profit remains center stage. In the HBR articleElkington explains, “The TBL wasn’t designed to be just an accounting tool. It was supposed to provoke deeper thinking about capitalism and its future, but many early adopters understood the concept as a balancing act, adopting a trade-off mentality.” The goal of the triple bottom line was to transform a system change; a disruptor to unsustainable sectors and a genetic code for next-generation market solutions. 

Rather than re-distribute wealth, could we pre-distribute it? Could we democratize the way that wealth gets created in the first place? These are just two of the questions Don Tapscott posed in a TEDTalk. “Technology doesn’t create prosperity, people do. But here’s where technology has escaped out of the genie bottle. It’s giving us another opportunity to rewrite the economic power grid and the old order of things, and to solve some of the world’s most difficult problems, if we will it.”

Disruptive Times Call for Compassion, Learning, and Conversations

Fear of overwhelm keeps us from recognizing the feelings (and existence) of others, and often, even our own fears. Ironically, the key to overwhelm is an ongoing practice of compassion.

Practice compassion: Mindfulness teacher Tara Brach, PhD, has developed a great tool leaders can use to practice compassion daily. In her book, Radical Compassion: Learning to Love Yourself and Your World with the Practice of RAIN (Viking, 2019) Brach details a four-step meditation that quickly breaks the grip of fear, judgment, shame, and other difficult emotions:

1. Recognize what is happening
2. Allow life to be just as it is
3. Investigate with a gentle, curious attention
4. Nurture with loving presence

Grounded in modern brain science, the practice of RAIN helps leaders uncover limiting beliefs, fears, and our tendency to feed a sense of urgency that chokes our creativity.

Support learning: Learning and development is more than teaching employees the knowledge they need to perform the basic requirements of their job, rather, it encompasses a broader process to increase skills and abilities across a variety of contexts.

According to a 2019 employee survey reported by Statista, the top five skills employees need to develop are influencing and negotiating (46%), having difficult conversations, design thinking, leading and managing change, and coaching.

Likewise, effective leaders pursue personal and professional development opportunities to improve their competence, self-awareness, and other-relatedness. They grow in ways that are transformative, not just transactional.

Have the conversations: Recognize and acknowledge fear and uncertainty.

In the recent Oscar winning movie, American Factory, documentary film makers take a thoughtful look at how a Chinese billionaire opened a factory in an abandoned General Motors plant located in Ohio. It is a deeply nuanced view of globalization, the decline of labor and organized labor, and the impact of artificial intelligence through automation. And your employees are talking about it.

Are you engaging in these conversations? How?

Despite all the advances in technology and innovation, organizations succeed because of people.

As USA sailing team skipper Rome Kirby says, “Stuff happens at a pretty high speed. The pace of the game now has changed a lot, so we got to make decisions and communicate at a pretty high pace…when you get it right, and sail well, it’s the team that wins the race.”

That’s why CEO and helmsman Nathan Outteridge brings home the gold medals. He and some of his team mates have sailed together for as much as ten years. According to Outteridge, “The F50 is a one-designed boat, so all the foils, all the rudders, all the wings, everything is the same. The only reason one boat goes faster than another is because of what the people onboard are doing…if each person doesn’t do their role properly, performance suffers.”

Remember: your communications should be logical and consistent with facts and experience. To understand nuances, explore both sides of the coin. While you want to strike an emotional chord, avoid using fear. Instead, address the interest of all stakeholders. A qualified executive coach can help.

Product branding is a familiar concept where product identity, reputation and differentiation are promoted. In an ideal world, a product’s image is established in positive ways, and the market is made aware of its presence. While it seems natural to brand products, leaders often don’t recognize how advantageously this principle can be applied to their careers.

A significant aspect of leadership success pertains to how the leader is perceived and accepted in their role. Favorable impressions are a huge part of the human experience, especially when applied to relationship-based activities such as leading people in an organizational setting. Positive impressions enhance a leader’s impact and offer more growth opportunities than neutral or negative impressions.

Leaders, while valuing the need to perform well and meet commitments, also benefit by establishing a solid personal brand. This allows them to make the most of their skills and potential as they advance their career path. There are several key areas that formulate your leadership brand and, when developed well, can take you to new heights.

What Constitutes a Leadership Brand?

