New and Aspiring Leader - Developer Programme
"You are not a good leader until you have produced another leader who can produce another leader"
- Dr. Stephen Brown
Who is this programme for?
This new manager development programme is aimed to support individuals in their leadership journey. Ideal for someone who has just taken on a new team or to develop those within your organisation who have been identified to take on leadership positions in the future. That said, we recognise that all individual team members are also leaders, and great leaders are also key team members. Therefore, although the programme is specifically aimed at leaders, it will also have a direct impact on their team effectiveness.
The outline of the programme:
The new manager development programme includes 8 modules, starting with an Introduction to Insights Discovery. The first Insights module will be delivered in-person (some might already have done this with us), followed by a mix of virtual and in-person modules lasting +/- 3 hours each. We recommend these modules take place 4-6 weeks apart. Participants will be expected to do some thinking/reflection/course work in between modules as well as apply what we have discussed and feed back at each follow up meeting.
Our Programme Follows The 3 C’s
CLARITY – CONNECTION – COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE
We start the new manager development programme with personal reflection. We gain better CLARITY on our own preferences and how this feeds into our leadership style. We do this by raising our self awareness through personal Insights Discovery profiling and guided discussions to think more deeply about our vision for our own leadership and for our team.
Following on from the personal clarity we’ve gained, we now focus on the CONNECTION with our team and on how to align the team with our vision. To do this, we mobilise 4 different aspects of leadership: 1) We establish a Leader-developer mindset, 2) We learn a key leadership skill set and understand how to implement these, 3) We think about the type of environment that makes people thrive, 4) We focus on our people – what motivates and inspires them?
The last phase we keep building on our clarity and we keep developing the newly acquired skills and competencies that we have learned during the mobilising phase. We understand better how to utilise our new ‘leadership toolbox’ during turbulent times and times of change. We remind ourselves about our increased resourcefulness and look at how this can make a positive difference to how our teams respond to change. Having established connection and trust in our teams during the mobilisation phase, we reap the fruits of our hard work by truly tapping into the COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE of our teams and enabling them to work inter-dependently as leader-developers in their own right. This is where the sum total becomes infinitely more than the sum of the parts!
Module 1 - Are you aware of your current leadership style and personal preferences?
In this module of the new manager development programme, participants are asked to complete an Insights Discovery questionnaire that will produce an in-depth, fully customised, personal profile that provides them with information about their preferences, working approach, communication style, blind spots and much more. We include the Foundation and Management Chapter of the profile, which provides information about leadership style, how we prefer to be managed, and our ideal working environment.
We start the workshop with perception, which forms the foundation of Insights. We introduce participants to the colour language of Insights which will underpin the rest of the programme. Next, we explore preferences with a focus on introversion and extroversion. We then cover how to recognise the preferences of others and to think more deeply about how we can adapt our own style to connect more effectively with others.
Participants will:
- Develop awareness about their individual preferences and perception and how their personal lenses can colour what they see.
- Increase their self-understanding and their ability to understand and connect with others.
- Learn a simple colour model that sticks.
- Improve communication skills
- Gain a powerful shared language to talk about preferences for their team and organisation. This shared language will enhance team alignment and effectiveness and turn frustration into fascination!
Module 2 - What is your vision for the leader you want to be?
We invite participants to think more deeply about the leader they want to be. We look at the relationship between personal preferences and leadership style and how we can adapt our style to connect more effectively with others. We discuss our role as Leader-Developers and what this means in our leadership approach. We look at shaping our environment to enable us to turn up at their best.
We also focus on ‘self-talk’ and how this influences every aspect of our leadership and, in fact, our lives and how to remove any self-imposed barriers. We delve deeper to discover more about our saboteurs, understand our ‘chatter’ and recognise our ‘automatic-negative thoughts (ANT’s)’ and finally we learn how to turn courage into confidence.
Participants will:
- Understand the role of a Leader Developer and how to shape their environment through consistent daily practise.
- Gain clarity and delve deeper into their leadership strengths, areas for development as well as thinking more deeply about their current personal mindset, how this will affect how they lead and how to take ‘Responsible Initiative’.
- Understand how their Insights preferences play into their personal leadership style and how they can adapt their style to the needs of the team.
- Learn about an ‘above the line mindset’ and how to reframe their self-talk and overcome self-imposed barriers that might be holding them back.
Module 3 - Are you clear and intentional about your leadership mindset?
This module of the new manager development programme explores the mindset of a Leader-Developer and will guide and focus participants’ attitudes, beliefs and actions as a result. It lays crucial foundations for the sessions that follow. Being more aware of and intentional about your leadership mindset is the crucial ingredient that will allow you to unearth and activate the potential of your team. The power of the combination of high challenge and high support will yield maximum commitment and engagement in your team.
We also explore personal underlying attitudes and beliefs, how they relates to our preferences and what we may wish to change to get the most out of our teams
Participants will:
- Understand the crux of the Leader-Developer mindset, starting with the High Challenge-High Support model.
- Know the importance of the essential concepts of the expectations theory as well as the reinforcement theory.
- Increase their awareness of their own underlying attitudes and beliefs and how positive regard and genuineness will encourage better connection between leaders and their team members.
Module 4 - What are the leadership skills we need to align the team to the vision?
