Our Approach

Principles applied:

The Leadership Development Framework

The Leadership Development Framework (LDF) offers a profound understanding of how and why leaders and organisations behave as they do and offers insightful maps for individual development and or ganisational change.

The LDF is concerned with the core human process of making meaning – how we make meaning determines how we think and ultimately, how we behave. Most frameworks for understanding human difference and leadership capacity fail to recognise this core process of meaning making.

The Framework analyses and predicts the stages leaders pass through to get to a point where they can seek and choose new frames that accommodate the disparities, paradoxes, and fluidity of multiple possibilities.

For more information on the framework: www.harthill.co.uk/leadership_development_framework.htm

There are nine styles summarised in the diagram below:

Research has shown that only managers at the post-conventional stages, Individualist and later, can steer transformational culture change in organisations. Managers at earlier stages would either not see the need or seeing it, would not have the inclusive frame making ability to realise it.

Action Research:

We are experienced and competent in this method of working and utilise it as a base in mentoring practice. With a Master of Science in Responsibility and Business Practice degree from the Centre for Action Research and Professional Practice (CARPP) at the University of Bath, UK, Kevin has experienced an action research programme as a participant, and as a lecturer in leadership courses. CARPP is one of the world’s top centres for action research.

Self-Reflection:

We instruct and guide mentees in reflective practice and have taught this method as well as journal writing and other creative methods for increasing self-awareness. It is an integral part of action inquiry and leadership development in the context of the Leadership Development Framework.

Systems Thinking:

We work with participants to understand the interrelated and interacting issues of today’s increasingly complex workplace and then to use that understanding to build robust organisational systems and people capable of adapting to and performing in them. We have a profound understanding of the difference between linear thinking and decision-making, and the need for skills in thinking and making decisions systemically.

Collaborative Leadership and Team Models:

We focus on the need for leaders to also be responsible followers. We work with models such as Servant Leadership and the Leadership Development Framework to support this and use Belbin’s Team Roles to develop collaborative teamwork and leadership approaches.

Listening and Communication Methods

We are skilled in helping people develop listening and communication skills so that they become part of the organisation’s ongoing strategic processes, helping to identify critical issues and creating new direction.

Awareness of Others

These practices help people to understand others and to be better able to work with different people. This forms the basis of our training in communication skills, and is developed through understanding emotional intelligence, and being skilful in collaboration, conflict resolution and effectively motivating and influencing others. We also work with Te Tipu Ake, a Maori model of leadership that is action focused, based on Maori worldviews. It provides a framework for understanding others and helps organisations grow into dynamic living entities.

Using Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace

Understanding and working with emotion is a vital part in understanding yourself and others and an essential part of effective communication. We frequently open up conversation with participants to assist them in being more open in identifying and expressing their own emotions and in inquiring about and understanding others.