This was a tricky moment in my life. I had spent 10 years building a leadership consultancy. I have traveled all over the world delivering sessions and keynotes under the framework of leadership training. I have over 200 program booklets sitting in my office that says we do that. I have two books yet to write on the topic. And in one moment I realised Leadership training was over.
Days of discussion with my team ensued- what is it then? What is it that we do? What happens in the room with our participants that leads them to make changes? Why do we have so many fans that claim we have helped them and at best changed their lives. Why do our women in leadership programs resonate above others?
We talked non stop and I knew that once I had started on this path there was no turning back. That’s the thing about business. And even though I didn’t know what I would replace “it” with I had faith and courage in the creative process that it would come to me, the idea would land.
Meanwhile Barbara and I had been designing a creativity and innovation series for a top tier accounting firm in Sydney and one of the activities we had created was a challenge in which teams were to discover that their organisation had been (metaphorically) blown up- it ceased to exist, a start up had disrupted their offerings, their market share and all that was left was a small team and a legacy…. And for that to be an exciting challenge for the team- what would they do?
So in one swoop I closed North Shore Drama, moved out of our commercial premises to leave space for whatever it was that was coming, redesigned the website, dropped the old copy, threw out the sales booklets sitting in my lounge room and took a deep breath. I like to move fast.
“Leading the Imagination Race by transforming organisations to be Diverse, Superhuman, Creative to innovate, detonate and reinvent their industries.”
So our focus is the same super human qualities such as mental toughness, empathy, emotional intelligence, creativity and innovation and diversity….it’s just a different shape and form.
And we can’t wait to get started…again. It’s only fitting that getting to that point of offering transformation to our clients took a transformation of itself.
coaching for behaviours and capabilities for being comfortable with creative process, setting up environments.
creative leader is empathetic and skilled at polarised
in complexity, paradoxical traits, flexibility in contradictory states- eg being decisive also open and fluid when required. coaching methodology theories and models in being able to jump from one state to another. coaching and immersive experiences are way if future. coaching for focused reflexion, analysing, goal setting, addressing fifferent perspectives, focused on leaders devleopmemt. immersive experience bts theory to practice and puts into practice at a visceral level.
eg being in control versus letting go
serious and play
imagination vs real
passionate vs objective
Coaching is the future of leadership development.
Symes Group
transforms organisations through:
Superhuman Skills
Diversity
Creativity & Innovation
As far as I was concerned, any behaviour change model involving a fluorescently lit training room with tables and chairs and a power point should be eradicated.
And more than that – the concept of group training was limiting too. My philosophy had always been to champion authenticity, to find out peoples’ super powers and leverage those rather than build on layers of what a leader should be. Time and time again this was new information to our participants, particularly the women. It was the small pockets of individual coaching that created the a-ha! moment for each one. Because as we know everyone is different, everyone is on a different leadership path and it goes without saying that the super human skills of individuals are diverse. One person may be extremely empathetic but lacking in assertiveness, while another might be highly skilled in emotional regulation but need support in mental toughness.
I could see from what was resonating in our sessions, keynotes and workshops – individuals didn’t need to be taught how to be leaders. There was no one-size-fits-all leader – and learning theory from a slide show in a training room was the last way any form of behaviour change could take place.