CONSCIOUS

Creating radically good leaders

LEADERSHIP

We are excited. Never before has there been such an opportunity to create radical change in the world of leadership.

Study after study reveals that staff and customers alike have become disillusioned with the people leading our businesses. The latest Edelman Global Trust survey shows us that only 38% of people trust what a CEO says about their business; many face crumbling reputations, poor staff engagement, global competition, and a host of new channels to market, which are definitely ‘wicked’ rather than ‘tame’ problems. What is brilliant is that an impressive job title no longer means anything if a leader can’t consistently deliver. The result? Leaders are starting to take action around leadership itself. They recognise that to succeed, they need more than a corner office, they need to be experts at leading: leading people, decision making, communication, high trust cultures, development, teams, talent, engagement, strategic direction, brand and execution. Leaders are starting to work on the craft of leadership.

The time is now

“ Only 38% of staff trust what a CEO says about their business.”

2013 Edelman Global Trust survey38%

This is exciting because at Blue Sky we believe whole heartedly that leadership can be learnt. We believe the purpose of leadership is to drive organisational performance and it requires the right mindset coupled with significant skills and expertise. We believe that becoming a great leader is rarely something that happens by chance, but is achieved through a lifelong commitment to learning. This means we work with teams of leaders that want to be exceptional and have the humility and determination to find out what is possible.

“ The Experian ‘Inspire’ programme is the most powerful Leadership programme that I have ever been on. I see the benefits of the programme every day in the quality of the conversations we have and decisions we make and in the way that we interact as a team and with others. We have seen tangible benefits in our business performance and people survey results.”

Managing Director, Experian Credit Services UK&I

A fundamental shift in how we develop our leaders is taking place

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All too often, leadership development sounds great, but fails to change the behaviour and the performance of the people involved. Thankfully, knowledge about the way people learn has undergone a revolution and this revolution is integral to any leadership development programme we create. The latest research shows that reliably successful leadership programmes need to be:

Focused on the essentialsMcKinsey refers to the ‘alphabet soup’ of leadership: leaders are being overwhelmed with complex lists of values, behaviours and competencies, which are seemingly disconnected to what they do on a day-to-day basis. Success comes from focusing on which changes will have the greatest impact and getting them right.

Delivered in a way that creates actual behavioural changeBillions are wasted on leadership programmes that don’t work. Understanding the science of how change works, choosing the right learning methodology, and then levering the three behavioural drivers (Mindset, Capability and Management Practices) ensures consistent results.

Measured and managed as a priorityIf you don’t take the behaviour of your leaders seriously, why should they? Creating a clear vision of what good looks like, measuring how people perform against it, and then managing them accordingly, demonstrates your commitment. Tick boxes aren’t enough.

“ I wish I had this 30 years ago. I have done ok in my career, but this would have changed everything for the better. As it is, it will now ensure that I reach my full potential in my role.”

Chairman, RBS30YRS

Owned and led internally The leadership culture within a business is the sum total of what its most senior leaders ‘do’ consistently. Development only succeeds when change comes from the top.

There are thousands of leadership development companies out there, and it can be difficult to work out who does what. Understanding our approach will help you decide whether Blue Sky is right for you.

Is it a Blue Sky day?

We believe that successful leadership is made up of three things: providing clear direction, delivering a robust strategy and creating the climate for success. This means having the people, the mindset, the culture, the competence and the ways of working that mean you can actually deliver what you set out to achieve. This bit, the people bit, is our area of expertise.

You can have the best vision and strategy in the world, but if you don’t have a team of capable, engaged people, you will fail. It is the leader’s job to create these teams by being the kind of leader people trust, learn from, excel for and want to work with. It is their job to choose the right people, set clear expectations and support and coach them to get there. It is their job to create a culture of dialogue, growth, truth, effectiveness, pride, curiosity, creativity, ownership, consistency, learning and once created, guard it with their lives.

