When Leaders... a game changer at the Circus

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Copyright © 2015 Greatness Leadership Coaching, all rights reserved
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When Leaders… Become Game Changers!
How you can re-invent your leadership to transform
stagnant & inflexible organizations into thriving & dynamic performers
By Jean-Francois Cousin, MCC
At Bursa Malaysia

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Jean-François Cousin, ICF Master Certified Coach,
serving Clients across Asia and the Middle-East,
former Senior Executive in Asia
Coaching and corporate experience Successful Clients
• Delivered over 6,000 hours of coaching
to executives and teams since 2006
• One of his main interests: help leaders and
organizations enhance collaboration and agility
• Former Managing Director of a Fortune-500
Company in Thailand (1998-2004)
Contact: jfc@1-2-win.net

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Higher competitiveness & engagement needed!
• Competitiveness of almost all Asian
countries stagnating
• Most advanced economies have
recovered to their pre [2008] crisis level
of competitiveness
• Percentages of engaged workers are
relatively low in Asia, whilst they stand
at 24% in Australia or 30% in the US
Latest Gallup “State of the Global Workplace” survey, October 2013

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But worst of all…
70% of change programmes fail
(in “Changing Change Management”, McKinsey, July 2015)
… because people are disengaged…

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Once upon a time…

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Poor performances, no collaboration

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Silo-mentalities

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You little
guys smoked
your bamboo
sticks or
what?
Hidden or overt hostility between leaders

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Under-par manager

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Disengaged boss

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Good news (finally!)
Athena
has landed…

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Let’s play!

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What are you going to do?
• Choose an
‘animal’ you
recognize
• Discuss which
steps can help
it to ‘change its
game’
Let’s
play
for a
change!

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Choose an
‘animal’ you
recognize
Discuss which
steps can help
it to ‘change
its game’

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Change Leaders must change themselves
before they change the game.
And start by looking deep within themselves…

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Self-awareness
Self-acceptance
+
-
The path from self-awareness
to productive relationships

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With self-acceptance, fear of mistakes subsides

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Self-awareness
Self-acceptance
Self-esteem &
self-trust
+
-
Growth
Authenticity &
Humility

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Healthy self-confidence removes toxic habits
Let go of… Embrace…
Fake superiority / pretence of invulnerability
Limiting beliefs about themselves
Black-and-white judgments and playing the
smartest guy in the room
Fear of mistakes / perfectionism and micro-
management
Hanging out only with one’s entourage
Change resistance and the comfort-zone of
managing silos
Humility and openness
Their aspirations
Their ability to help others perform
at their best
Mistakes as sources of growth, and
empowerment
Interest in others
Change and a purpose-driven leadership

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Self-
awareness
Self-
acceptance
Self-esteem
& self-trust
+
-
Authenticity
& Humility
Helping
others grow
Openness
to others
Productive
relationship
Growth

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Agility
learn from
mistakes
keen to
experiment
comfortable
not knowing
versatile
thinking
accountable
‘adult’
eager learner
What develops agility

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8 shifts in manager’s posture as a coach,
enabling faster growth, higher confidence & agility
Manager’s posture as a coach
• Authentic and humble
• Holistic listener
• Student / enabler of coachee’s talents
• Non-judgmental thinking-partner
• Comfortable with not knowing, with failure, trusting process
• Empathetic, yet detached from outcome
• Courageous feedback-provider
• Supportive challenger

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Manager’s posture
as a coach
Coachee’s posture
with manager / coach
Coachee’s posture
with others
Ripple-effects on others
(linked to agility & collaboration)
Student / enabler of
coachee’s talents
Learns and gains
self-awareness as s/he
‘teaches’ the coach
Open (to learn) from others
Gain self awareness of one’s
thinking, grow confidence;
open (to learn) from others
Authentic and humble Authentic and humble Authentic and humble Authentic and humble
Holistic listener
Makes sense of her/his
thinking, personal
‘experience’ and
emergent learning
Listens to make others’
thinking visible
Think and contribute at best,
listen and help to make
others’ thinking visible
Non-judgmental
thinking-partner
Crosses boundaries,
attains self-acceptance
Less judgmental
thinking-partner
Think more freely,
less judgmental of others
Comfortable with not
knowing, with failure,
trusting process
knowing and with failure
knowing and with failure
Comfort with uncertainty
and with failure
Empathetic, yet
detached from outcome
Accountable for outcome,
makes sense of
conversation
Holds others accountable, in
adult-to-adult relationships
More accountable,
in adult-to-adult
relationships with others
Courageous
feedback-provider
Grows self as a
‘work in process’
Asks for and offers
courageous feedback
Grow self-awareness and
genuine self-esteem
Supportive challenger
Experiments outside
of comfort zone Supportive challenger
Experiment outside
of comfort zone
8 shifts in manager’s posture as a coach,
enabling greater collaboration & agility

