Take The Lead is specifically geared to engaging an organisation's leaders in defining and delivering transformation in a challenging environment.

This programme typically runs for one year, delivering:

• Engagement of the whole organisation in a sustained sense of urgency, a shared vision, and a clear transformation story.
• Accelerated development of the Management Team as a high-performing team, and the wider leadership population as an effective leadership forum driving change and cross-functional coordination.
• A growing sense of achievement and recognition as the cumulative wins are tracked and celebrated by all in the transformation 'War Room'.
• An established leadership platform and way of working that will be self-sustaining after the formal programme has reached its conclusion.

The coaching sessions we provide are focused on achieving specific objectives and outcomes in every session. The goal is to generate action, and capture the learning 'on the go'.

We focus on 5 primary areas in our coaching:

1. Understand your own leadership

   In all our work, the starting point is ‘know yourself’. Helping people to understand their own leadership style, their preferences, and their strengths and weaknesses is the platform for developing effective leadership.

2. Define success, and work out what to do to get it

   We provide a structured framework so that coachees can take a systematic approach in setting their goals, defining the blockers and enablers, and identifying the solutions and tactics to achieve their goals.

3. Sustain energy and make it happen

   The challenges that our clients work with are never easy – sometimes major organisational change, sometimes critical personal leadership challenges. We take regular ‘pit stops’ to review progress, capture learning, adjust tactics, and build energy.

4. Develop yourself

   Just as a key question is always ‘how do you contribute to this situation / issue / dynamic?’, so our clients always have a personal development agenda, be it a seasoned Chief Exec or a new function head. This agenda runs through the whole engagement - leveraging strengths and building critical capabilities.

5. Build your network

   Building influence through social network is one of the emerging themes in today’s complex, fluid organisations.

All teams are responsible for taking a collective lead in their own sphere of influence – that is their purpose. In our programmes, teams develop the muscle to take the lead with shared purpose and vision, aligned to a shared plan, working as a unit, communicating effectively with their people and their stakeholders.

Successful leadership teams set challenging objectives for themselves, plan ahead, support each other to deliver to the plan, and learn by reflecting on their actions and outcomes. Team development programmes are no exception. In our programmes, we will help a team to:

• define the shift that they want to make during the programme
• agree how they will sustain, support and track the change
• commit to specific improvements and actions throughout the programme.

Strong relationships are the ‘sine qua non’ of high performing teams. We help to build relationships that allow strong challenge, creative conflict and energetic alignment to shared goals. Sometimes a single event can act as a catalyst for enormous change in the way a team performs. However, it usually takes longer to build those relationships. Consequently most of our team programmes run for 6 to 9 months.

The ultimate purpose is to enable a team to improve its delivery of business results. Our programmes therefore have a dual focus, and we measure both: developing the team, and delivering business impact.

Develop the vision and strategy

At the heart of a well-functioning and profitable business is a clear vision and strategy based on a clear understanding of market realities and competitor intentions.

After establishing a shared vision and key goals, we facilitate the wider leadership group to map out the competitive landscape, define where they intend to play in that landscape, and generate practical strategies to win.

We have been using Paul Dale-Harris to facilitate our 3 year strategic planning sessions. These sessions are critical to our growth and will drive much of our future decision-making. His efficient facilitation and drive enabled us to engage a significant proportion of our leadership population, and get very clear about our goals and strategies, in a process that was memorable and fun for all the participants – a great result!
Country General Manager

Build a high performance culture

A business can only perform at its best when there is an environment where high performance is inspired and rewarded.

We work on three specific components of a high performance culture:

• building a leadership culture that motivates and engages
• embedding a communication strategy (channels and content) that enables people to understand the direction of the business and integrate their efforts behind it
• establishing a career development system that helps people achieve their career ambitions. This means setting up a transparent internal job market and training internal career coaches and managers to enable people to ‘work the market’