This is what we do. We show leaders how to build relationships that deliver personal and business results. We help them understand what good looks like and we create a learning journey that enables them to get there. We call it Conscious Leadership.

“ Never before have we been taught the process of behavioural change and how to apply it. I now realise how essential it is to any kind of development.”

Director, Carlsberg

“ We asked a lot of Blue Sky and this programme lived up to it. Leadership is now firmly and squarely in everyone’s mindset.”

HR Director, RFU

Real development engages both the head and the heart

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If this is what you want, how do you get it? First, you need to focus on the Two C’s of Leadership and then you need to deliver it in a way that enables change.

The Two C’s of Leadership

The Art and Science of ChangeEven given the gift of amazing content, change is by no means a done deal. Creating a programme that results in your leaders thinking and behaving differently means combining everything we now know about the art and science of human and organisational change. It is a complex matrix of essential change criteria, but for now it is enough to focus on two things: how you ‘own’ and how you ‘learn’.

Leadership CompetenceIn an increasingly competitive market, leaders must be able to consistently deliver what the job requires. Alongside building a strong sense of character and purpose, we ensure our leaders are competent in a number of crucial skills, so that they are able to:

• Provide a clear sense of purpose in a world that is constantly changing

• Build relationships based on trust, by being trustworthy themselves

• Create dialogue that builds more clarity, quicker decision-making and effective execution

• Develop lean, efficient teams that pull together, without wasting time on sniping or politics

• Coach and develop people so they really improve, instead of leaving them to sink or swim

• Manage performance so the right people are in the right jobs, delivering the right results

• Prioritise character and competence so they become non-negotiable standards

Ownership like you have never seen itThe motivation for change needs to be clear and senior leaders need to take ownership for the success of the programme. Rocking up for a summary overview of the programme isn’t enough. Senior leaders need to lead by example, and we make sure they change by example, too. For this reason we see our leadership development programmes as change programmes and our eight-stage approach to leadership transformation ensures that everything that enables leadership change actually takes place. Senior leaders get engaged at the outset, they set the direction, measures, understand their role and help scope the diagnostic. In partnership, we diagnose, learn, design, test and adapt. We create communication plans and we support senior leaders in launching the programme and telling the compelling stories that get people emotionally engaged. We deliver, challenge, measure and keep communicating. Together, we celebrate the success.

Learn to changeUltimately, leadership development requires a change in behaviour, both on an individual and a cultural level. To achieve this, all of our learning interventions are based on our Embedded Learning MethodologyTM, a unique system that brings together everything we have discovered over our years of studying and working in leadership development. This methodology is not something that is done to you; it is something that becomes part of who you are, by using the most effective ways to help people learn and change. Forget lectures or interminable away days; we change behaviour through a combination of focused workshops (where you have the safety to learn about yourself and the opportunity to try new ways) and directed workplace learning, with your peers as your coaches and your team providing the feedback. We work with you in person, both 1:1 and in groups. We teach you how to become agile learners, how to create your own behavioural change and we create an environment where intentional practice, teaching others, creating feedback loops, coaching and active self-reflection become the norm and we do it all firmly within your business context and specific role.

Leadership CharacterThe best indicator of someone’s ability to lead others is how they lead themselves. A big part of what we do involves cultivating self-leadership: helping leaders build awareness of their underlying values, beliefs, mindset, business context, behavioural impact and personal brand, to help them make choices about the kind of leader they want to be and why they want to lead. We spend time teaching leaders how to change their behaviour and become agile, lifelong learners. Making the decision to change is important; we translate it into action.

