Strategic Leadership Development
Effective leadership is critical to a company’s growth and success, like any other corporate asset to be leveraged. Companies spend a lot of money on leadership training programs that don’t achieve the desired results. To work, these must be relevant, well designed and executed, rooted in developmental experiences and based in the day-to-day reality of the current or future roles of the participants.
There’s no such thing as a standardized program. An effective leadership model should be focused on the ‘vital few’ game changing capabilities and behaviors required to achieve that company’s business needs and strategy, and also be connected to its issues and challenges. Building leadership capacity involves a systemic and long-term focus on activities that produce the highest impact. It requires an aspirational approach, leveraging leaders’ strengths and managing their vulnerabilities.
The process of developing leaders needs to be supported and actively managed, planned and overseen by the CEO and key executives. This includes role modeling, rewarding desired behaviours, and motivating and enabling leaders to learn new skills, and let go of old ways.
John Swain and his associates can help you build leadership capacity and capability to drive your strategy by:
- Designing and delivering a Customized High Impact Leadership Learning Program
- Designing the process and providing Onboarding and Executive Role Transition Support
- Providing Executive Action Coaching
To view some sample cases and testimonials click here
Executive Talent Management
It’s not uncommon for CEOs, CTOs and CHROs to feel wary about whether they have the right people to succeed the top executive roles and lead their organizations into the future. Decisions on talent investments, like any investment, are not without risks. All too often, talent investment decisions are made with unclear criteria and inadequate objective input. Much more is known now about assessing future potential and ‘hardwired’ behavior, and how to effectively develop leadership talent when that knowledge is applied, to reduce the risks of your talent investment decisions.
It is wise to think about your internal talent like you do your external customer markets. What talent segments do I want to invest in to maximize my return? So being prudent about executive talent management means paying attention to identifying critical roles, defining the strategic leadership capabilities you are looking for and then identifying and assessing which leaders to invest in before focusing on expensive leadership development activities.
John Swain and his associates can help you create a sustainable executive talent pipeline through:
- Developing an Executive Leadership Talent Strategy
- Designing the process and implementing a CEO/Executive Succession process
- Conducting Executive Assessment
To view some sample cases and testimonials click here
Collaborative Strategy Development
The success of strategy development is much more about the quality of implementation versus the brilliance of the strategic focus and ideas. A brilliant strategy that is poorly executed is quite simply… a bad strategy. Most of the time the seeds of a new strategy already exist within the heads and hearts of your leaders – they simply need an effective process to be liberated and applied. It’s important for organizations to find the right process for developing new strategies – one that is informed by existing data (supplemented if required), creative rather than recycled, and most importantly, earns the support and commitment of those who will implement the new plan. Leaders want a logical, structured and collaborative process to map the future, grounded in informed decisions and constructive debate. Let’s face it – people like and will more easily commit to their own strategic ideas anyway. Once this foundation is built, it will lead to successful strategic planning and execution.
John and his associates can help you chart a clear strategic direction, with a focus on full commitment and ability to execute through:
- Designing and facilitating a Strategy Articulation and Alignment process
- Identifying a Strategy Implementation change plan
- Establishing Change Management Design with Monitoring
To view some sample cases and testimonials click here
Executive Team Mastery
Complex demands involved in managing and leading an enterprise mean CEOs are turning to their executive teams as a way to extend their leadership and supplement their own skills and expertise. But an executive team structure alone is no guarantee of executive team success. Like it or not, top teams are in public life – what they signal in word and action gets amplified in the broader organization. When executive teams work well together, they can be exceptionally valuable for an organization’s success and achievement. When they don’t, they can dangerously sub-optimize organization performance.
An executive team’s success is rooted in its design – its composition, mandate, accountability, visibility, politics and leadership – which is ultimately driven by the CEO in his or her unique role as executive team leader. Executive team mastery involves having the right people, employing the right processes, managing the right value added work, in the right context.
John Swain and he associates can help you build and sustain an effective top team through:
- Designing Executive Team Governance and supporting the Launch
- Increasing Top Team Alignment
To view some sample cases and testimonials click here
Meeting Design & Facilitation
Despite the virtual nature of our contemporary working world, nothing can replace the power and impact of an effective large group meeting or retreat. With travel, accommodation and work piling up when leaders are tied up in such meetings, this becomes an expensive proposition that shouldn’t be taken lightly, but not avoided either. Being very clear about your meeting objectives, developing an innovative and effective design to maximize in-person time, and having this professionally facilitated will greatly improve its chances of success in terms of quality of output and increase in motivation and engagement. You want all participants to exclaim, “That was a great use of my time!” Whether your priorities include change management planning, conducting focus group meetings involving multiple stakeholders, team building, enterprise communication, strategic/business planning or executive development, a well-designed and facilitated retreat will enable you to accelerate your agenda.
John Swain and his associates deliver high impact meetings that engage and energize including:
- Executive Retreats
- Leadership Conferences
- Business Planning
To view some sample cases and testimonials click here
Transform Leadership Skills
Discover how Swain Associates can help you and your organization reach new heights through our expert coaching and innovative workshops.