The deeper work of executive development: Outgrowing Sensitivities

Purpose: To present practical examples of distorted beliefs and perceptions, emotional instability and
cloudy judgement or assumptions that can hamper the performance. The purpose is to help leaders
become aware of these involuntary mistakes and ultimately become aware of their failures, inadequacy,
rejections, etc.

The drivers of behaviour are primarily perception, self-regulation and motivation. They are the
foundations of behavioural integrity, which is in turn, essential in gauging the performance.

Approach: Mapping the Landscape

Classifying the skills that managers can develop, into 4 broad categories (lowest to highest):

1. Intrapersonal skills – emotions, attitudes, motivation

2. Interpersonal skills – relationships
3. Leadership skills – leading a team into competition with rivals
4. Business skills – managing organizational activity

Lowest level domains are more difficult to master, whereas higher domains build upon skills in lower
domains.

Criticism: Most management development activities are aimed at the domains which are higher, and the
contemporary business education is more concerned with principles and functions of business, rather
than help managers apply those skills in necessary areas properly.

Intrapersonal skills (and emotional intelligence) are most important, as a foundation for improving the
three other types of skills. Hence, new management education is more focused towards developing the
intrapersonal skills of managers. For example, the International Master’s Program in Practicing
Management helps in developing a reflective and introspective mindset. Because such skills are harder
to develop, they may help in differentiating the managers in the competition for senior leadership jobs.

Framework: It assumes that many executives are like most common people – they are sensitive to being
psychologically hurt, and this can distort their perception and cause unnecessary emotional instability,
and a defensive and counterproductive behaviour.

An intrapersonal approach to performance problems:

Firstly, it is necessary to explicitly conceptualize and define the ‘performance’, or ‘form’ of the manager.
When an executive’s form is off, he may go into the extreme. He might let go off the high standards and
cross over into abrasiveness. At times, the strategic reach and ambition of some visionary can exceed
the organization’s grasp as well.

At the same time, they can underdo a task as well. Some might have trouble delegating authority and
empowering their team, or getting lost in the big picture.
The above situations are two basic types of performance problems – overdoing and underdoing. In both
cases, performance is distorted.

Sensitivities: They are a set of emotionally charged beliefs and expectations generalized from
experiences that serve to protect the individual from repeating a painful injury. They are products of
adaptive learning. They are involuntary and operate below the threshold of awareness, and our brains
are wired to act like that. They create a vigilant reaction to situations associated with a prior hurt.

Carrying a sensitivity means that the executive often has some deep-rooted painful experiences in the
past, which might arise from different circumstances – from being rejected socially one’s peer group, to
having been the unfortunate child of abusive parents. Such wounds remain fresh even years later.
Similarly, powerful events in adulthood can also have the same effect. Such events create an uncanny
bias towards certain stimuli such that they are misinterpreted to be dangerous. Hence, sensitivities are
automatically activated by situations that remind the executive of past hurts.

Psychological threat to a person activates a physiological stress response, leading to a fight-or-flight

situation. The kind of action (between the two) that the threat response leads to, depends on the
individual’s motivational regulatory focus. A promotion regulatory focus leads to ‘fight’ behaviour and
consequently ‘overdoing’ the task, whereas a ‘prevention’ regulatory focus encourages ‘flight’
behaviour, and hence, ‘underdoing’ the task in question.

Sensitivity and performance problems:

Not every performance problem is the reason of an underlying sensitivity issue. For example, it might
simply mean a lack of experience or skill in that area.

Different types of sensitivities:

 Sensitivity to intellectual inadequacy: Feeling of inferiority that stems out from not having
graduated college, or having attended a lesser school, or similar. This might lead to-
o Underestimate and underdo: The managers might avoid serious efforts to acquire
technical knowledge or become silent in meetings with peers or seniors. They altogether
avoid activities associated with intelligence.
o Underestimate and overdo: The managers may want to prove their intelligence by
dominating the conversation and trying to work extra hard to compensate, by
overpreparing for meetings, not making room for audience participation, and more.
 Sensitivity to being weak: Some executives are too keen and anxious to prove their strength,
owing to a need for status which comes from an inferiority complex. In the ‘overdo’ situation,
they can swoop in and take charge and present themselves as over-confident that comes across
as sheer arrogance. In the ‘underdo’ situation, he doesn’t delegate work, doesn’t seek input
(worried about not measuring up personally) or doesn’t even check or believe in his own
judgement.
 Sensitivity to disapproval: Concerned with being liked, the executives find it difficult to express
dissatisfaction and hold people accountable. They’ll hold back even on constructive criticism or
 standing up to their employee, even if the employee’s performance isn’t cutting it. They don’t
want to offend anyone, so they will allow decisions to stall while giving everyone ample space to
put their opinions. They also have difficulty in influencing others and might avoid most conflicts.
In case of overdoing, the manager may be too indiscriminate with praise, such that those words
lose their weight too quickly. Such managers might also take constructive feedback personally.
 Sensitivity to depending on others: Associated with a history of being let down in some
significant way, the managers can’t trust others easily. They are mostly unable to delegate
important tasks effectively. Ultimately, they find out that they don’t have enough time in hand
and are able to utilise only a fraction of their team’s potential. If they do delegate, they might
end up checking constantly for updates.
 Sensitivity to authority: Some managers might have had painful experiences with authoritarian
or volatile parents, and have trouble engaging in dialogues and debates with senior and
authority figures. Fearing dissent could get ugly, they might be too quick to defer. Or, expecting
resistance, they might attack with unnecessary counterpoints.

