Positivity deficits as targets for coaching

1. Positivity deficits as targets for coaching Elena Mandrikova Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia) e.mandrikova@gmail.com; emandrikova@hse.ru SUMMARY The main purpose of this research is exploring the cross-cultural (Russian vs. International/Western) differences in leadership and management competencies of executives, comparing their influence on the employees, and suggesting ways for development/coaching. For Russian executives the 3 main targets for coaching have been revealed in concordance with different levels of positive functioning/living (pleasant, engaged, meaningful): enlarging emotional competence, developing relational skills, strengthening strategic thinking and visioning. • INTRODUCTION • Contemporary organizational context expected the openness to diversity, readiness for unexpected changes, learning agility, emotional competence from the employees on all organizational levels. Especially, the high standards are requested to the managerial team and executives as strategic leaders, role models for other staff. Leadership and managerial competencies of executives from different countries are quite heterogeneous; and Russian leadership has its own specifics on which traditions and historical-economic background have influenced on (Prokhorov, 2011). • Independently from the cultural context each level of positive functional/living – pleasant, engaged, and meaningful (Seligman, 2002; 2011) – can be characterized by special mechanisms that can be cultivated and developed with the help of different tools. • Coaching as the most efficient approach to positive development can be used in different ways depending on the level where its targets are located; however coaching is mostly based on strengthening the personal resources and strong points. • The personal strengths include curiosity, interest in the world, love of learning, judgment, critical thinking, open-mindedness, ingenuity, originality, practical intelligence, street smarts, social intelligence, personal intelligence, emotional intelligence, and perspective (Seligman, 2002, p. 140-160). In organizations such kind of employees’ personal strengths (as well as strength of character and virtues) could be more efficiently realized and have its impact on the performance in the organizational context with support of autonomy, coaching as a culture of management, charismatic leadership, self-determination, internal motivation (Deci et al.,2001). • The absence of these characteristic of leadership and management reflects in the way of decision making and problem solving in the company, and in the organizational culture issues. As the result the lack of positive motivation, lack of trust and inability to rely on the followers and delegate them responsibility could be called as the positivity deficits. • The investigation of the leadership and management peculiarities of Russian executives will be helpful in identifying foci for the coaching as a more appropriate tool for executives’ leadership development. • METHOD • PARTICIPANTS • The participants (N=52) were Russian executives with at least 3-year experience on managerial positions in local companies; 45 males, 7 females, average age – 39. • PROCEDURE • The research was undertaken in Russia at 2010 using an online questionnaires designed by Korn/Ferry International with the basement on the Decision Dynamics methodology (Driver, Brousseau, Hunsaker, 1993) and implemented by its Alliance Partner - RosExpert company and its Leadership & Talent Consulting practice (Russian CEO Profile, 2010; Mandrikova, 2010). • The results of the participants were collected to profile which was compared with profile of successful executives (Best-in-Class) (based on the methodology it means the higher level of compensation) of 50 nationalities from 16 countries. Thus, we have here global profiles, not only an Anglo-Saxon or American role models; however, profiles haven’t specified by industries. • The current study was designed as a qualitative one. The main purpose was to identify and describe the peculiarities of leadership and managerial approaches of Russian and International (mostly, Western) executives. It could help to identify potential targets for development through the coaching with considering psychological peculiarities of executives regarding their attitudes to development of themselves and their employees. • INSTRUMENTS • Using on-line self-assessment questionnaires • there were assessed 4 parameters relevant • for the leadership and management processes: • Leadership Style • Thinking Style • Emotional Competencies • Career Motivation and Values RESULTS Many of the leadership and managerial competencies of the Russian executives are matching with the international profile of the successful managers. Key distinguishes of Russian executives from the international Best-in-Class executives are at the Leadership style (“public” decision making and interaction with people) and at Emotional competencies. Fig. 3. The comparative profiles of Russian executives and Best-in-Class international executives. Tab.1. Comparative description of profiles of Best-in-Class and Russian executives Fig.1. Parameters for the assessment • CONCLUSION • Based on this qualitative research we could mention that Russian style of leadership and management could be characterized as lacking of positivity – regarding dealing with people management issues, interpersonal communications, the ways of motivation employees. • There were revealed three main groups of targets for development/coaching • Enlarging emotional competence Pleasant • Developing relations management and communication skills Engaged • Strengthening strategic thinking and visioning Meaningful • The lack in these competences could decrease subjective well-being, life satisfaction, and work efficiency of executives and their employees, and can be called as positivity deficits. These targets for coaching correspond to the three levels of positive living depicted above. The coach/coachee may consider these targets in defining differentiated coaching tactics/strategy depending on the location of individual positivity deficits at different levels of positive functioning/living. • REFERENCES • Deci, E.L., Ryan, R.M., Gagné, M., Leone, D.R., Usunov, J., Kornazheva, B.P. Need Satisfaction, Motivation, and Well-Being in the Work Organizations of a Former Eastern Bloc Country: A Cross-Cultural Study of Self-Determination // PSPB, 227, 8, pp.930-942, 2001. • Driver, M., Brousseau, K.R., Hunsaker, P.L. The Dynamic Decision Maker: Five decision styles for executive and business success, Self Discovery Press, Thousand Oaks, 1993. • Mandrikova, E. Opytizucheniyapsychologicheskikhosobennosteyrossiskihgeneral’nyhdirectorov (The experience of investigating the psychological peculiarities of Russian executives), Book of Abstracts, HSE, 2010. • Prokhorov, A. Russkaya model’ upravleniya (Russian management model), StudiaArtemiaLebedeva, 2011. • Russian CEO Profile. A Study by RosExpert Knowledge Management Center, March 2010 • Seligman, M. Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment. Free Press, New York, 2002. • Seligman, M. Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being. New York: Free Press, 2011. Fig.2. Decision styles • Leadership Style – an executive’s learned decision-making behaviors when interacting in groups, influencing and motivating others, and presenting information to an audience. These are the behaviors deployed when the person wishes to make a good impression and the self-presentation style that may be observed in interviews. • Thinking Style – an executive’s learned habits of processing information and coming to conclusions. Thinking Style occurs when the person is alone and not concerned about making a good impression. Thinking style cannot be ascertained from interviews or from most psychometric tests. • Emotional Competencies– an executive’s learned capacities for getting along well with others and effectively dealing with emotionally laden situations. Our assessment measures six competencies that research shows are correlated with effective leadership • Career Values and Motives – an executive’s career motivations and goals understood in the context of his organization’s strategy, structure, reward systems, and valued behaviors. Second World Congress on Positive Psychology, July 23-26, 2011, Philadelphia, PA, USA ;