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The 4 levels of leadership necessary
to create a thriving,
dynamic organization

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Steps to master Leadership Levels Outcome Rewards
1. Self Leadership
 Self awareness
 Self acceptance
 Personal growth
 Self confidence
Leaders ‘drop the mask’ and
become authentic and vulnerable;
they bring out the best in
themselves
Employees follow such leaders with
sincerity and energy
2. Relational Leadership
 Openness
 Helping others grow
Leaders ‘lift others up’ and bring
out the best in others
Relationships become more productive;
leaders groom leaders at all levels
3. Team Leadership
 Choose as a team a ‘Great Way
forward’ towards high performance
 Decide how the team will ‘play
together’ to change the game and
get there
Teams ‘get their acts together’ and
bring out their best collective
performance
Collaborative engagement soars
4. Organizational Leadership
 Inspire employees to adopt beliefs
and behaviours that support
progress towards high performance
 Enhance organizational agility
ruthlessly
A Culture of Greatness and high
performance is established within
the organization
Employees are highly engaged, and
accountable;
bolder and more profitable growth
strategies;
greater contribution to society.
The 4 levels of leadership necessary
to create a thriving, dynamic organization

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Case study #1
Foster a Culture of high-performance across a disengaged organization
As the coach to the CEO of a large FMCG Multi-National Company in Thailand, and then to his team
The main challenge:
Engage the 3,000 employees, whose morale was at an all-time low in very tough economic environment.
The game change:
The newly appointed CEO had no prior experience to draw from and was not highly charismatic. Knowing he
had been promoted for his outstanding analytical skills and sharp acumen in strategy, he doubted his ability
to reach out to and mobilize all employees.
Greatness Leadership Coaching approach followed its four leadership-levels model:
•Self Leadership: I helped the CEO expand his self-awareness, gain confidence, develop self-trust and bring
out his best; his growing authenticity and candour appealed to employees, who grew to like ‘the big boss’
very much - a critical factor for engagement in Thailand
•Relational Leadership: the CEO nurtured close relationships with his VPs, and found ways to help them play
at their best; they in turn became keener to help their own direct reports bring out their best, and the trend
towards ‘developing talents’ across the organization picked up new momentum. Retention level improved as
the workplace became quite a ‘talent factory’
•Team Leadership: the CEO developed an inspiring vision with his Executive Committee and the team re-
defined how they had to ‘play together’ to bring out their best collective performance.
•Organizational leadership: the CEO and his teams ruthlessly removed inefficiencies and raised the bar for
performance, which kicked out politics from the workplace. They all engaged into Company-wide project to
generate “leaders” at all levels, and walked the talk relentlessly.
The results:
2 years after the start of coaching, the business outperformed competition in its key-markets, staff
turnover decreased from 25% down to 11% (a relatively low level in Thailand), and sales grew 15% year-on-
year in a still slow economy.

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Case study #2
Bring out the best from a dysfunctional project-team for the launch of a new car
As the coach to a project-team for the launch of a new car
The main challenge:
The project team-members were the heads of different departments, and joined the project with some toxic
behaviours that had been pervading the organization for years.
The game change:
•Self Leadership: I helped project team-members individually to overcome their insecurities, clarify which
strengths they could bring to the team and which areas for development they had to work on as team-
players; as they grew more confident, they appeared more authentic, dared to become open and even
vulnerable to others
•Relational Leadership: team members grew to listen keenly to one another, looking for value in what others
said and building on one another’s ideas; appreciation for each other soared and so did the desire to help
one another out; growing interpersonal trust enabled team-members to resolve conflicts productively
•Team Leadership: the team brainstormed regularly about how to further improve the effectiveness of their
team-work and their collective accountability; they also took time to step back, reassess and adjust their
plans in light of new developments in their competitive environment
•Organizational Leadership: appreciation for the value they created as a team through their improved
behaviours led team-members to adopt the same behaviours outside of their project work; their
subordinates - startled at first- gradually adjusted their own behaviours and in turn- became more
collaborative with colleagues from other departments. That enhanced significantly the organization’s agility,
and progressively rooted out silo-mentality from the company.
The results:
The sales far exceeded budget, from Day One, and the new car accounted for 40% of the sales, 1 year after
its launch. It became the car with the most number of co-branding promotions that year.

