#193 - After 28 Years at HP, Tom Hardison Hit a Wall. This is How he Recovered.
“It took me 28 years to realize that I needed to change my life, that my leadership skills were no longer enough,” Tom Hardison explained to our audience.
His role at Hewlett Packard had changed and his youngest son had decided to drop out of school. His very fulfilling life and successful career had diverted onto a rocky road with difficult to navigate potholes. Things were not working as easily as before.
Tom knew he must make changes, but where? One of the first mistakes he identified was the fact he was not really listening to his son or his wife, and fully considering what they had to say.
To breakthrough his challenges required a new set of leadership skills that would allow him to resolve new, or previously overlooked, complexities in his life. This was true even though as an engineer, he had very strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
But how to change?
Tom was caught in a system of processing information and making decisions that blocked him from receiving and evaluating critical data, and fully engaging with people whom he cared most about - personally and professionally. This significantly limited his ability to resolve problems.
One symptom he identified was that when he was stuck, he made his strengths into "giants" that got in the way of everything he tried to do. For instance, he was driver, but under this intense pressure, he drove his people too hard. This hurt his relationships with others and the stress he caused limited their ability to resolve issues.
To get unstuck, he decided to try watching and listening more, and asking more questions.
This led Tom to develop a new system of leadership to overcome the stressful challenges facing him. He calls this approach, generative leadership.
Are you stuck? Could you be less stressed? Do any members of your leadership team struggle in these areas? If so, join us to hear Tom’s story and solution.
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