Getting to the heart of leadership

Leadership forms the life blood of an organisation.  It creates a way of doing things which affects everyone and ultimately the bottom line.  Our approach to leadership development is to explore the link between behaviour and business results and establish what needs to change.  Our individually designed programmes inspire leaders to bring about this change and motivate those around them to create a healthier business.

Key challenges

Resistance to change

Changing leadership habits is difficult and requires a new mindset as well as new skills.  Knowing how to change can also be a barrier especially when there are few role models at senior level.  Leaders taking on more strategic roles face similar problems when they have to take a step back from day to day management.

The X-factor

Read anything about leadership and the common thread is that it is about traits and qualities.  And not just any qualities: ones that are really hard to develop like resilience, compassion, and big picture thinking. Authenticity is also important - leadership is about combining personality with skills and experience.  Then there’s the X-factor – the ‘thing’ that elicits trust and followership and makes the difference between a good and great leader.

Behaviour

Many leaders are appointed because they’re good managers.  Once in post, they find it hard to identify what they should actually be doing.  There isn’t a definitive list of things that great leaders do – leadership is about behaviour not tasks.  It’s about a way of being, managing relationships and creating an environment that motivates people to achieve results.

What do organisations want?

Often clients are looking for a shift in leadership style to support cultural change initiatives or programmes to support managers as they take up more senior roles.  All our clients express the need to increase leadership capability to meet the demands of an increasingly challenging business environment.

Our approach

We believe that great leaders have a thorough, almost intuitive, understanding of their business. They also possess a special quality that makes people trust them.  So our programmes share these elements:

Complete business integration

We work closely with clients to understand the link between leadership behaviour and business results.  We ensure our programmes address resistance to change from a business perspective as well as a personal one, so leaders understand the need and feel inspired to change.

Our programmes use exercises, simulations, and role plays designed for the business.  This means they’re highly relevant and leaders can immediately apply what they’ve learnt.  We use business simulations to provide complex environments in which to develop business and interpersonal skills.

Focus on self awareness

Effective leadership development starts with self awareness; this is the catalyst for change.  Through 360° feedback and psychometrics we help leaders take a hard look at who they are -   this enables them to improve how they manage themselves and others.  Through practical tasks and exercises, work with actors, and 1:1 coaching, leaders can understand their X-factor and develop their own brand of leadership.

Real practice

Our programmes give leaders the opportunity to practise leading teams and reflect on those experiences.  Practical activities generate peer feedback for the leaders – a powerful way to understand the impact of their style on others.  These combine with exploring leadership theories and ideas and different perspectives from guest speakers and senior managers. 

We allow plenty of time for discussion and debate so leaders understand the true nature of leadership and what it means for them.  Coaching is used alongside challenging business assignments to enable leaders to learn from their experiences at work.

Outcomes

Our programmes have created measurable business benefits, increasing staff retention, co-operation between team members, and efficiency.  They develop leaders who:

• appreciate the link between their behaviour and business results
• recognise the importance of authenticity in leadership
• understand how their leadership affects others
• use a range of styles to meet other people’s needs
• focus more on self development and developing others

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