Today more than ever, true leadership is hard to deliver.
Economic downturn means leaders are having to get greater returns from diminishing resources, to manage unpleasant change, and all the while attempt to present a compelling vision against backgrounds which can change with bewildering regularity.
Those who lead must therefore be able to do two things - provide the ‘harder’ leadership attributes of clarity of purpose and direction, but also the ‘softer’ or more personal skills. Recognising this, we work with leadership teams to ensure that their vision is not only aligned to the often tough requirements of key stakeholders, but is also supported by a culture in which people are seen to matter.
We believe that leadership demands continuous learning and reflection, and that progressive and bespoke learning events, properly supported by individual coaching, can assist the development of the mindsets, skills and behaviours required of today’s leaders. Often, the result of this can
be genuinely transformative.
Only by understanding the self can we understand and lead others. For this reason, we frequently suggest using psychometric tools to help individuals understand their strengths and, of course, areas that might require development. Our tools include:-
- Personality assessments – these enable leaders to determine how their own underlying attributes are likely to manifest in terms of behaviours and reactions
- Multisource or 360-degree feedback – these offer leaders the benefit of insight into how others see them and how their behaviours impacts upon those they lead. Multi source 360 reviews is now standard practice in an estimated 90% of Fortune 100 companies
Combining these two activities helps promote the first challenge of leadership – being proactive and establishing a personal leadership agenda– and also forms a hugely effective context for performance coaching.
We believe in developing leadership via a progressive understanding of the self and the needs of the organisation, building an ‘action inspired’ agenda grounded in real-life challenges.
