Overconfidence: Strategies for Influencing Leaders Who Refuse to Listen

🤔 Is your leader overconfident, refuses to listen to alternative viewpoints, surrounded by many ‘yes’ colleagues?

This was one of the topics that came up in a coaching session.

A coach can help you elevate your executive leadership presence, confidence and skills to navigate such challenges and dynamics.

Here are some strategies that we explored and you too can use:

🔗 Establish yourself as a reliable credible and trustworthy advisor. Show expertise through thoughtful insights and consistent performance

📊 Use data to support your ideas and suggestions, highlighting potential risks and benefits. This helps shift decision making from opinion based to evidence based

🌍 Facilitate and encourage team members to share their viewpoints, emphasising the value of diverse perspectives for innovation and risk mitigation

❓ Ask open-ended questions that provoke critical thinking, for example, ‘What are the potential downsides of this approach? How might this impact our long term goals?’ can  help leaders explore different viewpoints without feeling challenged.

🤝 Identify key influencers within the leader’s circle who share your perspectives. Collaborate with them to present a united front, making it harder for the executive to dismiss alternative viewpoints.

🔄 Be courageous and offer feedback respectfully, focusing on the impact of behaviour on team performance and outcomes, rather than personal traits. Provide specific examples to support your points.

Celebrate small wins and continue to build on them.

👉 How do you handle overconfident leaders?

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Supporting senior leaders and their teams through tailored coaching and leadership development programmes