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Unite an organization to overcome a severe crisis in IT business
As a coach to the Singaporean Managing Director of an IT company during a severe crisis, and then to her team
The main challenges:
(1) identify and focus on real priorities whilst many multiple changes were happening in the business and could overwhelm
the MD
(2) enhance the agility of departments, as competitors were moving fast and aggressively.
The game change:
•Self Leadership: the Managing Director (MD) had lost confidence in herself, as the number of simultaneous challenges and
the level of uncertainty were far higher than she had ever experienced and her corporate headquarters didn’t relinquish the
pressure for short-term results; through an update of her self-awareness, she realized that she was bringing enough
strengths and experience to the table for success, and gained clarity of what fears she needed to confront. As a result she
regained her cool and poise, which drew her teams to also regain confidence in her
•Relational leadership: pressure had previously taken an emotional toll on the MD, who had had several heated
conversations with her direct reports. As a result, they had been trying to distance themselves from her. She apologized to
them for her past outbursts and started to listen with full openness to their ideas. Her regained patience allowed her to
hear value in what they said, and the conversations became a co-creation of solutions for the business. It took only a few
weeks to rebuild productive relationships. That ensured all key-managers stayed on board throughout the crisis
•Team Leadership: the MD and her team adopted the mindset that ‘in any crisis there are winners and there are losers’, and
looked for opportunities in adversity to get stronger than competitors. They crafted a smart ‘Way Forward’ and also
identified practical ways to enhance the effectiveness of their collaboration
•Organizational Leadership: the Executive Team united their efforts in boosting the organization’s agility, particularly by
trimming heavy processes and accelerating decision-making. Their behaviours inspired the staff to brave the storm together
and get stronger from it - a key motto was ‘In this crisis, we get smarter and closer together’.
The results:
One year after the coaching start, the Company had secured 4 new key-accounts worth tens millions in USD and gained 5%
market-share in its main market.
Case study #3

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Tips and tools for Leaders and Managers
(click on the picture to open the tool)
The path from
self-awareness to authenticity

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Tips and tools for Leaders and Managers

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Accelerate your personal growth, way beyond your comfort-zone
Coaching tips and tools
(click on the picture to open the tool)

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Lift others up
NOT playing the smartest guy in the room!

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Grow self-esteem, yours and others

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Bring out the best from the team
NOT playing the smartest guy in the room!

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Happy endings are within reach…

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Leaders can become Game Changers,
and make their organization thrive!
1.Drop the masks
2.Lift others up
3.Get the acts together
4.Unleash a Culture of
Greatness
Thank you
for
your engagement today!

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Contact and more
• Contact
– Email: jfc@greatness.coach
– Skype: jfcousin8
• Download free resources
– Website: www.greatness.coach
• Join the conversation on-line!
– LinkedIn: https://th.linkedin.com/in/greatnesscoach
– Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greatness.coach

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Resource
(click on picture for a preview)
Available at MPH bookstores in Malaysia, Kinokunya in Singapore
and on Amazon (paperback and ebook)

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Resource
(click on picture for access)

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Praise for the Book
“Game Changers at the Circus is a unique and charming story with important lessons for every leader. Jean-François
Cousin’s creative energy springs from every page. Read this book and make a positive difference in your organization!”
– Ken Blanchard, co-author of The New One Minute Manager® and Leading at a Higher Level
“Enjoyable and compelling, this timely fable and its lessons read like a novel but serves as an
important business manual. With wisdom and context from a long and successful business career, Jean-François Cousin has
painted a vivid picture of how to enact change effectively, with page after page of insight!”
– Marshall Goldsmith, a Thinkers50 Top Ten Global Business Thinker and top ranked executive coach, author of the NYT
bestseller, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There
“Many organizations struggle to build a high-performance culture. Sometimes leaders can’t get aligned. Sometimes they
disagree about what is most important. Let’s face it—sometimes it seems like a circus! Jean-François Cousin’s new book,
Game Changers at the Circus, offers a powerful approach to change all that. Packed with easy-to-apply principles and
practical action steps, this book will help you and your team achieve new levels of passion, productivity, and performance.”
– Ron Kaufman, New York Times bestselling author of UPLIFTING SERVICE: The Proven Path to Delighting Your Customers,
Colleagues, and Everyone Else You Meet
“Game Changers at the Circus is a great story of the roles leaders can play in either limiting or accelerating greatness in an
organization. The four leadership levels provide a framework for the future, as well as clarity around the essential
behaviours contributing to the success of the organization.”
– Roland B. Smith, Vice President and Managing Director, Center for Creative Leadership

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World Economic Forum’s
“Global Competitiveness
Report 2015-2016”
released on 30th
September 2015

When Leaders... a game changer at the Circus

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