Lately, I’ve been challenging myself to engage in discussions and listen to people I disagree with. In a world full of echo chambers, fighting confirmation bias – the tendency to seek out information that confirms what we already believe – is a rare and valuable skill.
Research shows that being open to opposing views improves decision-making, broadens perspectives, enhances creativity, and generally just gets you invited to more happy hours—all good things.
As I'm sure you can imagine, it’s going horribly.
I’m currently reading a book called "Leadership BS," where the author is in the midst of destroying every belief I hold true and dear. The premise is that everything we’re doing as leaders and coaches is nonsense. He talks about how the vast majority of advice, books, seminars, and coaching leads nowhere. He focuses on failure in the leadership development/training space:
❇️ Employee retention, engagement, and enjoyment are all plummeting
❇️ Corporate behavior is still terrible (40 percent of Fortune 500 companies had engaged in misconduct significant enough to be reported in the national media between 2000 and 2005)
❇️ 50% of all leaders and managers are evaluated to “to be ineffective in their current role.” Where ineffective means being a disappointment, incompetent, a mis-hire, or a complete failure. Harsh.
❇️ A poll of the American workforce where 35% of employees reported that they would “willingly forgo a substantial pay raise in exchange for seeing their direct supervisor fired”
We have similar stats in the health coaching space where nearly 60% of people trying to lose weight give up after three months, and the average amount of time on a weight loss program is about five weeks. In my experience, only ~20-40% of people see results on a weight loss program, and of those who do, only 3% keep the weight off.
Did I ruin your day yet?
These stats are disheartening, not just because I’ve dedicated the past ten years of my career to health and fitness but also because I'm now in the leadership development space. Your boy has found the sweet spot of failure.
So, where does this leave us? Should we quit, go sell coconuts in Fiji, and cry ourselves to sleep every night?
As you might expect, I’m pushing back on the premise that coaching and leadership doesn’t work (I told you I wasn’t doing a great job fighting confirmation bias).
On the pod, I explore WHY coaching isn’t working (at large) and share some solutions for us to maximize our effectiveness as coaches and leaders.
Check it out: https://lnkd.in/eN_bZwKU
