The shift in focus from transactional to transformational leadership occurred before the turn of the 21st century and the evidence base for the effectiveness of the latter is well established. However, as is often the case, culture and practice take longer to catch up.

Our leadership model has emerged from observation, experience and leadership literature and provides a simple framework to enable individuals, teams and organisations to refocus their attention on what matters if their leadership is to be dynamic and balanced, and in touch with today’s world.

It has three core elements and key questions arise from each of these:

• Knowing who I am – Authentic Leadership
• Knowing who I am relating to – Connected Leadership
• Knowing where I am going – Purposeful Leadership

They give rise to a forth, more foundational element where they come together:

• Knowing why I am here – Meaningful Leadership

Individually each leader may have a bias toward one or more of these elements, and blind spots in others. Sound and effective leadership holds the tension of both pursuing personal development in all of these areas whilst also recognising that ‘incomplete’ leadership – when it embraces the strengths of others – is a healthy reality.

We start from the psychological notion that sustainable change occurs through a process of raising awareness, rather than simply determining to do it differently. Exploration of each of these elements therefore might include the following:

Authentic Leadership

• Self-awareness
• Values and character
• Principles and ethics
• Strengths – and recognising weaknesses
• Personal meaning and direction
• Being before doing – to be – the foundation for trust

Connected Leadership

• Social awareness
• Engagement – building rapport, trust and involvement
• Communication – inspiring, influencing and calling to account
• Team building – realising potential, releasing synergy and appreciating difference
• Partnerships and collaboration – building key relationships beyond authority
• Being human – to relate – the foundation for engagement

Purposeful Leadership

• Vision – seeing the horizon and knowing the direction
• Strategy – being clear about how to get there
• Innovation
• Focus on outcomes
• Understanding change  – enabling transformation
• Being focussed – to do – the foundation for delivery

Meaningful Leadership

• Core purpose – knowing why you are here
• Making sense of the world around
• Leadership in a living system
• Developing resilience
• Being grounded – the foundation for motivation, passion and resilience

Leadership Development for Sustainable Transformation

Effective leadership development does not work on these core elements in isolation, but starts by considering the organisation and system context. This is both more meaningful learning, as people are working on real issues, and ensures that interventions are focussed on achieving tangible outcomes and a proper return on investment of time and money.

The current issues facing the organisation, the key external relationships that need to be fostered and recognition of the challenges facing today’s organisations in general (including adaptability and resilience, creativity and innovation, and humanising work) will shape the optimum programme.

Individual interventions – or tools for change – include:

• Leadership and executive coaching – highly qualified and experienced leaders
• Thinking partners – thinking space with professional sounding board
• Intentional dialogue – facilitated discussion connecting hearts and minds
• Action learning – group based exploration
• Organic feedback – gathered in person and presented in dialogue

If a team is in major transition or showing signs of requiring substantial renewal then an integrated programme of leadership formation may be more appropriate.

©Copyright Waterside Consulting – Leadership Development Framework August 2010