Consc

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Consc

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Conscious Leader

Conscious M

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Conscious Leader Conscious Manager

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Expert Leader Expert Manager

Expert Leader

Expert ManagerSel

f-Leadership Self-Leadership

Self-LeadershipSelf-Leadership

DirectionCreating vision,

meaning creation,setting expectation

LeadershipMindset

Self-awareness, values,beliefs, brand, businesscontext, the leadershiprole, conscious choice

Outwardleadership

Stakeholder map,networking, infl uencing,

benchmarking,collaboration

TeamEffectivenessPurpose, clarity,

relationship,stakeholders,

learning

TrustSelf, team,

organisational,customer

DialogueEffectiveness, decisionmaking, accountability,speed, transparency

ChangeCompelling story, rolemodelling, capability,

measurementsystematic change

DevelopRole model, leaderas coach, mentor,

teach

CommunicateReal conversations,1:1, group, confl ict,

inspiration

ManagementMindset

Self-awareness, intent vs impact,

role, burning platform

ExecuteDecisions, resource,projects, problem

solving

EngageMeaning, belonging,motivation, types,

dynamics

TeamManagement

Purpose roles,accountability,

meetings,fi rst team

Performance1:1’s, data, analysis,performance levers

CoachSkills coaching,

behavioural coaching

PresenceCircle 1, 2 or 3,gravitas, impact,personal brand

Behavioural Change

Learning Agility

Behavioural Change

Learning Agility

The Leader-Manager Conundrum

“ At VINCI we already had positive experiences of working with leading business schools, and at the outset we were pretty sure a business school would be the way to go for our Leadership programme – then we met Blue Sky. The level of support from Blue Sky, from the CEO down, has been second to none. Without Blue Sky we wouldn’t be where we are today.”

Head of Organisational Development, VINCI

“ The Embedded Learning Methodology changes everything. It means from day one you start to create a true learning culture – senior leaders actually share what they are working on…it is like nothing you have ever seen.”

Director, Centrica

Conscious Leader Talented Manager

The Leader-Manager Conundrum diagram shows the kind of content that our programmes would typically draw upon. We’re not hung up on the language of Leadership versus Management. We believe that great leaders are able to manage, and great managers are able to lead. We work to understand your needs, your people, your challenges and your opportunities, then we choose the content that will make the biggest difference to your people and your business.

What kind of results are you looking for?

“ Having you there, watching me, observing what was really going on as I tried to make the change was invaluable. The truth is, I really thought I was doing it, but I just wasn’t. You were able to tell me why.”

Director, Arcadia Group

“ My results have been not just alright, but have been great – I’ve seen quality and KPIs improve, I’ve managed some really difficult situations, influenced and gained the buy-in from challenging people on the team and have found what I want to do to further my career.”

Director, Sage UK

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Great leadership affects the bottom line, we all know that. It’s also important to acknowledge and measure the steady daily changes that build to create an utterly different leadership culture.

We do this by agreeing up front both the business and behavioural changes you are looking to see and exactly how they will be measured. For your business, it may be through your sales or service results, your staff engagement or cultural scores; however you want to measure ROI, we will work with you to create an effective mechanism for proving it. Within this we also take the measurement of individual and collective behaviours very seriously and use our Leader Behaviour Checklist 360 to get detailed and on-going feedback on specific behaviours for individuals, teams and functions. This allows not only the individual leader to build their knowledge of what good looks like and how they stack up; it allows the business to identify the specific development that will have the biggest impact, where and when.

“ The 10% increase in engagement scores at VINCI was a direct result of the Empower leadership programme and that was very notable for me. When looking at benchmarking across industries, this shift is very significant.”

Tom Debenham, Managing Director, People Insight

Blue Sky Performance ImprovementThe Old Malt House33 The StreetShalfordGuildfordSurreyGU4 8BU

www.blue-sky.co.uk +44 (0)1483 739400

At Blue Sky we are passionate about people development and changing behaviour to drive results. We provide a combination of coaching, consulting and training for senior leadership teams – all geared towards improving business performance.

Visit www.blue-sky.co.uk to discover how you can benefit from our approach and learn more about the results we have achieved with our clients.

Executive Coaching | Team Coaching | Leadership | Management | Sales | Service

Sound exciting? If you think this makes a lot of sense for your business and you’d like to find out more, discuss your challenges, or simply get a feel for who we are, give our team a call on 01483 739400 or email us at hello@blue-sky.co.uk. We’d love to talk.