Leadership risk is the biggest problem facing business today.

The unhappy reality is that as business becomes faster, more complex and more networked, the work of leaders becomes exponentially more difficult and leaders seldom have all the skills required to cover all the bases.

The situation is exacerbated if they are slow to admit to and address their own capability gaps and those of their team members.  We call this reality Leadership Risk.

Frequently, much vaunted strategies are abandoned, run over budget, or yield disappointing results.  Research done by Harvard Business School into the performance of business strategies shows that around 30 per cent of value of strategies are never achieved due to leadership risk/failure.

Easy to assess and visible warning signs of leadership failure include:

• A growing reliance on inefficient and ineffective communications channels.
• Email overload.
• Powerpoint heavy meetings, a lack of context for project decisions and
• Calendars filled with meetings with little or no follow-up of projections.
  

We help companies minimise leadership risk to execute strategy successfully

We start by helping organisations define the work that needs to be done to execute specific strategy.

We then help assess the capability of the existing team to deliver this new work and create a bespoke plan to close the gaps identified between what is needed and what exists.  This determines which gap closure program or programs should be implemented.

These programs include:

• Board Effectiveness.
• Leader Elevation.
• Executive Search.
• Team Effectiveness.
  

Our work helps to ensure:

• There is a capable and effective board in place doing the right work for the next phase of the organisation's evolution.
• The right leaders are in place to address the issues posed by under performance, ambitious growth or change in business direction and they understand how their work will be different going forward.
• The senior leadership team members fully understand the implications of the (new) strategy for the both the work of their roles and of their individual team members' roles.

Our approach is bespoke

Each engagement reflects the specific context and goals that uniquely defines the client's challenge.  We assist by turning a series of ad-hoc ideas into a clear vision and approach and welding a group of individuals into a high performing team.

We help leaders invest to properly understand and communicate what they are trying to do, build the capability needed to execute their program and then communicate the scope and purpose of the program to all involved.  By doing this leadership risk will be mitigated and more of the strategy's potential will be realised.

Images of Paintings courtesy of Scott McDougall