Money Influences Leadership

In recent weeks I have been doing some leadership development consulting and coaching. The goal of this work has been mainly to help the leaders to build their emotional intelligence and then generally their self awareness of what is driving the decisions they are making.

Typically, most leadership development work of this kind focuses on the person's behaviors, experiences, the influences of the environments they are in and have come from, their skills and knowledge, and even their states of consciousness. All with the goal of helping the leader understand themselves better and becoming more empowered. Then there is also training on specific leadership methodologies and strategies. None of these factors are to be underestimated as being unimportant, because they all are.

However, there is one factor often missing from the discussion -- and that is money. The reality is that the topic of money is missing from the coaching agenda full-stop. Why? Talking about money can be a very emotionally charged issue for both the leader and the consultant/coach. Many people are, when it gets down to it, mystified by money and the power of its impact.

The reality is, money is directly or indirectly wrapped up in some way with every decision that a person makes, and is therefore a very powerful influence. Leadership decisions are no different. You only have to look at some of the decisions made by leaders in the last 10 years and see the devastating outcomes resulting in spectacular corporate collapses, insider trading, bankruptcy. Also, the great corporate performances can be attributed to a healthy money attitude.

Yes, money can be the carrot to incentivize performance, but it can also be the driver of warped decisions. Let’s not say all of the bad decisions are deliberate because they are not. Some of them are caused by blind spots or put in another way, a simple lack of awareness.

Nevertheless, the point is that your perspective on money, whether conscious or not, influences your leadership - the decisions you make, the goals you set, action plans, how you manage yourself and others and so on.

So, reflect on how your leadership is influenced by money. Perhaps understanding your own relationship to money will improve the quality of your leadership, corporate results, and ultimately your life.

Information Flows Drive Energy

Last night I was called by a family friend (for the sake of the innocent, Amy) who was being pushed by an advisor to make a major decision in regard to transferring her retirement savings account. Why was Amy asking me the question?

Basically, she was feeling uncomfortable and very hesitant. And yet, Amy is normally a very confident decision-maker and is not completely inexperienced with financial matters.

The reason is that Amy's financial advisor had made the recommendation and given her a huge envelope of documents to work through and absorb. Amy did not even know where to start. The whole thought of this was energy draining. Then the questions of what is the bottom line, what are the risks etc all come up. In essence, her level of trust is diminished.

The issue is not the fact that a proposal has been made. It is all about how the information has been provided. What you need to realize is that this was then negatively affecting Amy's energy. What will happen? She could just make the decision and regret it later, or simply dismiss the proposal.

So, I gave Amy the very simple, but liberating solution, of asking her advisor to re-frame the proposal and provide in a summary format the benefits and costs of both the new solution and retaining the existing solution. The details can be checked afterwards as needed - which a detailed person will do.

What I am saying is that if you are the client, ask your advisor to communicate on your terms and then it will be easier to make a decision with comfort. If you are the advisor, build trust with your clients by asking them how they want the information provided. You may find that you will have a much happier and ultimately profitable client.

When people hesitate it is very often simply the way they have been communicated with. The information flows drive your energy to make good or bad decisions.