Working Resources for Leadership - Bay Area Executive Coaching

Executive Coaching for Effective Decision-Making – The Sunk-Cost Trap

Are you working in an organization where leaders display good judgment and make the best decisions possible? Do the leaders in your organization make choices that justify past decisions?

One of the most powerful questions one can ask oneself is “Why does admitting a past mistake bother me?” Inspiring leaders make good decisions by admitting past mistakes.

Are you able to admit failure? Are you open to listening to others who were uninvolved in earlier decisions?  Are you able to make better decisions by creating a culture where failure is not punished but a road to success?

The Sunk-Cost Trap

Another deep seated bias is our tendency to make choices in ways that justify past decisions, even when the latter no longer seem valid. We know rationally that sunk costs are irrelevant to present decisions, but they nevertheless prey on our minds and lead to inappropriate choices.

This frequently occurs when we’re unwilling, consciously or not, to admit a mistake. Acknowledging a poor business decision is a very public matter, inviting criticism from colleagues and bosses. It’s psychologically safer to justify past decisions, make allowances and continue a tenuous course, even when we know the outcome is risky.

The Antidote

You’ll need to make a conscious effort to set aside any sunk costs — psychological or financial—that muddy your thinking. Try these techniques:

• Seek out, and listen carefully to, the views of people who were uninvolved in the earlier decision.
• Examine why admitting a past mistake distresses you. Even the best and most experienced managers are not immune to errors in judgment. Remember the wise words of Warren Buffett: “When you find yourself in a hole, the best thing you can do is stop digging.”
• Be on the lookout for the influence of sunk-cost biases in subordinates’ decisions and recommendations.
• Don’t cultivate a failure-fearing culture that leads employees to perpetuate and cover up mistakes.

Working with a seasoned executive coach trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating leadership assessments such as the Bar-On EQ-i and CPI 260 can help you become a leader who makes good decisions. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence, and who inspires people to become happily engaged with the strategy and vision of the company.

Executive Coaching for Good Decision-Making – The Status-Quo Trap

Are you working in an organization where leaders exercise good judgment and make the right decisions? Do the leaders in your organization examine how they would be served by the status quo?

One of the most powerful questions one can ask oneself is “Would I choose the status quo if it weren’t so?” Inspiring leaders make good decisions by identifying strategic options.

Are you able to take appropriate risks? Are you skilled at generating options?  Are you able to make better decisions by generating different scenarios and solutions?

The Status-Quo Trap

We all carry biases that influence the choices we make. For example, each of us is predisposed to perpetuating the status quo; it’s an inherent part of our thinking. Deep within our psyches, we are self-protective and risk-aversive.

In business, where sins of commission tend to be punished more severely than sins of omission, the status quo holds a particularly magnetic position.

The Antidote

You don’t want to maintain the status quo just because it’s comfortable. Do so only when it turns out to be the genuinely best choice. By becoming aware of the status-quo trap, you can lessen its pull by:

• Always reminding yourself of your objectives and examining how they would be served by the status quo.
• Never thinking of the status quo as your only alternative. Identify other options and use them as counterbalances.
• Asking yourself whether you would choose the status quo if it weren’t so.
• Remembering the desirability of the status quo will change over time.

Working with a seasoned executive coach trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating leadership assessments such as the Bar-On EQ-i and CPI 260 can help you become a leader who makes good decisions. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence, and who inspires people to become happily engaged with the strategy and vision of the company.

Executive Coaching for Improved Decision-Making – The Anchoring Trap

Are you working in an organization where leaders make good decisions? Are the leaders in your organization able to view a problem from different perspectives?

One of the most powerful questions one can ask oneself is “Am I able to view problems from different perspectives and create appropriate solutions?” Inspiring leaders make good decisions by being open-minded.

Are you able to avoid faulty thinking? Do you think about a problem before asking for advice from others?  Are you able to make better decisions by getting input from others?

The Anchoring Trap

When considering a decision, the mind gives disproportionate weight to the first information it receives. Initial impressions, estimates or data anchor subsequent thoughts and judgments. In business, a common anchor is a past event or trend. While relying on such may lead to a reasonably accurate estimate of future numbers, it also tends to give too much weight to past events and not enough to other factors. Especially in markets with rapid changes, historical anchors can lead to poor forecasts and misguided choices.

Because anchors can establish the terms on which a decision is made, they are often used as a bargaining tactic by savvy negotiators.

The Antidote

Anchors affect how managers, accountants, engineers, bankers, lawyers, consultants, stock analysts and virtually all professionals make decisions. No one can avoid their influence. But managers who are aware of their dangers can reduce their impact by using the following techniques:

• Always view a problem from different perspectives. Try using alternative starting points and approaches rather than sticking with your first line of thought.
• Think about the problem on your own before consulting others to avoid becoming anchored to their ideas.
• Be open-minded. Seek information and opinions from a variety of people to widen your frame of reference.
• Avoid anchoring your advisers, consultants and others from whom you solicit information. Tell them as little as possible about your ideas and estimates. If you reveal too much, your preconceptions may simply come back to you.

Working with a seasoned executive coach trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating leadership assessments such as the Bar-On EQ-i and CPI 260 can help you become a leader who makes good decisions. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence, and who inspires people to become happily engaged with the strategy and vision of the company.

Executive Coaching for Interpersonal Conflict - Handling Difficult Behaviors

Are you working in an organization where leaders are good at managing strong emotions in the workplace? Are the leaders in your organization socially intelligent?

One of the most powerful questions one can ask oneself is “Do I avoid emotionally charged interpersonal conflicts?” Emotionally intelligent leaders help people to resolve interpersonal differences.

