Over the past nine years at the Trust-Based Leadership Academy, we have had the privilege of working with a wide range of organizations in leadership development and skills enhancement. During this time, one of the most powerful, and certainly one of the most satisfying, approaches we have encountered has been the establishment of an in-house…
I was recently chatting with an HR colleague about the extensive use of psychometric assessments in leadership selection and development. Despite the sophistication of many of these tools, we both reflected on a familiar organisational experience. People are promoted into increasingly senior leadership roles, appear to have all the right credentials, perform well initially, and…
Performance management is often treated as an HR process. In reality, it is one of the most important tests of leadership. Few leadership conversations leave such a lasting impression on an employee. Done well, they inspire confidence, clarify expectations and encourage growth. Done poorly, they create disappointment, distrust and, in some cases, convince good people…
– Part 6 of a 6-Part Series People respond to the environment their leaders create with trust or distrust. Everything else follows. I recently found myself thinking deeply about organisations and the extraordinary impact leadership has on the people who work within them. Over the past few months, I have had the privilege of working…
– Part 5 of a 6-Part Series Throughout this series we have explored a simple but powerful progression. That naturally raises the next question, “Who builds the leaders who are capable of creating that environment consistently?” Every organisation wants great leadership, but very few organisations deliberately build it. That may be one of the greatest…
– Part 4 of a 6-Part Series One of the greatest misconceptions in leadership is that high-performing organisations are built by high-performing leaders. They are not. They are built by high-performing teams. For much of the Third Industrial Revolution our focus has quite rightly been on results; Meet the KPI, improve productivity, increase efficiency, deliver…
– Part 3 of a 6-Part Series One question has increasingly shaped our thinking over the past decade. Why do equally capable people perform so differently under different leaders? We have come to believe that the answer is surprisingly simple. Great leaders do not directly determine how people perform. They create the environment that shapes…
– Part 2 of a 6-Part Series In Part One, I suggested that trust is not an emotion but the conclusion our subconscious reaches after accumulating our experiences of another person. The obvious question then becomes: So why is that important? The answer is simple. When people trust us, they give us one of the…
– Part 1 of a 6-Part Series Yesterday I spent the morning coaching two experienced middle managers. Both were intelligent, capable and deeply committed to their work. Both had impressive track records and a genuine desire to do a good job. Yet they had reached a point where working together had become increasingly difficult. Their…
– A 6-Part Series Shaping the Lived Experience of Leadership Over the past three decades in corporate leadership, followed by more than a decade developing leaders through the Trust-Based Leadership Academy, I have found myself returning to one simple observation. Some leaders consistently bring out the very best in the people around them. Others, often…
