21 The Importance of Leadership Agility
Brenda Bence
Brenda Bence is a top-ranked global executive coach and leadership branding expert who guides executives and companies to achieve transformational success. Also an author and a keynote speaker, Brenda shares engaging real-life stories and pragmatic approaches to help inspire positive and sustainable change in mindset and behavior – all delivered with a good dose of humor.
“I’ve always been the ‘fix-it’ guy, but I’m not sure how to fix this,” Oliver said to me the first time he arrived in my office for coaching.
As the recently promoted regional head of a large European industrial company, Oliver had shifted from successfully leading one, very large developing country in Asia, to leading six countries spread across various sub-regions of Asia. While each of the six countries was at a different stage of development, there was one thing they all had in common: ever since Oliver had taken over nine months ago, business in each geography was suffering.
Oliver believed that he knew exactly what needed to be done to improve each country’s performance. But, when he shared his suggestions with the country general managers (“GMs”) who reported to him, Oliver felt they ignored him, particularly the leaders in the more developed markets.
“I’ve never encountered a problem like this one,” he confided. “I’ve always been successful in growing businesses in this industry. It’s as if all I’ve learned in the past isn’t working for me anymore.” ...
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