Thinking

Current reality

The world is becoming increasingly dynamic, global, complex, competitive and uncertain.  As a result, the ability for organisations to innovate continuously in regard to products, service or processes is critical to both organisational success and long-term organisational survival.

Leaders, at all organisational levels, now have to move away from the status quo or business as usual.

During these challenging times, most of the current problems faced by leaders are non-technical; they are ‘wicked problems’ – highly resistant to resolution because they are difficult to define, due to innumerable causes. They also change constantly and there are no clear answers because traditional approaches can’t resolve them.

Current leaders no longer face ‘technical challenges’ – for which known problem solving and past ways of thinking are sufficient; they face ‘adaptive challenges’ – they are systemic and have no ready answers, and their solutions require people to change their ways because there is a gap between aspirations and operational capacity.

In addressing these ‘wicked problems’ and adaptive challenges, many leaders are doing more of the same – things that worked well for them in past – rather than trying to do things differently. This approach is unlikely to yield different outcomes today. Hence, such leaders feel thwarted and frustrated.

The future

There is a need to discontinue strong reliance on historical leadership development approaches (horizontal development) that are no longer applicable to current times. The ‘lone-ranger’, superhero or alpha male leader stereotype, who always had all the answers, is no longer relevant for either current or future times.

Macro-socio-economic megatrends predict that societies, organisations and their leaders will be faced with increasingly adaptive challenges. Resolving these challenges will require people to change their ways of doing and being through transformational learning (vertical development). As a result, leaders will have to relate differently to each of their stakeholder groups.

The present

To effectively face the future with confidence and optimism, the development of senior and mid-level executives is more important than ever before.

Traditional leadership development practices have become obsolete, outdated and irrelevant in preparing current leaders to successfully adapt to these new challenges and unforseen realties. Emerging approaches of distributive, shared, collective and adaptive leadership are now required.

How We Work

In preparing leaders for the future, we use an integrated approach that includes proprietary instruments, frameworks, materials, processes and experiences that incorporate: adult learning principles; action and experiential learning; adult development; adaptive methods; and the latest research in leadership and adult development.

We also use the latest innovations in global leadership development to proactively enhance the critical competencies required to deliver high performance and ensure business success in contexts involving multiple stakeholders and sources of external authority, and diverse philosophies under conditions of temporal, geographical and cultural complexity. This includes how leaders acquire and develop global mindsets, intercultural competence and positive psychological capital (PsyCap) – HERO (hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism).

Our approach comprises evidence-based strategies, as well as pragmatic ways that have been used to assist some of the top Fortune 500 companies in achieving extraordinary results over the last decade.

In essence, our methods are based on science and draw on the latest psychological research, developmental theory and tested strategies to influence not only how people think, feel and behave, but also their ways of being and how they grow and develop. This scientific approach enables us to educate, motivate, inspire, develop and empower people at work. It also provides confidence that our methods produce measurable, replicable and more cost-effective results.

Benefits of Our Approach

Using our approach will enable your leaders to acquire contemporary leadership practices to successfully take your organisation into the future. More specifically, they will be able to:

  • Develop their strategic and creative thinking.
  • Promote and support the innovative workplace behaviour of your people.
  • Manage organisational risk and change effectively.
  • Enhance their learning agility, emotional, social and cultural intelligence.
  • Work effectively across cultures and with people from diverse cultural backgrounds.
  • Uphold and model ethical behaviour, integrity and ability to build trust.
  • Coach and mentor their teams for high performance.
  • Boost employee morale, loyalty, commitment and reduce turnover.
  • Instil a culture of collective leadership and collaboration across your organisation.
  • Generate unprecedented levels of employee satisfaction, discretionary effort, creative thinking, innovation and high performance.
  • Deliver higher value to your customers.
  • Increase levels of customer service and stakeholder satisfaction.
  • Seriously impact productivity and the bottom line.
  • Increase revenue and profits.

In summary, our approach delivers the leadership capability required to strengthen collaboration across your organisation, deliver high performance, entrepreneurship, quick decision making, accountability and business agility, as well as assisting you to establish a large pipeline of leaders with the business acumen, nous and intercultural competence capable of working from any location around the world, to ensure the sustainability of your organisation.