Leadership development for high achievers: how to let go and still get results, sustainably
Part 6. Understanding your Controlling and Achieving behaviours in the Leadership Circle Profile
Welcome to part 6 of Inspiring Leadership series. Previously, I compared Reactive and Creative leadership profiles, beginning with relationship-oriented leaders whose effectiveness is often undermined by limiting beliefs like 'I need everyone's approval to succeed.' (Complying in the Reactive). I also introduced the more evolved Creative behaviours that honour relationship values while embracing necessary conflict and tension—creating space for authentic collaboration and, ultimately, more effective leadership outcomes.
In this article, we will look at the Task Dimension of the LCP and the beliefs that focus on bringing results: the less effective Controlling in the Reactive and the more effective Achieving in the Creative.
Both Controlling (Reactive) and Achieving (Creative) dimensions reside on the Task side of the LCP, but differ in their effectiveness.
Over time, it becomes easy to recognise a leader’s beliefs and assumptions even without seeing their LCP results. In my coaching practice, such beliefs are usually voiced as:
“Why do I have to keep doing everything myself???”
“I tried, and they just won’t do the job as well as me.”
“This is an important client presentation and I can’t let them stuff it up.”
(Read Michelle’s story further down)
All valid points, but points that represent beliefs that drive leaders to take over, micromanage, work extra long hours and be frustrated with their team. A type of leadership under which team members burn out or quit, leading to organisations having to make a choice: either tolerate such leadership (because “it gets results”), request the leader learns how to manage the team better or replace them with someone who can also bring similar results, but with less damage in the process. When such leaders come to work on themselves and improve their leadership impact, they usually work on moving from Controlling in the Reactice to Achieving in the Creative dimensions.
Remember, this is a series about beliefs that drive behaviours that in turn bring certain results. So, let’s start with a set of beliefs that drive the Controlling behaviours in the LCP:
The Controlling dimension measures the extent to which you establish a sense of personal security and worth through task accomplishment, personal achievement, power, and control.
Although being able to stand your ground and move projects forward is a required ability to have for a leader, notice the bold text above – this is where the trap is: people who overidentify themselves and their self-worth with achieving tasks tend to react badly when things aren't going their way, thus limiting the positive impact they could be having.
The Controlling dimension is composed of these tendencies (and remember, Leadership Circle's definition of these tendencies is different from a dictionary definition, as they each measure distinct leadership behaviours):
Perfect – your need to attain flawless results and perform to extremely high standards in order to feel secure and worthwhile as a person.
Driven – the extent to which you are in overdrive.
Ambition – the extent to which you need to get ahead, move up in the organisation, and be better than others.
Autocratic – your tendency to be forceful, aggressive, and controlling.
A High Controlling Rating (66 or above) means you strive to take charge, be on top, and exert control over others in order to gain self-worth, personal safety, and identity.
A Low Rating (33 or below) means you have few of the characteristics described above. It further suggests (depending on your scores on other scales) that you may possess many of the strengths of this stance without the liabilities.
