This is another in a series of visual metaphors that I provide as a learning tool for executive coaches in order to develop their clients’ leadership skills. This visual metaphor is a three panel, sequential cartoon that illustrates this client’s current career state, a transitional state and a successful final state that sees the individual flourish in the company. Below is this man’s description of his particular leadership challenges from which I derive my illustrations:
FRAME 1
There are a number of spinning plates and I’m handing them off to others who are competent, I trust that they can deliver, and I’m making the shift from operating to leading.FRAME 2
I’m in front of people engaging them and building relationships. I’m certain that I have the right leaders on my team—they are competent, capable, and empathetic. I’ve shifted from operating to leading and I believe these team members will help us accelerate our organization results—results that are aligned with our values.FRAME 3
I’m providing strong leadership and the team has been fully built. We have real bench strength, too so we can constantly keep winning at a major league level.
This series of illustrations has a sports element which is typical for a lot of these visual metaphors, but it also has plate spinning which is fairly common. Often there is a chaotic stage in these metaphors where the executive compares his or her career to trying to keep an impossible number of plates spinning atop flexible rods. Apparently a lot of these executives were fans of The Ed Sullivan Show. That was the last time I remember seeing plate spinners.
