Leadership development is a privilege – and it’s for everyone!

AT A simple practical level, being a leader generally means being in charge. Historically, the old schoolteacher model applied: you were given authority by virtue of your office or title. You gained that title because you were the best at your job or had been there the longest. The title gave you the right to issue instructions. People responded to you because they were conditioned to, or perhaps out of fear. You didn’t have to do much other than show up to get people to follow you. There was no such thing as leadership development.

Most often, leaders working on this model had to play a guessing game: they had to guess what was going on with people, guess how best to motivate each one, guess how to get the results that they needed. Some people are good at guessing – they have what we’d call intuition, or high EQ. Still, guessing is guessing and it leads to unpredictable results. The common symptoms of this guessing game are manipulation and politicking, and unmotivated staff.

Another consequence of the guessing game is that the leader becomes part of the game. Leadership development is about showing leaders – and that means everybody no matter what their position or title (thank you Robin Sharma) how they can rise above the game and redefine it.

What is leadership development?

The purpose of leadership development is to tranform each and every person into the kind of leader who can lift people from being self-serving, into people who are inspired and creating solutions – not because they were ordered to, because that won’t work, but because they’ve seen the example in others.

In his book The Leader Who Had No Title, Robin Sharma identifies the following natural leadership powers that we all possess:

  • To go to work each day and express the absolute best within you.
  • To inspire, influence and elevate each person we meet by the gift of a great example.
  • To passionately drive positive change in the face of negative conditions.
  • To treat all stakeholders with respect, appreciation and kindness – and in so doing raise the organisation’s culture to best of breed.

Sharma points out that these are the things that leaders are naturally called on to do – and yet you need no title to do any of them. Leadership development is about inspiring people to become this kind of leader – showing them the possibility, and showing them how.

Antoine de Saint Exupery, author of the famous book The Little Prince, wrote: “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” That is the role of the inspirational leader.

 

Leadership development program

Neil offers a comprehensive leadership development program that includes a combination of workshops and assignments,  coach training and presentation skills training, a physical “martial arts” component, as well as one-on-one coaching and buddy coaching. It is a year-long program consisting of four modules and can be tailored specifically for the needs of the relevant organization.

Outcomes include:

The outcomes of the leadership development program include:

  • Improved self-direction and impact
  • Personal and organizational leadership (soft skills and strategic change management)
  • Advanced presentation skills
  • Coaching skills

Themes

The themes are progressive and include:

  • Personal Awareness
  • Personal Effectiveness
  • Leadership Effectiveness
  • Leading for Greatness

Format

The format consists of:

  • 4 x Modules (one per quarter)

Each module consists of:

    • 3 x Phases

Each phase consists of:

      • 1 x workshop
      • 1 x one-on-one coaching session per delegate
      • 2 x one-on-one buddy coaching sessions (Phases 2 & 3 only)
      • Assignments to carry forward to the next phase
      • A final presentation

Become that leader, or bring this leadership development program to your organisation, by completing the enquiry form now.