Internal Assumptions
Internal Assumptions are the beliefs you use to organize your identity. They are the inner rules or beliefs that define how you see yourself and your relationship to the world. The Internal Assumptions often associated with the Controlling dimension include:
I stay safe by taking charge
Only the strong survive and I will be one of them
I need to triumph over others to feel good about myself
Anything less than perfect is not okay
I am a valuable person when people look up to me with admiration
The world is made up of winners and losers (notice the black and white, either-or thinking here)
Being less than others is unacceptable and threatens my security
Failure, of any proportion, could lead to my demise
Behaviours
Behaviors are the external expression of your internal assumptions. The general behaviours associated with the Controlling dimension include:
Competing
Setting exacting standards
Striving for perfection
Using authority to take charge, influence, and get your way
Exerting tremendous effort and energy to achieve goals Speaking directly and bluntly
Pushing yourself and others to win
Taking charge in most situations
Controlling Gifts and Strengths
Every Reactive dimension is capable and gifted. When using the strengths of the Controlling dimension you will tend towards:
Pursuing continuous improvement
Excelling in many situations
Setting high standards
Creating results
Influencing others
Speaking your opinion even if it is controversial
Taking charge and getting into action
Liabilities
Every Reactive dimension has liabilities and limitations. The downside of the Controlling dimension is the constant need (conscious or unconscious) to continuously excel, dominate, compete, win, and control. These needs result in behaviours which tend toward:
Being overly aggressive
Discounting or ignoring negative feedback
Believing your own “press”
Demanding flawless performance of yourself and others
Overlooking others’ aspirations and goals
Having a strong need to compete, causing you to see everything in terms of winning and losing
Fearing and avoiding failure
Becoming so preoccupied with winning that you lose focus on the pursuit of excellence and achievement and, as a result, do not perform up to your real potential
Putting results ahead of the work group’s feelings
Setting unrealistic standards of performance for others
Managing in high-control ways that are costly to the organization
Scoring high suggests that you have a need to be seen as aggressive, strong, invulnerable, right, on top, better/ more than others, perfect, flawless, and/or heroic. You may struggle with relationships, team development, and collaboration skills (see Relating from the previous post).
Correlations with Leadership Effectiveness
As a reminder, a high Controlling score is a sign that you value results and that you're probably valued for bringing results, but it also means that you can be dictated by those results and succumb to the pressures when facing deadlines or when quality may be affected. Pressures that lead you to stepping in too much and your team's potential not being utilised as much as it can be.
The table below shows the negative correlation between Controlling tendencies (Perfect, Driven, Ambitious, Autocratic) and Leadership Effectiveness (-0.41).
Compare it with the Creative competencies in the Achieving dimension (Strategic Focus, Purposeful & Visionary, Achieves Results, Decisiveness) and their strong correlation with Leadership Effectiveness of 0.91. The invitation is to see how you can develop these creative competencies and where they will be better suited for where you want to be in your career, and in life.
Source: Leadership Circle and Organizational Performance whitepaper by Bob Anderson*
So, what is the difference between Controlling styles and Achieving competencies? Let’s start with how LCP defines the Achieving summary dimension and we will explore the internal assumptions next.
The Achieving dimension measures the extent to which you offer visionary, authentic, and high-achievement leadership.
It is composed of:
Strategic Focus – the extent to which you think strategically.
Purposeful & Visionary – the extent to which you clearly communicate and model commitment to personal purpose and vision.
Achieves Results – the degree to which you are goal-directed and have a track record of goal achievement and high performance.
Decisiveness – your ability to make decisions on time, and the extent to which you are comfortable moving forward in uncertainty.
A High Rating suggests that you maintain a high standard of excellence in your work and activities. You tend to be recognized as a leader in your chosen field of endeavour. Your own values, beliefs, vision, and intuitions motivate you from within. You take responsibility for your own actions and circumstances. Risk taking is easier because you have a high sense of self-worth. Your inner self-confidence is clearly projected to the outside world.
You tend to empower others by modelling and teaching your creative process. You know how to create vision and translate vision into strategies, strategies into goals, and goals into actions that achieve results. Your optimism, creativity, and natural curiosity are contagious. Others learn this just by being around you.
You have a deep sense of purpose, and create out of love for the result or the process of creating. You do what you do, not as a means to prove your worth or assure security, but because you want to be creative, learn and grow.
A Low Rating means you may lack many of the competencies that help you make things happen. You should examine internal assumptions that may be blocking your creative capability.
