Leadership: taking people on a journey of change

A simple enough definition, but what lies behind it? Over the years various people have defined a list of traits and skills necessary for leadership, e.g.:

Traits ST-48 M-59 ST-74 LDA-86 KL-91 PGN
[Determination] *
Achievement *
Adjustment *
Alertness *
Cognitive ability *
Confidence *
Conservatism *
Cooperativeness *
Dominance * *
Drive *
Extroversion *
Influence *
Initiative * *
Insight * *
Integrity * *
Intelligence * * * *
Masculinity * *
Motivation *
Persistence * *
Responsibility * *
Self-Confidence * * *
Sociability * * *
Task knowledge *
Tolerance (acceptance) *

ST-48 = Stodgill (1948),
M-59 = Mann (1959),
ST-74 = Stodgill (1974),
LDA-86 = Lord, DeVader & Alliger (1986), 
KL-91 = Kirkpatrick & Locke (1991),
PGN = Peter Northouse (2007)

Our own research has led to the development of a more complete and comprehensive model of leadership Traits and Skill sets spread over the three key aspects of Leadership. It is this comprehensive model that is used as the basis for both our training and coaching programmes.

Studies done on the effectiveness of training programmes show that at least 60% of trainings do not survive past the first week back in the workplace. So, what makes our training programme different?

  • Up until relatively recently it was thought that our character Traits were “hard-wired” and therefore unchangeable, one either had them or not. We now know that very little about us, and our character in particular, is “hard-wired”. Most of it is learnt behaviour, and can be re-programmed or learnt afresh.
  • In our training sessions not only do we teach what the requisite traits and skill sets are, but utilising fast, effective and efficient techniques, modified for the leadership programme from both the therapeutic and NLP worlds, we give you the opportunity to "re-programme" and instill those traits and skills into your core being. This creates a learning experience and a "toolkit" that will last a lifetime.  The techniques used are fully tried and tested having been developed over the last 20 years.
  • Once the requisite traits are in place then learning the requisite skill sets becomes much easier. They are a natural adjunct to the traits and make for a complete, holistic, congruent personality.
  • There are some physical attributes which research has shown give an advantage to leaders, and are common to some degree or other in many leaders throughout history. These attributes being: tall, slim males with a good head of hair and a deep voice.  However, all is not lost if you do not have all or any of these attributes, perception is often stronger than reality. A strong personality influences the way they are perceived physically in many cases making them seem to be taller, slimmer and more commanding. So by changing the character traits of the individual the physical perception of that person changes as well.

Our leadership training and coaching works to develop and/or re-programme the requisite leadership character traits and to teach the skill sets required to become a top class leader. The training process is a comprehensive, fully structured, modular programme designed to enable students to choose any or all of the modules to suit their particular requirements. Training is often carried out in conjunction with coaching to facilitate the implementation of the training in the real world environment.