Leadership Presence
developing whole leaders & teams | embodied leadership skills
‘In both everyday life and in situations of leadership, complicated no longer describes the environment or the goal. Complex defines the day. What you’ve always counted on before—yourself, your skills, your proven methods—no longer works sufficiently. You need something new, you realize. But what?’
— Doug Silsbee
At all levels of organizations, increasingly greater demand is placed upon us to manage ever greater complexity. Demands on attention, focus, processing, energy, health, relational & cognitive capacities and more. All too often the old methods prove to be no longer ‘fit for purpose’ in such an evolved, rapid-fire environment. The negative downstream effects on creativity, communication, innovation, productivity, well-being and ultimately bottom-line are inevitably apparent throughout the organizational ecosystem.
Clearly, an evolution is also required of us in order to optimally meet this upgraded environment—as leaders, as teams and as individuals. This leaves us facing two fundamental issues: 1. Finding this upgraded skillset 2. Developing mastery with it as a new way of operating.
What are these upgraded skills?
Most of us attempt change as a top down process. Sometimes we mandate change from above (ie. executive decision), or try to gain a few more skills, or maybe we try to act externally (physically or behaviorally) like we want to, hoping that this will magically become that. While these strategies may give some temporary impression of shift, real transformation — be it personal, team or organizational — will never truly be effected at program level in the system. This is akin to simply telling oneself to be a different way (Just be more efficient!) and optimistically expecting that alone to have a lasting impact. The well-worn grooves of habit, the ingrained ruts of our conditioned neuro-biology, will still be deeply committed to the old way of being, and inevitably that programming wins out over the new resolution no matter how ardent. Developmental psychologist Robert Kegan from the Harvard Graduate School of Education describes this built in effect as an 'immunity to change'. System program ultimately overrides top-down decision. Clearly we need a strategy which works on a systemic level. But what?
Otto Scharmer of MIT's Sloane School of Management tells us,
"Leadership in its essence is the capacity to shift the inner place from which we operate. Once they understand how, leaders can build the capacity of their systems to operate differently..."
True change. Lasting change. Has to be effected from inner to out. It must become embodied in the system. To do so we begin by addressing the inner environment — at the level of individual, team and organization — as a way to effect the upgrade needed. That change must begin with the key individuals, with leaders, in order for the system to begin to reorganize around the new way of being.
My approach integrates research-driven change methodologies drawn from cutting-edge work in organizational and human potential development and some of the latest directions in cognitive science. An awesome, ground-breaking company requires awesome, upgraded leaders and this means drawing upon and integrating the most current developments out there. My process has unsurprisingly emerged via my role as creator and head of the leading-edge, internationally-regarded, professional coach training programs in Europe and the USA as it has through my own role as leader.
Alongside of that, I employ a number simple yet empirically-verified and highly-effective skills which address the key issues arising from todays high-pressure organizational and life environments and create resilient whole leaders who can function and respond optimally in the face of these uncertain conditions.
We all know how stress, dysregulated focus and attention, poor communication, lack of energy regulation and so on all play havoc both at work and home. For leaders to function at the top of their game these areas simply must be addressed.
Any system under sustained attack without a suitably resourced response mechanism is bound to operate sub-optimally—whether it's an individual or an organization. Any successful intervention must therefore operate systemically which is why we have to address the whole whole person.
In order to manifest wholely competent leaders—those who are capable of leading with mind, heart & body—we must work on all levels . A key tool for addressing the challenges and bringing more capacity online is that of mindfulness. Drawn from ancient contemplative practices this has rapidly morphed into a central component of employee development programs across the globe, with Silicon Valley stalwarts such as Apple and Google right through to industry leviathans such as General Mills running inhouse mindfulness programs as part of their internal offer. Aetna Insurance Chairman and CEO Mark Bertolini is quoted saying of even the bottom-line benefits that,
‘… the most stressed-out employees’ health care costs are $2,000 higher than average employees and ‘mindfulness’ benefits yield an 11-to-1 return on investment.’
Research on the benefits of mindfulness training alone has shown:
Improved cognitive function & flexibility
Greater ability for self-awareness & self-management
Improved communication
Greater productivity
Substantial improvements in Creativity
Greater resilience & emotional intelligence (eq)
Improved employer/employee & client relationships
Higher levels of job satisfaction & engagement
Substantial improvements in health
Lower absenteeism & turnover
Though mindfulness and attention training are key components, they're far from the only skills needed for optimal functioning.
Leadership Presence is an integration of powerful coaching conversations with simple yet scientifically-based, practical skills to produce more engaged, resourceful, intuitive, intelligent, resilient, compassionate, creative and responsive leaders, teams and members of society.
Get in touch if you'd like to know more or do visit my other project InterActualizer to see what we're doing over there regarding new directions in leadership and organizational development.
How Does It Happen?
The best way to begin is to set up a call. I generally work one-on-one with key individuals and occasionally I run short programs with small teams.
REACH OUT BELOW IF YOU'D LIKE TO EXPLORE WORKING TOGETHER.
Get in Touch
Ready to go? or perhaps you'd just like to find out more about what it's like to work with me.
So book a call and ask. I don't bite...Promise !