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Leadership · your organization's leadership system
Leadership
Leadership is more than the sum of good leaders. Who is responsible for what, how do executive management and the leadership team work together, and does that fit what the situation demands? This service line examines and shapes the leadership system, not the individual people.
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What this service line looks at
Roles and responsibility
Who is responsible for what in the leadership team, and where does responsibility fall through the cracks?
Interplay
How do executive management and the leadership team work together? Is everyone pulling in the same direction, or does each person run their own area?
Committees and rhythm
What meetings are there, what is discussed in them, and where does whatever isn’t resolved there escalate to?
Fit with the situation
Does the leadership model fit the strategy and what AI is changing? What does leadership need to learn anew here?
Leadership system or HR program?
Both have to do with leadership. Still, they are different tasks.
| Leadership Audit & Lab | HR programs | |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | The leadership system: how leadership works as a whole | Processes around the employees |
| Questions | Who is responsible for what? How do executive management and the leadership team work together? Which committees, in what rhythm? Where does what escalate? Does the leadership model fit the strategy and AI? What does leadership need to learn anew? | What competencies do we need? What training do we offer? How do we assess performance? Who succeeds whom? How do we pay people? |
| Result | Findings on the leadership system. Redesigned roles, leadership principles, committees, and interplay in the leadership team, tested in everyday practice | Competency models, training catalogs, appraisal and talent programs, succession plans, compensation systems |
| Who does the work | The leadership team together, with executive management | HR with the employees and managers |
HR practically never shapes the leadership system. Not for lack of skill, but because HR is itself part of this system and can hardly reorganize it from within. That takes an outside view and a mandate from executive management.
Fixed boundaries of this service line:
- I don’t assess people. The focus is the system, not the suitability of individuals.
- I don’t build HR programs. Competency models, training, and appraisals stay with HR.
- Personal development is offered separately, as Exponential Leadership.
Not like this
Three patterns I often see, and what holds instead.
Not like this
One training for all managers
The level below learns modern leadership. The leadership team itself keeps working side by side, each on their own.
Instead: start with the leadership team.
Not like this
Team building instead of clarity
A good offsite, and everyone has grown closer. Who is responsible for what is as unclear as before.
Instead: clarify roles, committees, and interplay, and make them binding.
Not like this
HR is supposed to roll out the leadership culture
A mandate HR can hardly fulfill: HR is itself part of the system that is supposed to change.
Instead: executive management gives the mandate, the leadership team does the shaping.
What I bring to leadership
- More than 20 years in leadership roles
- International program management and leadership in complex structures
- Systemic coach
- Facilitation for leadership teams (Next Stage, Ten Directions)
- Presence and perception: recognizing and naming mood, tension, and what goes unspoken in the room
At the individual level: Exponential Leadership
What the leadership system demands, each leader ultimately has to carry personally. The implementation of the leadership service line at the individual level is Exponential Leadership: leadership that expands perception, awareness, and room to act. For more depth, see begleiter.org.
Leadership
The path in three stages
Before that: the initial conversation. Clarity on whether to continue, and with what.
- Stage 1 · Make visibleLeadership AuditHow your leadership system actually works
- Stage 2 · Agree anewLeadership LabRoles, principles, and committees, redesigned together
- Stage 3 · Prove it day to dayLeadership guidanceLeadership that holds, even under pressure
