George Orwell wrote, “who controls the past … controls the future.” So, who’s controlling your past?
In a Vanderbilt News posting, Dick Daft, author of The Executive and the Elephant comments that “…virtually every leader has a bottleneck within them, one thing that if they could remove it…they could be a much better leader overall.”
What exactly is a ‘bottleneck’ anyway? In a nutshell, it’s a pattern of behavior learned, in an earlier period of life, which creates a problem in an area of relationship or responsibility. A ‘bottleneck’ is a distinct, unconscious, repetitive pattern with a unique emotional quality and predictable negative outcome.
The repetitive nature of a ‘bottleneck’, generates the same context (with perhaps differing content) over and over again. So, a leader may unconsciously dismisses bad news or poor performance repeatedly, by ignoring the issue or ignoring the behavior of their direct reports. So, the context for the bottleneck is one of disregard and lack of concern, rather than effectively intervening in the problem.
Where do these ‘bottlenecks’ come from? Only the leader knows for sure, but it’s only through the reflective practice of mindfulness that a person gains access to the distinction of the ‘bottleneck’. Without awareness of the distinction, (e.g. “My bottleneck is, ‘I dismiss bad news or poor performance…'”) the ineffective, unconscious behavior runs the show. The past is truly in charge of and controlling the future.
Coaching is a platform to bring mindfulness into the conversation. This reflective process provides the avenue to explore the ‘bottleneck’ and open a dialogue of awareness and presence to the pattern. A leader, having access to this key behavioral information can intervene for themselves in their own ineffective patterns.
Action Items
- Take a moment and reflect on where a bottleneck may be found in your leadership.
- Become aware of how this block is affecting your relationships or performance.
- Plan one new way to break through this old pattern today.