When it comes to brands, products have much in common with leaders. Look at yourself as a product, because in essence, you are. Marketers illustrate their product’s worthiness, offering solutions that couldn’t be obtained without the product. Leaders are in a position to do the same. A product stands on a brand that makes a mark for its value. That’s exactly what successful leaders do as well. Leaders with strong brands are sought for their value because that’s what organizations need.

A strong reputation is the fundamental foundation. In part, your brand is what you’ve done, what you’re capable of doing and what you stand for. Consistent performance and accomplishment build great reputations. This creates a brand that proves a leader’s capabilities or expertise. Leaders with strong brands don’t need to search for opportunities; opportunities come to them.

A leadership brand establishes your voice, as described by Paul Larson in his book Find Your Voice as a Leader (Aviva Publishing, 2016). Leaders with a developed voice have a presence: a distinctive quality that makes them stand out.

Your brand creates a following. As the saying goes, leaders don’t lead unless someone follows. People want to be associated with the benefits that come with success. Leaders with a strong brand represent success, attraction and influence. Employees know that a great leadership brand brings gains to everyone.

If you have a solid leadership brand, you fashion your influence in ways that create a lasting legacy. This maximizes your impact, not only while you are on board, but long after you’re gone. You’ll find nothing more gratifying than an organization that owes its success to your legacy. Does your brand have the potential of doing that?

The Building Block: Behavior

Leaders are primarily known for how they act, especially in tough and trying situations. This goes both positively and negatively. Leaders with strong personal brands have honed their personal skills to be reliable and trustworthy under pressure. This includes being calm, reasonable and poised. People put their faith in leaders who are a rock in a storm because this represents safety and security.

Another aspect of strong brand behavior is genuineness. Leaders who demonstrate transparency and humility are trustworthy. Their brand stands out as a pleasant departure from a leadership norm that lacks these traits. Similarly, a brand of refinement and integrity is admirable. If you are a leader known for doing the right thing, being responsible for your actions, taking the heat and issuing credit, then your brand will rise to the top.

Having confidence in your abilities, based on your competence and experience, is a great brand booster. People can see this in how you speak and carry yourself. However, if this carries over into overconfidence, pride or arrogance, your brand gets tarnished. An experienced executive coach can advise you on the image you portray, and help you reverse any adverse behaviors.

Other personality traits can help to build a solid leadership brand. Leaders who are firm, but fair, earn high praise. People want the ability to do their jobs well and understanding when conditions prevent it. Fair treatment, acknowledgment and reward are the benefits employees receive from strong leadership brands.

Additionally, a leadership style that is prepared and knowledgeable fashions a respected brand. People want leaders who know what they’re doing and can anticipate things that go south; because they do. Being teachable is an extra benefit that lets people know you are real, can relate and don’t pretend to have all the answers. Few things darken a leadership brand more than a self-professed know-it-all.

The Art of Appearance

Like products, leaders convey their brand through their physical packaging. Visual impressions are powerful, as people are wired to make judgements from what they observe. An impressive appearance goes a long way toward a positive leadership brand. As with behavior, the greatest appearance influence is generated by the most positive presentation.

The most immediate visual impact comes from being clean cut and well dressed. This shows an attention to detail and a sense of discipline, two traits that aid in competence, decision making and responsibility. People see a leader who attempts to look their best as someone who applies themselves and reaches for the best.

Leadership expert Dianna Booher, in her book Communicate Like a Leader: Connecting Strategically to Coach, Inspire, and Get Things Done (Berrett-Koehler, 2017), suggests body language is another brand-related factor. It shows in how you carry yourself and respond to the many stimuli around you. Staying in control of your emotions indicates internal strength and good self-awareness. This conveys a rational and subjective command of situations, boosting your leadership brand with the trust of your people behind you.

How you keep your office space also discloses your level of discipline and self-management. A disheveled desk implies disorganization and an inability to stay on top of things. While a perfectly sparkling desk may indicate you are underutilized, you want to have the signs of being busy, yet not inundated beyond your limits. Again, visual perceptions are powerful influencers in how your people receive your brand.

In addition to physical appearance, your emotional appearance weighs into establishing a strong leadership brand. Several personality traits are especially helpful for positive image building (besides being the right way to lead people). Leaders with a positive outlook, framed by good energy and passion, are greatly appreciated. They influence their people positively and inspire them to do their best work. This is a fantastic brand to stand by.

The Criticality of Communication

Leaders who are good communicators build some of the strongest personal brands. Communication is the lifeblood of every organization. It must be promoted and championed by the leader. Companies are handicapped by poor communication, and their brand is tarnished by underperformance. If a company’s brand is tarnished, so is the brand of the leader.

