ROLL – Reflect, Open, Legitimate & Lead

A Coaching Model By Rob Hands, Leadership Coach, SINGAPORE

ROLL: Creating Better Leaders Across Organizations

Job satisfaction amongst the workforce has reached a new low.

A 2021 CivicScience survey identified the percentage of US adults reporting that they are happy in their jobs fell from 84% to only 68%. This increasing level of dissatisfaction in the workforce resulted in a record 48 million resignations in the US in 2021. This was followed by an additional 4.3m in January 2022 and that trend is expected to continue into 2022 and beyond.

There are several attributable factors for this ‘mass resignation’ phenomena, many of which are related to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, including a shift to working-from-home, a greater desire for a work-life re-balance, greater connectivity, and the round-the-clock demands of a more highly connected world leading to burnout. These have acted as a catalyst for a fundamental change in approach to working a traditional 9-to-5 job across the global workforce.

Furthermore, these factors have also led to an increase in the levels of dissatisfaction with employers and have often seen a deterioration in the relationship between staff and their managers. This is especially acute when they apply some of the more traditional, inflexible, out-of-date management practices of the past. The way of working and the workforce themselves have evolved and therefore approaches to management need to adapt and evolve to meet the demands of the modern environment.

However, this is not just a post-pandemic development. The evidence shows that this rising friction between staff and management pre-dated the Covid-19 pandemic:

A 2018 Udemy study found that nearly half of employees surveyed had quit because of a bad boss and two-thirds believed their boss lacked proper managerial training. This figure is thought to have continued to increase in recent years.

Coaching Niche:

To help address this, the aim of my coaching model is focused on creating better leaders across organizations by helping individuals transform from thinking like a boss or an individual contributor to thinking, and acting, as a leader.

The target clients would be aged between 25-45 years old, typically employed in professional services firms. It would not be gender-specific.

These individuals would either be in existing leadership positions, be new to management or be those identified as high-potential, talented, future leaders of the organization.

They are ambitious and have achieved success in their careers to date.

The engagement of a coach would typically be sponsored by the employer, usually on a minimum of 3 x 1-hour sessions contract.

The aim of the coaching model is to help these individuals develop a leader’s mindset, enabling them to achieve, or exceed, their potential and help them to create a high-performing team under their leadership. This will help to increase the motivation of employees, improve productivity, increase creativity, and reduce staff attrition. All of these result in significant savings and improved financial performance for the organizations.

Through the utilization of the below coaching model, clients will achieve a greater understanding of their strengths and values and understand the key elements of successful leaders – including the importance of trust – and how to introduce and enhance these factors through their actions and behaviors.

Coaching Model: R.O.L.L. (ROLL)

Reflect:            

Who are you?

Before someone can lead, they must have a strong grasp on their own values, strengths, and weaknesses. High self-awareness is an essential trait of successful leaders.

There are many ways of leading: Some lead through great communication, some lead through inspirational actions, some lead through selflessness, some lead through decisiveness, and some lead through empathy. Some lead through infectious energy, and some lead through more thoughtful deliberate actions. Most successful leaders display a mixture of all of these.

There is no single ‘right’ way to be a good leader. However, being true to yourself IS essential. Failure to be true to yourself will make it incredibly hard to build trust –which is the single most important factor found in successful teams. 

So, in order to ensure a leader is authentically true to themselves, the successful leader must be self-aware enough to be able to identify what their own strengths and weaknesses are. It’s important that they can articulate what motivates them and what energizes them. Furthermore, it’s helpful to identify behaviors that can trigger a negative emotional reaction. This type of self-awareness can be a powerful tool in building a rapport with the team if these triggers can be identified and articulated in a clear manner.

See the below table that shows the positive impact of high self-awareness on teams:

Open:              

Do not be afraid to show vulnerability:

A leader, first and foremost, is human. Only when we have the strength to show our vulnerability can we truly lead. Simon Sinek

In the past vulnerability has been seen as a weakness or a liability for leaders, as leaders feel a constant pressure to perform at a higher level than others, however, this perspective can be debilitating and counterproductive.

By being vulnerable a leader is showing authenticity. They are also showing that they are real human beings which helps to form genuine interpersonal connections:

Vulnerability is the core, the heart, the centre, of meaningful human experiences. Brene Brown

Furthermore, showing vulnerability encourages the team to be more forthcoming with ideas. The team will be less afraid of ‘failure’ leading to a more fertile breeding ground for innovation and creative ideas, as well as a more communicative environment. This also leads to identifying problems faster, as people are unafraid to highlight mistakes or errors.

Vulnerability stimulates collaboration, learning, and a growth environment, rather than fear and a blame culture.

Legitimate:     

Authenticity and Integrity.

Authentic leadership is easier to recognize than define as it embraces several elements. However, what is consistent is that authentic leaders all put other people first, are strong communicators, are self-aware and they act with integrity:

The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office. Dwight D. Eisenhower

The below table shows that integrity is listed as the most important factor in a corporate leader, across all age groups:

Lead:                

A successful leader must think selflessly.

Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. Jack Welch

If coming from a role as an individual contributor, it’s essential that the new manager shifts their perspective of thinking of ‘Me to We’ (see Power Tool).

Roll Coaching Model Attributes

The attributes highlighted above, of being self-aware (Reflect), being transparent and unafraid to show vulnerability (Open), and being authentic and always acting with integrity (Legitimate) will lead the client to become a more effective Leader. This is the ROLL coaching model.

References

CivicScience
Org
Simon Sinek
Brene Brown
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Robert Half Management Resources
Jack Welch