Are you skilled at managing conflict at work? Do you demonstrate styles of leadership that enable people to be better at listening and understanding?  Are you able to help people communicate by being more empathetic?

Handling Difficult Behaviors

Step One: Develop a Plan

Smart managers can develop a plan for managing anger and other strong emotions in the workplace. This may include establishing policies and retaining employee assistance program counselors to help with more serious problems. When special resources are identified in advance and a clear policy is in place, it’s easier to manage crisis situations.

Step 2: Invest in Training

The wise manager is open to investing in training and personal development programs that focus on emotional intelligence and assertive communications models. Learning how to handle the complex relationships that arise during work projects is an astute investment that will save time, energy and money in the long run.

Understanding basic human thinking styles and behavior patterns will boost your comfort level when handling interpersonal dynamics. Personality-type assessments and 360-degree feedback programs have also proved helpful. The better you know yourself, the greater your likelihood of understanding and tolerating others’ differences. It may be advisable to retain outside consultants and specialists.

Step 3: Invest in Coaching

Consider investing in a coach who can teach your people about human dynamics in the workplace. Greater confidence levels allow employees to work through their anxieties, fears and personality differences. Coaching programs improve individuals’ performance and ultimately increase the bottom line.

Working with a seasoned executive coach trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating leadership assessments such as the Bar-On EQ-i and CPI 260 can help you become a leader who effectively manages interpersonal conflict at work. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence, and who inspires people to become happily engaged with the strategy and vision of the company.

Executive Coaching for Decision-Making – Decision Making Traps

Are you working in an organization where leaders are good at making decisions? Are the leaders in your organization able to frame problems to develop effective solutions?

One of the most powerful questions one can ask oneself is “Do I make good decisions or fall into psychological traps?” Inspiring leaders with good judgment make good decisions.

Are you able to avoid faulty thinking? Do you distort your reasoning ability?  Are you able to make better decisions by being aware of your biases?

The 8 Traps of Decision Making

Before making an important decision, prudent managers evaluate the situations confronting them — and often fall into one of the eight traps of faulty thinking. Some managers are too optimistic and overconfident: They overestimate success and underestimate the range of potential outcomes. On the flipside, other managers are cautious to a fault: They take costly steps to defend against unlikely outcomes.

These are just two of the well-documented psychological traps that ensnare most managers at some point in their careers. Other pitfalls that distort our reasoning abilities and cater to our biases are identified in the classic 1998 Harvard Business Review article “The Hidden Traps in Decision Making,” by John S. Hammond, Ralph L. Keeney and Howard Raiffa:

•    We have a tendency to stick with the status quo.
•    We only look for evidence that confirms our preferences.
•    We are likely to throw good money after bad to defend our position and avoid admitting a mistake.

The way a problem is framed can influence how you develop solutions. To avoid this trap, you need to reframe the question in various ways to see how your thinking may change based on each version.

We can’t always avoid the distortions ingrained in the way our minds work, but we can build in tests to make our decision-making processes more reliable, thus improving the quality of the choices we make.

The Brain Science of Decisions

The human brain’s inherent functions can sabotage our decisions. It takes enormous energy to consciously work through possibilities and risks, so the brain looks for shortcuts. We use unconscious routines, known as heuristics, to cope with complexity — and they normally serve us well. But because they operate largely out of our awareness, they also present traps.

Researchers have identified a series of flaws in the way we think when making decisions. They are hardwired into our thinking process, so we often fail to recognize them. This means they can undermine everything from new product development to acquisitions and divestiture strategy to succession planning.

While we cannot entirely rid ourselves of these ingrained flaws, we can learn to understand the traps and compensate for them. The best defense is awareness.

Working with a seasoned executive coach trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating leadership assessments such as the Bar-On EQ-i and CPI 260 can help you become a leader who avoids psychological traps while making good decisions. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence, and who inspires people to become happily engaged with the strategy and vision of the company.

Executive Coaching for Managing Strong Emotions- The Force of Strong Emotions

Are you working in an organization where leaders are good at dealing with strong emotions? Are the leaders in your organization emotionally intelligent?

One of the most powerful questions one can ask oneself is “Am I open to listening to the world view of people that may be different than my own?” Emotionally intelligent and socially intelligent leaders help people to understand the perspectives of others.

Are you adept at managing conflict with people at work? Do you demonstrate styles of leadership that enable good interpersonal communication?  Are you able to help people communicate by establishing a climate of openness and trust?

The Force of Strong Emotions

Strong emotions include anxiety, fear, anger and an intense drive to be right at all costs. Feelings are often at stake (i.e., being perceived as incompetent, vulnerable or unlikable in the office).

When fear kicks in, there’s an immediate fight-or-flight response in the autonomic nervous system. In a nanosecond, people react to powerful emotions without moderation from the more rational parts of their brains. Individuals may resort to strong language or lash out to defend their territory against a perceived threat. Psychologists refer to this as an “amygdala hijacking” – an immediate rush to either strike back or withdraw in submission. (The amygdala, a structure in the brain’s temporal lobe, plays a role in behavioral responses.)

What happens next is the interpretation of events. Most people cling to what their rational minds tell them is correct or “right,” as each of us operates with a set of assumptions about the way the world is supposed to work. We always operate from our own perspective and worldview; therefore, in our own minds, we are right.

As a manager, you can explore the roots of people’s interpretations of events and help them see other perspectives.

Working with a seasoned executive coach trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating leadership assessments such as the Bar-On EQ-i and CPI 260 can help you become a leader who effectively manages interpersonal conflict at work. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence, and who inspires people to become happily engaged with the strategy and vision of the company.