How a leader communicates reflects on their character and competence. Clear enunciation, authoritative delivery and considerate expression all help form a solid brand. In addition, communicating with emotional control and professionalism forges the trust of your people. They have the security of knowing they’re in good hands.

The best leadership communication is based on facts, not speculation. Speaking knowledgably and objectively gains credibility. Wishful emotion and baseless assumptions don’t build a brand. Credible leaders muster the most influence because they gather the most followers. If you do your homework and prepare thoughtful statements, delivered with insight and diplomacy, your leadership brand will be boosted.

A leader’s communication style also impacts the standing of their brand. A trained executive coach can help you with this. Good communicators explain things well. Speaking in brief segments is less confusing. Going back to summarize significant points helps everyone get on the same page. Your leadership brand will benefit by the engagement of your people when you communicate.

Ask questions to make sure your listeners grasp your message. Also, be open to questions from your audience. This conveys a desire to meet their needs and helps them participate in the dialogue. The goal is not to simply get a message out into the open, but to add value to your people by giving them information they need. Leaders who are known for this have solid personal brands.

Speaking skills need to transfer to large group sessions as well, according to Booher. Having a positive, authoritative presence builds an admirable brand. Your people are looking for hope and security in what you say, even if the news is difficult. Putting their interests first positions you to be highly regarded and branded well.

Relying on Relationships

Leadership is essentially the ability to achieve goals through effective relationships. The leaders who have the greatest relational skills have the greatest chance for success and the best foundation for a solid brand. Is your brand known for valuing relationships and enhancing the work lives of your people?

Relational leaders have strong personal brands because their people feel valued and satisfied. Employees enjoy working for a leader who treats them like a partner, like an appreciated resource. This promotes a feeling of security. Leaders who offer these kinds of relationships have a highly regarded brand and benefit in many ways.

Leaders with relational skills want to connect with and engage their people. This involves showing an interest in them, and seeking to understand their hopes and concerns. Leaders who can dialog with active listening build relationships.

Asking questions and actively listening demonstrates interest in others and signals that their thoughts are worth knowing. Be inclusive, asking for feedback from everyone at some point or another. You honor people by appreciating their ideas and solutions to problems.

A key factor is to be approachable and reasonable. If your people know they can come to you and build on a relationship, they will trust you and value your leadership. When employees are comfortable and satisfied with their leader, there are no limits to what they can accomplish.

Inspire your people with a positive, empowering approach. Delegate as much authority as their level can accommodate. Celebrate their victories.

The executive coaching field has grown significantly over the last decade as leaders greatly benefit by having a personal coach. Yet despite numerous resources and successes, the advantages of executive coaching remain elusive: misnomers, misunderstandings and myths block the full truth.

Of course, coaches tout the advantages, but some messages are interpreted as simply self-promoting. Due to the personal and confidential nature of coaching, leaders aren’t prone to proclaim its advantages. Thus, the business world receives incomplete information about coaching, where unfortunate myths taint its significance.

When case studies, testimonials and statistical research debunk common coaching myths, skeptical leaders often shift their perspective and agree to give coaching a fair shake. Those who do are pleasantly surprised and wonder why they went so long without the assistance of an executive coach.

I Don’t Need a Coach

A common mindset causes leaders to believe they don’t need help. They feel their skills and knowledge are sufficient to do their jobs. After all, they’ve been doing their jobs all along, and things seem to be alright; stuff is getting done.

This kind of perspective represents an “iceberg outlook” where only a surface-oriented assessment is made. What lies below the surface is either unknown or ignored. If a leader’s experience or skill level prevent seeing what lurks under the surface, their ship is in danger.

Sometimes leaders are so inundated with day-to-day crises they are robbed of the opportunities to step back and evaluate what might be hiding below the waves. Alternatively, if dangers are suspected down there, some leaders aren’t willing to face them; exploration is postponed until a more “opportune” time arrives.

It’s not uncommon for leaders to envision the most positive outlook. They reason that they can manage their challenges, and coaching won’t be of much benefit. This myth is unfounded, as proven by many leadership stories and case studies.

Human behavior experts agree our self-assessments are flawed because we generally see what we want to see.  The Psychology Today article,“Metaperceptions: How Do You See Yourself?” describes how we paint ourselves in the most positive light. But the best source of objective information about a leader’s abilities and tendencies is from another set of eyes. This is where a trained executive coach is invaluable.

