Leadership Development

Some key challenges

  • Saying what leadership actually is in the context of a role, or of roles, in an organisation is quite hard.
  • Defining what we want from our leaders and recognising that often leadership can come from someone other than a manager
  • Understanding where the key leadership nexuses are in the organisation
  • Poorly conceived leadership interventions will, at best, do no harm, but might damage both operations and organisational culture.

Solutions

  • Contextual analysis of both internal organisational environment and the external operating environment
  • Defining good leadership practice in an organisation’s context, and mapping the leadership nexuses within the organisations
  • Setting these analyses against an organisations performance indicators and aspirations
  • Designing focused, cost effective and iterative interventions to improve performance

    Thinking about the issue

    • Leadership happens at all levels in an organisation. Managing well is good leadership but leadership extends beyond management, in all directions.
    • There is no single correct way to lead, because people have different social and cognitive styles
    • There is no single correct way to lead, because contextual factors of many different hues can wash out any general model or ‘off the peg’ intervention
    • Context is all important. The easy way to test this is to try and define leadership in the abstract and then try again using examples from the real world.

    Examples of past work

    • Understanding and intervening in both safety critical and technical systems manufacture when designers of great talent were promoted to leadership roles, with universally disappointing outcomes
    • Mapping out the difference in ‘management orientated’ and ’empathic leadership’ in the care of vulnerable people. Recognising that these roles were located in two people with complimentary skills and making appropriate recommendations.
    • Developing understanding that consistency and eclecticism improve performance and well being in CEOs in social care and in chemical manufacturing sectors