Internal Assumptions
Internal assumptions are the beliefs you use to organise your identity. They are the inner rules or beliefs that define how you see yourself and your relationship to the world. The Internal assumptions often associated with the Achieving dimension include:
I have a purpose and mission in life
People want to fulfill their purpose and mission in life
I am responsible for the results in my life
I am interdependent with all of lif
It is safe to tell the truth without adding emotional judgements and blame
I can choose my attitude towards events
Personal worth is inherent and independent of circumstances
Behaviours
Behaviors are the external expression of your Internal Assumptions. The general behaviors associated with the Achieving dimension include:
Taking initiative
Setting high standards for achievement
Learning from experience
Viewing situations through a positive/optimistic filter
Focusing persistently on creating what matters most
Acting as a role model
Striking a balance between being active and being receptive
Offering your original perspectives
Initiating projects
Reaching for high goals
Speaking openly in the presence of “authorities”
Listening and learning from subordinates
If you score low in Achieving (33 or below):
Scoring low on Achieving can be a problem. This dimension contains many of the leadership competencies that are traditionally thought of as leadership. These are the competencies that make things happen. Also, look at the Reactive dimensions for internal assumptions that may be blocking your full creative capability.
Scoring low suggests that you are underperforming. The behaviours associated with low scores in the Achieving dimension include:
Making excuses for not meeting goals or commitments
Waiting for others to set direction or make decisions before acting
Doing what you know is easily accomplished
Striving to prove yourself through achievements
Avoiding the risk of big challenges
Blaming others for your problems—expecting them to do most of the changing
Defending yourself, being slow to admit mistakes, ignoring failures and shortcomings
Playing out various roles in your life rather than acting from your authentic center
Low scores on Achieving can be related to low scores all across the Creative sphere. All of the competencies that comprise effective leadership spring from an internal source of self-knowledge.
Consequently, low scores on this dimension may well show up as low scores on any of the Creative Competencies. In addition, low scores on this scale are correlated with high scores in the Reactive sphere. High Reactive scores tend to block or limit your capability to discover and lead from your own inner vitality, integrity, and vision.
These behaviours come from an internal insecurity such as not feeling worthy or loved, feeling rejected, not feeling needed, feeling alone and unprotected.
Michelle’s story: from high performer to average leader to high-performing team
Remember these quotes from the beginning of this article?
“Why do I have to keep doing everything myself???”
“I tried, and they just won’t do the job as well as me.”
“This is an important client presentation and I can’t let them stuff it up.”
(Notice - all above are expressions of Controlling in the Reactive)
These are all the rational reasons Michelle named as we worked with her on being a better leader. She had exceptional standards that allowed her to be a high individual performer in the first place, but these same standards coupled with Reactive beliefs stopped her from being an effective team leader. She was taking over her team members during presentations, constantly checking in on her team’s progress that crossed into micromanaging.
Result: reduced trust and disengagement in her team, some even requesting to be moved to other areas.
Michelle had several beliefs in the Reactive that held her down and wouldn’t allow her to shift towards developing her team, so that they can, with her mentoring and guidance, also deliver at such high standards, but as a TEAM. You can see these beliefs if you look back at her comments above. “I have to do everything myself”. “Can’t let them stuff it up”.
In psychology, we call these rationalisations - a logical explanation that prevents us from being in contact with our anxiety of the unknown - what will happen if we try, and keep trying to learn, another way?
Letting go of old beliefs
There were several interventions that can be used to challenge the beliefs that no longer suited her role as a leader. One of those that worked for Michelle was asking “Well, how do other leaders do it in your organisation? Do they also work such long hours and do everything themselves?” Once Michelle thought of examples of good results by engaged teams, she had an opening towards another possible way of showing up. And that required her to go through several stages during our coaching:
Acknowledge that she was disempowering the team herself but taking over, resulting in their reduced ability to step up.
Notice that her built-up frustration created distance between herself and her team, resulting in lower-quality communication and worsened performance.
Agree that if she wanted to do well as a team leader, she needed to work on new ways to lead, manage, mentor and work with her team.
Commit to developing these new muscles, or leadership competencies and accept that it could take some time.
Take small steps towards being a team leader, no longer an individual player.
The role of a leadership coach
Since Michelle was already successful in her career up to this stage, I had no doubt that she could make the required shift, if given the effort. So, my job as a coach was to challenge her to see things differently. To see that there are other ways for her to utilise her already existing skills, talents and dedication to excellence. To challenge her to prioritise developing her team leadership competencies (rather than use her already well-developed performer competencies). To help her be patient with herself as she was learning how to be patient with others. Once she shifted her attention and committed to working on these, my role changed and I stepped back and supported her as she made the first moves towards a new way of leading (rather than micromanaging) her team.
