We throw the word “leadership” around a lot. We talk about how important it is and sometimes lament shortcomings in leadership. I’ve even written about a crisis of leadership in some industries and organizations.
But what is leadership and how has it changed in the recent past? First of all, as important in some cases as managing process is, that is not leadership and not how leaders bring value today. Leadership is about rallying people around a compelling vision such that they achieve far more, collectively, than the leader can by him or herself. It is about driving engagement by ensuring that people feel a purpose and have visibility into why what they do matters. Ultimately, leadership today is about achieving success through others.
Particularly, as it relates to millennials and Gen Zers, old leadership styles simply don’t work because younger folks won’t blindly accept the “deal” that boomers and older Gen Xers were sold. Moreover, previous leadership styles and behaviors were based on the assumption that a leader’s job was simply to drive results, using tools that assumed some level of status quo rather than constant change. Very little today is the same as it was even 25 years ago. In the environment we operate in now, leaders must navigate constant change with a primary focus on human capital as the most sustainable competitive advantage. Even AI will become commoditized, but people will not.
At the Transformation Collaborative™ we support organizations that recognize that small incremental changes are no longer adequate. That to thrive they must embrace some level of reinvention. What we have discovered through this work is that many of the leaders of these organizations, even if they recognize the need for a very different approach, simply do not possess the leadership traits, skills, and behaviors necessary to lead transformation or to lead a reinvented organization.
As a result, we developed a very unique Leadership Discovery program designed to support the leadership capacity necessary for now. We don’t even call it leadership development because that construct is no longer adequate. Our program is based on the notion that discovering who you can be is every bit as important as what you can do.
The full program lasts an entire year, but it starts with an intensive weekend that can also stand on its own.
The Leadership Discovery Weekend is about embracing one’s humanity and that of those whom you lead. It’s about building on one’s strengths to support values-based, people and purpose serving decisions. During this weekend folks wrestle with what really matters to them and aligning that with how they lead. It’s about addressing the dissonance that leaders experience when what they believe and what matters to them is not honored by the people and structures they are accountable to. Ultimately, it’s about discovering the resource and resilience one has always had inside to drive transformation in oneself and in the people and organization you lead.
Main outcomes include: Self-discovery, renewed commitment and energy, values clarification, achieving greater impact, and improved personal wellness.
If you’d like to learn more about this powerful, game-changing weekend, you can contact the CEO and founder of the Transformation Collaborative directly at wallace@transformationcollaborative.net. You can also learn more here and register here.