In this module of the new manager development programme we add necessary skills and competencies to our leadership toolbox. These are clear, specific, and actionable skills that can be implemented immediately. We often assume that we either are natural leaders or not. Or else we may think that we will instinctively know how to manage people and performance. This is not always the case. We have found that some of the most successful leaders are not ‘charismatic heroes’ but ordinary people who have discovered a particular way of working. With the right mindset and the accompanying skills we will learn here, we can upskill ourselves and our people to become highly effective Leader Developers.
Participants will:
- Understand the importance of explicitness as a valuable leadership skill.
- Discuss performance issues, and how to get to the root of the problem by using the performance navigator and change sheet.
- Learn to find the right balance of assertiveness, how this plays into the high challenge mindset and why this skill is important to keep the team motivated.
- Use the Insights colour language and increased awareness of the intention-perception gap to have difficult conversations and to give feedback that empowers their people.
Module 5 - How do we create the environment for our teams to flourish?
In this module of the new manager development programme, we look at the kind of environment in which people thrive and how the leader can contribute to creating this environment.
Psychological safety, as described by Amy Edmondson, is the belief that we won’t be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. A psychologically safe environment leads to team members feeling more engaged and motivated, because they feel that their contributions matter and that they are able to speak up without fear of retribution.
In addition to looking at the key elements of a psychologically safe environment, we also explore how a coaching approach to leadership can further contribute to to such an environment and how it fosters a culture of continuous learning, improvement and high performance.
Participants will:
- Understand psychological safety and why this is important for teams to flourish.
- Understand the difference between a coaching and mentoring approach, when to use it and why it is so important.
- Be able to use the GROW coaching model to ask powerful questions.
Module 6 - How do we delegate effectively and keep our teams motivated ?
Motivation is the factor that causes, charges, and sustains our behaviour and performance, determining our levels of commitment and effort.
In this module of the new manager development programme, we take a motivation inventory. We learn what truly motivates us and also the members of our teams. Knowing our people is critically important here. We’ll explore the three different categories of motivation – people, achievement and enjoyment, and assess the overall balance between these. We also look at different types of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators and how we can delegate the right task to the right person to increase their motivation and continual development.
Participants will:
- Know the different intrinsic and extrinsic motivators.
- Explore what motivates them and also think more deeply about what motivates others.
- Understand delegation as an essential leadership skill to empower and enable their team and themselves.
- Be more intentional what how and when to delegate to team members.
Module 7 - How do we develop resilience and resourcefulness in our teams to thrive during change?
Change is not only inevitable, but absolutely critical in today’s world. What may not be within our control is the fact that change happens, but what we can control is how we respond to it. We can act, rather than react. We can expect and embrace change, and learn how to cope better with uncertainty and ambiguity.
Throughout the new manager development programme, we have honed our leader-developer mindset, acquired a leadership skill set, understood how to create a psychologically safe environment in which people trust each other and we are now much more aware of our own strengths, preferences and competencies.
This modules aims to empower participants by reminding them of their resourcefulness and how to access it in periods of challenge. We look at the elements and attributes they already have and that are needed in turbulent times. We look at the change curve, understand how we can influence the curve with effective communication and leadership and how to continue to develop our resilience and be change-ready!
Participants will:
- Understand the change curve and the ‘normal’ reaction to change and stress.
- Have a greater awareness of how different people can respond to change and enhance their own view of and approach to change
- Understand what resilience is and why it’s critical during periods of change.
- Access the tools they already possess to thrive during times of change.
Module 8 - How do we transform our teams to be infinitely more than the sum of their parts?
We have been working towards the goal of interdependence in our teams. In this module, we learn how to develop and enable leaders in their own right so that we can reap the benefit of the collective intelligence of our teams and the richness of the cognitive diversity that they offer.
What’s so great about diversity? Diversity in our organisations is desirable for many reasons, of course. But in order truly to harness its powers, we need to understand how we can turn different perspectives, thinking styles, and experiences into collective intelligence.
We can think of collective intelligence as an aligned and activated form of cognitive diversity. Only when we learn to harness and combine the powers of our different personalities, perceptions, evaluations, and viewpoints can we generate true collective intelligence. Collective intelligence is a form of team intelligence that is much larger than the sum of its parts. It is also the only antidote to silo-thinking, echo-chambers, and blind-spot cultures.
Our world is becoming ever more complex. Many of our challenges are now far too complex to be solved by individual thinkers alone – however brilliant they may be. The ability to activate the collective intelligence of our teams and organisations is therefore a vital skill in today’s globalised world. It can give us a serious competitive advantage, because it turbo-charges our abilities to problem solve, innovate, and find creative and original solutions to complex challenges.
Participants will:
- Look at why this is important and the numerous benefits that an activated collective intelligence can offer.
- Appreciated the importance of diversity of thought within our teams.
- Understand the transformational benefits of truly tapping into the collective intelligence of our teams and learn how to do that in practice.
- Explore what it means to have a ‘teaming’ mindset when working with smaller project teams.
- Be more intentional about the mindset required when ‘teaming’ with other people.
What do our clients say about the Leader Developer Programme?
"The sessions were well structured and organised with interaction from us all encouraged. The sessions were seen as a safe space for us to confide with each other about challenges we are facing within our teams, and how to handle different scenarios. The interactive side of the sessions gave us time to think and reflect on our own experiences, while receiving advice from others."
“The coaching module has been invaluable. It really opened my eyes to how coaching can facilitate answers to bigger questions for leaders.”