We used several of the Creative Competencies from LCP for Michelle to step into:
Personal Learner (what can I learn here?)
Composure (not to take over under pressure)
Mentoring and Developing (what does my team need to perform well?)
Sustainable Productivity (to prevent Michelle from burning out)
Achieves Results (team results)
Decisiveness (deciding to commit to working on these competencies during our coaching).
You may notice that the main shift for Michelle was to transition from “Me” to “We”. In the words of Steven R Covey, to go from “Independence to Interdependence”.
“Dependent people need others to get what they want. Independent people can get what they want through their own effort. Interdependent people combine their own efforts with the efforts of others to achieve their greatest success.”
- Steven Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Recognise Michelle as a highly independent person? The transition from Independence to Interdependence is what Michelle faced in her developmental journey as a human and as a leader. It is what the world is facing too as different country leaders operate from either “Independent” or “Interdependent country” mindsets.
Coaching results
With first wins a few weeks later and her team doing better without her attending the ‘too-many meetings’, she encountered another challenge: “What do I now do with all this time that I managed to free up?”. She faced another belief, which sat even deeper: “I have to be busy doing.”. It took a few more weeks for her to be comfortable with accepting that part of her job as a leader now was to not only do, but also think, and better yet, to think strategically, to plan ahead, as she said, “To think around the corners”. But I will save that part for another time.
Your own leadership development: what now?
Hopefully, by now you're at least curious enough to explore other, additional, ways of being a people leader. So, how does one let go and help the team develop before you find yourself in a place where people tolerate your leadership style because yes, you do achieve results, but it comes at high costs to your team? Here are a few points to consider - see how you are in each of them.
Awareness: understanding, that there are ways for you to be a more effective leader.
Acceptance: that learning the next level towards leadership mastery can be frustrating and confusing, but it is what you're choosing to do.
Normalisation: there are a lot of leaders around the world who are working on this right now, so you’re not alone. There is a reason it is called leadership development. Like developing muscles, it takes effort to concsiously to let go of beliefs that limit us and grow additional skills.
Inspiration: ask people you respect about how they developed these more advanced ways to achieve together with their teams. Just note that for some, Controlling is not as much of an issue and they may have instead struggled with their Complying (previous post) or Protective tendencies (next post). So ask those who worked on their Controlling tendencies.
Do the work: read, reflect, ask, talk, journal, practice, have accountability partners, speak with mentors, work with a coach - there are many ways through which you can develop these muscles. All of these could help you update your beliefs on what is effective leadership and for you to gather new experiences that will help confirm the usefulness of these new beliefs.
Questions to help you move from Reactive towards Creative on the Leadership Circle Profile:
Ask the below questions and work on getting your answers to them (Creative Competencies in parentheses):
How is my team / our department / our organisation performing? (Systems Awareness, Achieving)
What is the culture of my team? (Systems Awareness, Relating)
Ask your team - what is it like to work with you? (Authenticity, Self-Awareness)
What kind of leader do I want to be? (Self-Awareness, Achieving, Purposeful & Visionary)
What is my vision for my team, for our organization? (Achieving: Purposeful & Visionary)
Ask your team: what do they need from you in order to get the job done on time and to
the desired standard? (Relating: Collaborator, Mentoring & Development, Achieving:
Achieves Results)
Create your own questions to help you find ways to operate from Creative
Competencies.
A reminder:
For higher accuracy using the Leadership Circle Profile for your own development, consider:
Completing the free LCP Self-Assessment on Leadership Circle's' website.
Getting in touch if you want a full 360 LCP+debrief (I'm a certified LCP practitioner).
In the next article, I will cover the remaining Reactive dimension: Protecting. Usually, people who are very intellectually smart find themselves here and that comes with its own set of strengths and challenges.
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Footnotes:
Anderson, B: Leadership Circle and Organizational Performance, LC Whitepaper series
Steven R Covey’s book: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has been one of the more influential books in my life
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