Intrapersonal skills as the Bedrock of Performance:

Career success in the modern era hinges on two meta-competencies – adaptability and identity –
involving self-awareness, emotional regulation, and the ability to learn from mistakes. Intrapersonal
skills are truly the bedrock of performance, since the art of managing oneself determines the aspects of
managerial performance relative to the surroundings.

The effective application of other skills depends on clear judgement – and when the intrapersonal skills
are in turmoil, when the emotional perturbation kicks in and clouds one’s thinking and judgement, this
becomes difficult to achieve.

Addressing sensitivities in executive development:

1. This process is applicable only to experienced managers and executives because the work is
grounded in their direct experience. It requires that a cycle of action and reflection be carried
out, based on meaningful and real-world experiences.
2. The focus is on managers trying to understand their own leadership and the emotional drivers of
their behaviour.
3. This process requires a great deal of behavioural experimentation and practice on the job,
hence, requires a lot of focus.

Ethical concerns and professional boundaries:

“Is this training, consulting, counselling or therapy?”

1. Educators and consultants need competence with psychological principles including emotion,
motivation, and unconscious dynamics.
2. Responsiveness to learner is of paramount importance. Participation in the process must be
strictly voluntary and confidential (hence, it should not be made mandatory).
 3. The educators or experts should understand their own professional limits and stay within the
boundaries of their expertise.

The Assessment:

A comprehensive assessment of the individual’s leadership needs to be done, in the context of his life
history. Gathering the different sets of data points throughout the life and supplemented with
psychological puzzles to find clarity in the bigger picture, a theory can be built about the individual’s
strengths and limitations, as well as motivating factors.

The expert guides the manager about the sensitivities so that he can have authorship regarding how the
pieces are put together.

Another option: The ‘column exercise’, facilitating individual learners through a self-discovery process,
by giving them a frustrating work and noticing how each member is contributing to it.

Managing expectations: Outgrowing a sensitivity is a long-term process and demands a different

mentality, so for managers who want to ‘solve their problems’ as soon as possible, it’s the educator’s
responsibility to calibrate their expectations. He should actively manage expectations about seeing
results, because outgrowing a sensitivity, if possible, at all, takes a lot of time and effort. Often, there is
relapse and progress and then again relapse, and so on, before there is a lasting change.

1. Track 1: Minimizing the disruptive effects of a sensitivity. Focused on managing symptoms to

minimize the disruptive impact of sensitivities on day-to-day behaviour. Steps:
a. Becoming aware: learning that we have the sensitivity and consciously truing to control
it, trying to be aware of the unconscious fears, perceptual biases, and exaggerated
response tendencies.
b. Learning to recognize the signals: Symptoms might include increasing heart rate and
vascular resistance, producing a dramatic increase in blood pressure and bodily
resistance. After learning to identify these beforehand, managers can be in a position to
use this feedback loop to catch themselves before appearing in a fight-or-flight
situation.
c. Learning to short-circuit the fight-or-flight reflex: Redirecting the tension and urge to
act, from something counterproductive to a benign activity.
d. Managing one’s energy: This is important, as a person low on energy is more prone to
falling into old habits and routines. To maintain high level of energy, a healthy and
balanced diet, a good night’s sleep etc. can be carried out. Also, systematic use of
downtime can enhance one’s productivity – for example, taking regular vacations after
intense periods of work, and so on.
e. Enlisting help to keep you in bound: Enlisting a confidant, deputy, or an advisor. This
provides invaluable help in containing the disruptive effects in the near term.
2. Track 2: Outgrowing the sensitivity altogether. It focuses on promoting personal growth over the
long haul. Both action and reflection are necessary in this. Track 1 is mostly incremental
learning, while track 2 is about transformational learning – that is the key to outgrowing a
sensitivity because it promises to rebuild the way we perceive and experience this world. Steps:
a. Uncover basic beliefs and assumptions: Assumptions get us into trouble when we stop
treating them as assumptions and consider them to be facts. For a learning opportunity,
tacit beliefs need to be investigated as assumptions, and need to be challenged.
b. Conduct behavioural experiments: When the managers grow somewhat more
comfortable with being in situations that have traditionally been threatening, they are
ready to experiment with new behaviour and new ways of acting.
c. Systematically reflect on experience: One way is making regular entries in a journal,
noting down the experiences and observations of oneself.
d. Explore values and the self-concept.
e. Form a support system.