Leadership Development, inemmo
People have often asked me why my Leadership Development and Executive Coaching Consultancy is called “Inemmo” – and we’ll get to that in a few moments, I promise. For me, though, a more interesting (and, as you’ll see, inter-related) question is: why are individuals so reticent to talk themselves up when they turn to the subject of what they spend most of their time doing… namely, working?
It’s a question that has fascinated me for some time – as have the long-term effects of that reticence.
Let’s start from another angle. In my youth, I embarked upon what I would call a “path of discovery”, where I explored and studied lots of different religions and cultivated a passion for psychology and philosophy. This all took place against a backdrop of travelling through and living in various countries on my way to the UK. It was a mind-broadening stage of my life that helped me to step outside situations and really think about them in new, and sometimes critical, ways.
When I became a manager and was suddenly responsible for groups of individuals, a painful truth soon grew clear to me: many organisations put very little investment into developing the true potential of those lower down the pecking order. They invest heavily at the top on leadership development, but less at the bottom or middle, where the need could very well be greater – then wonder why their employees are disengaged and disruptive. This was concerning, because I had always believed that, as a manager, you should look to lead by example, with the aim that colleagues would be inspired to realise their own potential – no matter where in the office “ranking” they stood.
One of the books that most impressed me in my “discovery” stage – which, let’s be honest, never really ended… or should end! – was Stephen R Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. In his book, Covey makes a case for a proactive approach to life, where you choose the outcomes by devoting your energies to the things you can actually influence. At a basic level, that means you choose which emotion you want to feel, regardless of lurking factors you can’t influence, such as bad weather, or the national debt.
In my early management career, I began using Covey’s book as inspiration for writing development programmes for the people who reported to me. In those programmes, I shared details of the book’s outlook, and of other practices I had picked up, with the aim of helping people on their journey to greatness. This was often achieved by making subtle changes to day-to-day office terms – for example, when I worked in a call centre, I changed junior managers’ job titles from “supervisor” to “team leader”: in the spirit of Covey, that new title felt much more proactive.
One thing I was sure of was that I wanted to run my own business, so I took a course from the Coach Training Alliance to find out more about how to help people fulfil their potential. In 2005, I started Inemmo as a project in addition to my normal work, and was an early adopter of LinkedIn. That led me to meet and connect with people I would never have had the opportunity to know otherwise, and made for an increasingly busy schedule – taking advantage of the time difference, I would sometimes coach people in New York by phone after I’d finished work!
Throughout that time, I became more and more aware that, as workers, we have a lot self-doubt. We say many negative things about ourselves, to ourselves. There’s a whole raft of people who feel that way – almost as though they’re convinced that they don’t have the right to be positive about themselves… an unfortunate legacy of top-down management styles. Self-validation is really important. But people often have their heads down, working away so intensely, that they – and their charisma – end up being overlooked. Companies are not doing enough to uncover these gems, so it’s no wonder that managers look around their organisations and feel they don’t have people who can step up. It’s a self-defeating cycle, where employees are left waiting to hear that they are worthy.
That said, it also became clear from my conversations with those I coached that someone in a very junior position can express greater potential for leadership – in terms of, say, project management, or coming up with bold, new ideas – than someone who became a manager through necessity of growth and has been in that role for some time. Leadership is an attitude, and I genuinely believe that the potential to lead exists in all of us. Above all, it’s important for people to become champions of themselves, and with that in mind, our mission is to:
- INspire – convince people that what they want to achieve is possible; that they have the qualities within them to get where they want to be
- EMpower – provide them with the additional psychological tools they may need to release those qualities and fulfil their goals
- MOtivate – keep in touch with them throughout the process to see how they are improving, and encourage them to keep going
And there you have it! INEMMO.
Find out about the workplace issues where we can provide help
Learn more about Stephen R Covey’s book
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