Too Much or Too Little Space in the Room
One of my favorite parts of my job as an executive coach is helping clients make sense of their 360 reports. These reports can be up to forty pages and contain an overwhelming amount of data, quantitatively and qualitatively. Over time, I have found myself using a simple heuristic to digest the feedback into 3 broad headlines.
Those leaders who are not taking enough space in the room.
Those leaders who are taking right amount of space in the room.
Those leaders who are taking too much space in the room.
While this is a gross simplification of leadership competencies and derailing patterns of behavior, it paints a memorable picture and digestible headline.
It’s not easy to strike the right balance of owning enough space as a leader to give vision, confidence and support to others, while also giving enough space for others to lead, share, shine, challenge and grow.
What’s most important is for leaders to acknowledge and see where they are on the pendulum of space, and move right or left to either step into their vision and voice further or step back to hear and see others more.
