Our philosophy around Leadership Development
Maya Angelou — ‘At the end of the day people won’t remember what you said or did, they will never forget how you made them feel.’
When was the last time you felt inspired and supported by a leader in your organisation? What did you feel when you were around them? Were you eager to trust and grow through that experience?
Leadership is People leadership. Subject matter expertise is Task leadership. It is not people leadership.
Why is there a shortage of good leadership?
Our Academic systems encourage leaders to develop technical skills and improve efficiency in a work environment until they demonstrate their ability to cascade information – teacher to pupil. Along the way, managers and middle leaders pick up skills of managing people in the operational way they were managed. This has rarely resulted in any meaningful growth in leadership thinking. Any salience given to the development of leadership skills of people has never been a criteria for academic progress.
We develop leaders differently.
Nobody swings their legs out of bed in the morning planning to behave badly. Challenges of everyday stress, fire-fighting and always having to be the ‘best’ can take their toll on a leaders energy and resilience. When it feels like things are slipping out of control, it is very easy to revert to behaviours that are unhelpful, defensive and at times offensive. all of which drive disengagement and loss of trust.
Using a neuroscience and evidence-based approach, we help leaders explore their authentic selves, identify their deeper ‘why’ and motivation and help them moderate the overuse of their strengths through developing a high level of emotional intelligence in situations. To engage emotionally and not just intellectually in difficult situations, leaders need to control their impulse to hijack difficult situations, watch their bias, suspend judgement and check their own assumptions.This serves to develop trust with those around them.
Our blended learning programmes are designed and faciliated by us to address the objectives and outcomes you have identified. By exploring the tools and techniques which suit a particular leadership style in situations, leaders can think differently, act more collaboratively and develop agency in others to act with confidence.
How can I tell if my organisation needs a new approach to leadership development?
Gather your statistics and survey data around employee engagement, productivity, diversity representation at different levels, management complaints, instances of blame in teams, conflict, resistance to change, lack of innovative thinking and a silo’d mentality in their behaviours. That should tell you something.
Where do I start?
Email us for a chat and we will send you a few dates and times for an online discussion. Tell us a bit about your leadership challenges and potential outcomes you would like to see happen.