Leadership Model
Leadership Mastery is based on a contextual view of leadership. We look at leadership competencies and behaviours across 5 key areas – self, others, complexity, business and society.
Our model assumes that all leadership development beyond innate abilities starts with self-awareness. The demands on today’s business leaders are very high and few are prepared for the intense spotlight of a senior management role. This is especially true around the expectations that staff have of the leader’s ability to lead people and themselves.
The first two areas of our model focus on emotional competencies – leading self and leading others. Here we see the biggest gap between what followers would like to see in their leaders and the actual competencies that most leaders have today. The focus on emotional leadership has been quite recent and even if leaders have been exposed to this topic, it is likely that it was done intellectually. Developing new emotional competencies requires self-reflection, group reflection, experiences and coaching – all of which form the basis of our programs and coaching.
Leading complexity takes the mystery out of the fact that good intentions and clear goals alone do not guarantee success. For example, it is estimated that 2 out of 3 change management initiatives fail. This area looks at what is commonly termed ‘politics’ or ‘organisational culture’, but is in fact much broader. Each organisation is a complex-dynamic system made up of individuals, structures, processes, incentives etc. Understanding the constraints and implications of operating within such a system is what leading complexity is about.
Being able to deal with complexity inside the organisation does not guarantee success in the marketplace. Quite often the reverse is the case. For most organisations leading business is about growing the business and adapting to ever-changing markets and customer needs. It is about innovation, ongoing strategy development and execution.
Over the last 5-10 years a whole new context for business leaders has emerged. Under the banner of Corporate Social Responsibility the expectation for business engagement in society has gained traction. This expectation goes well beyond charitable contributions, as the current debate around climate change and sustainability shows. It has already created a whole new market – ethical consumption. Leaders will need to seriously engage with this trend or risk their business becoming a target for an assault on its most valuable asset – its reputation.
