This episode of the HBR Ideacast features a one-time coaching session with Braeden, a leader who has transitioned from a solopreneur to a strategic leadership role. Braeden discusses the challenges of balancing strategic advising with his technical background and managing a living strategic plan.
, part of the HBR Podcast Network. I’m a longtime executive coach who works with highly successful leaders who’ve hit a bump in the road. My job is to help them get over that bump by clarifying their goals and figuring out a way to reach them so that hopefully they can lead with a little more ease. I typically work with clients over the course of several months, but on this show we have a one-time coaching meeting focusing on a specific leadership challenge they’re facing.
MURIEL WILKINS: Braeden has now been in that current role for a few years, so we started the conversation by looking at how it’s been going so far. How much has reality matched up with his expectations? I’m not exactly sure where I got my expectations for culture from, but it has become more and more evident as time has passed that this organization’s culture, I think there’s a significant gap between the culture that the owners want or feel that they need and what they are able to do in terms of culture change on their own and where the rest of the organization is.
I don’t want to say that there hasn’t been change, that there haven’t been milestones matter successes, but it just feels like there’s so much more to do. And when I look at the calendar and I look at where we are organizationally in terms of the movement towards our long-term goals, which are big, hairy and audacious, it’s hard to see the movement.
But what really feels so far away are some of the measurable things in terms of our revenue targets or our profitability targets or our expansion targets, or again, that community improvement, cultural, societal impact that we think we can have through the work that we do. Those are the things that still feel really far away because on a month-to-month basis, the P&L sheet, the balance sheet, they’re not changing a whole lot.
So there’s a couple of things here. Number one is you talked about your success and that you believe you can and you will be successful. And then you talked about others being successful and the business being successful.
And I think back to my own dad. I mean, he is an incredible leader and he has always been happy to just be his own business, but has never expanded his business, never grew his business, was always happy it paid the bills for the family, and it got him what he needed in terms of income and flexibility in his time to do other volunteer efforts and things like that. So, I get it that that is totally a valid strategy.
The caveat to that—and again, this is where I just don’t know—is I think that they’ve really struggled with the idea of separating their ownership and the entrepreneur side of themselves from the operator side of themselves. They’re constantly getting pulled into the weeds, constantly doing things for people further down the org chart, constantly filling in. And I’m sure that is exhausting, hard to prioritize, hard to get things done, and that probably ultimately makes it hard to change.
MURIEL WILKINS: All the things that you just named, you’re the facilitator of the conversation, you’re the truth-teller, you mirror back, you report back, you say, “Hey, here’s where we are.” Okay?BRAEDEN: To an extent that I make myself uncomfortable with how often I am communicating those things. I should check myself. This is a moment where I can check myself. So, thank you for that question.
And going back to something I said earlier, this is another moment though that gives me a little bit of apprehension because now we’re bringing in someone who frankly outpaces me in every aspect, operationally, probably an incredible strategic thinker, may not need someone with my skill set. That is causing me some anxiety.
Here’s where I’m seeing the struggle. And again, just from my purview. On the one hand, it sounds like you’re great and you do enjoy being able to advise, consult, influence. But what breaks down for you is when you’re doing the advise, influence, consult, and yet the people you’re doing that for are not moving towards the goals that you are advising them on. So, it’s almost like you’re telling them, “Yes, I’m here to tell you to do this.
And he’s heard that feedback and his response has always been, “Our motivations are the same.” And I think that what I’m getting from this is no, they’re really not. I have this intuitive feeling that they’re not, behaviorally they’re not. They’re not, period. And that is probably the next conversation that needs to happen because that takes it all the way from how I’m compensated for what I do and the outcomes that I produce, all the way back through what is my role.
Leadership Strategy Transition Technical Expertise Strategic Planning
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