Executive coaches have the skills to assess circumstances without the influence of personal or emotional ties, or organizational tradition. They are trained to diagnose issues from observation, discussions and experience. When a leader sees the truth about their situation, their coach can guide them through the process to address issues with fresh perspectives, thinking and behaviors.

The best leaders learn that there’s nothing wrong with having blind spots. Everyone does. The key is to identify and overcome them. More and more leaders credit the added viewpoint of a qualified executive coach who leads them to see what they never saw themselves. They are also thankful for a coach’s ability to guide them through a process to discover their own solutions.

Being Coached is Too Awkward

Some leaders believe the myth that having a coach is an awkward admission of inadequacy; there’s something wrong with them, and they need serious help. This is unfortunate for two reasons. First, there is nothing wrong with needing help. Everyone needs help from time to time, and leadership doesn’t elevate a person to a royal level above this human trait.

Being true to oneself is a key aspect to humility, openness and transparency—traits that leadership experts describe as essential to effective management. Employees trust leaders who are humble, transparent, and willing to learn. They distrust leaders who pridefully separate themselves from their people.    

Secondly, the thrust of executive coaching is not to expose grievous shortcomings in the leader. Effective coaching is designed to build upon the skills a leader already has, and to maximize their potential. Certainly, this involves addressing a blind spot or areas that need improving, but the emphasis is to get even better at leading.

Coaches inject perspectives and pose questions to help a leader gain clarity in what their people need and how best to provide it. This strengthens an organization, often with subtle adjustments. Leaders are not torn down by their coaches, rather, they are built up—similar to how a good athletic coach guides an athlete to be the best they can be.

Some leaders reject vulnerability in the presence of an executive coach as seeming weak or unknowledgeable, further explained by Vik Kapoor in Forbes. The myth is that the leader is inferior to the coach and must bear their soul to them, forcing the leader to deal with insecurities, weaknesses or failures.

Many executive coaches are not psychologists. Their process does not include intensive analysis, nor do they dive in to a client’s past, personal life or private matters. Leaders are not put in vulnerable positions.

The best leaders have learned that while hard skills such as  decision-making, analysis, delegating and control are certainly part of effective management (in the proper proportions), the most powerful leadership tools are softer skills: transparency, humility, empathy, honesty and personal engagement. Leaders unfamiliar with soft skills may feel vulnerable with an executive coach who emphasizes these as part of the coaching process. Great leaders grasp these opportunities to learn and grow their skills in order to become even better at leading.

I Can’t Justify Coaching

Some leaders believe the myth that executive coaching is an unnecessary expense with little return on investment. Unfortunately, the current business culture seeks more short-term gains to justify expenditures. Part of this myth hinges on the belief that the benefits of executive coaching are short term.

Many of today’s top leaders who have executive coaches testify that they have gained better skills and mindsets from their coaching experiences. Their enhanced skillsets have long-term advantages that make them better leaders, and as they continue to apply what they’ve learned the effect only continues. Just as an athlete who is well coached advances in their accomplishments far beyond the current season, well coached leaders become better every year thereafter.

Misconceptions also lie in an underappreciation for what the leader will gain. Contrary to myth, well-coached leaders don’t gain skills in only practices or procedures. They don’t acquire greater expertise in only leadership theory. Leaders benefit from coaching by developing better mindsets, perspectives and attitudes about leading. They can apply themselves in areas they couldn’t before. The benefits touch every aspect of what they do, with long-lasting effects. They become more capable of tackling greater challenges with more effective results, and this makes for a more rewarding career.

But a disproportionate focus on how the leader benefits, rather than the organization as a whole, also fuels this coaching myth. Gallup’s extensive research demonstrates how organizations benefit when the leader’s skills and awareness grow. Employees are more satisfied and engaged. Their productivity and work ethic rise. Efficiency and profitability also rise. Turnover and absenteeism drop. Customer satisfaction is boosted, and that spells prosperity for everyone.

Organizations respond in significant ways when leaders enhance their capabilities through executive coaching. Statistically, the financial return of a well-coached leader can exceed the initial expense many-fold. Organizations that appreciate this extend coaching access to leaders beyond the front office. The potential gains are often immeasurable.

Don’t let myths prevent you and your leaders from becoming all they can be through the benefits of executive coaches!