Foundation of Leadership Development
Our approach comes from the science of many leading researchers in leadership, human development, and learning theory. The foundation of our approach is the Intentional Change Theory of Richard Boyatzis, a professor of leadership at Case Western Reserve University, and the co-author of Primal Leadership and the Resonant Leader series. ICT is a strengths-based approach for how people develop, change, and sustain that development.
Vision of Leadership and Contribution
The premise for developing leaders is to begin with the vision of what it means to be a leader and the aspirations for the kind of leader a person wants to become and what contribution and meaning they wish to make. Beginning this way catalyzes creativity and commitment by making the vision and aspirations inspiring and motivating. The vision of self as a leader pulls the person to do the work needed to realize that commitment.
Leadership Strengths and Opportunities
Many leadership programs begin with assessments of a leader's gaps, performance issues, and problems to solve. This is a mistake because neuroscience of Boyatzis, Fredrickson and others prove that this approach shuts down creativity, learning, engagement, and motivation. In this stage, we focus on discovery of strengths and talents and ways to build on them. While there may be some gaps in ideal leadership abilities, we focus only on the ones proven to be relevant. From this work, the leader builds a learning agenda and plan for practicing and reflecting on what they learn.
Leadership Practice and Learning
Just as a new mountain climber doesn't start with a climb of Mt. Everest, emerging leaders find ways to practice, test, and learn where and when it is safe to experiment and reflect on what works and what doesn't. This approach allows the leader to build and embody skills and abilities, whereas many other programs teach about leadership, which does not help a leader realize leadership behaviors.
Resonant Relationships
When a person is learning and changing, there are many forces designed even with the best of intentions, to keep that change from happening. A leader's development requires relationships with people who will help with exploration and practice of leadership thinking and behaviors and others who will assist with protection and defense against forces that might pull the leader back into old patterns and disrupt the leader development process. The leader builds relationships, communication skills, and networks that foster development and opportunities to practice leadership.
How We Apply the Intentional Change Theory to Leadership Development
Our leadership themes map closely to this model and are appropriate for leaders developing at any stage in their careers. Leaders continue to develop over a lifetime and therefore proceed through this framework many times in small and large scale personal development efforts.
Our Approach: 3 Stories of Leadership Development
Foundation of Leadership Development
The managers of the services organization of a Fortune 50 software producer learned concepts and skills of practical leadership and improved cooperation within their group.
This is not a typical leadership development book. It is much more. It's about personal choice, personal responsibility, and personal development...
