For some people, leadership is something you are born with, it’s in your genes. It is something associated with charisma – an almost magical ability to persuade and inspire others. You either have it or you don’t.

At Innovation Consultancy Partnership, we believe that leadership is far more subtle and situational. It is also very dependant on the social and political environment, the business situation and the culture of the organisation that shapes the type of leadership that is necessary.

Leadership is a social process – the result of interactions between and within individuals and teams. It is the quality of these relationships between those designated to lead and those who depend on it that is the vital ingredient.

There is not a particular type of leader – directive or consultative, outgoing or introvert, visionary or practical who is more successful than others. Effective leaders are people of substance, who have a moral strength, with views, opinions, feelings and beliefs that do not change from moment to moment. What organisations need to succeed are many ordinary heroes with character and integrity who can serve as role models.

Leadership is very different from management. The two are often used interchangeably and confused as meaning the same thing with disastrous consequences.

Quality leadership can be developed and our training programmes are available to everyone who aspires to become a good leader. We are experienced practitioners in using some of the most well-established models of thought leadership in this area innovated by such eminent people as; Bruce W. Tuckman, Dr Meredith Belbin, Dr Paul Hersey, Professor John Adair, and John P. Kotter.

The Situational Leadership® Model was developed by Professor Hersey, who is recognized as one of the world’s outstanding authorities on training and development in leadership. His work in situational leadership leads us to recognise the importance of understanding the people who we lead and to use the most appropriate style of leadership depending on the people who we lead, their task and time-frame. One style of leadership, say directive may be suitable for say a salesman who is quite unwilling to quite to writing a report, but it would be inappropriate with this same experienced and competent person in selling product. By the same token, delegating to one of your staff who is inexperienced and unable to carryout the task competently is an abdication of responsibility.

This is an excellent model and allows the leader to use ‘frame’ given situations, applying the best style given the situation.

The Action-Centred Leadership Model, developed by Professor John Adair, the world's first Professor of Leadership Studies provides another excellent stimulating framework for inspiring, motivating and encouraging individuals and teams to perform. Amongst other things, the model, developed from 30 years of research shows us the importance of staying focussed on all three elements; task, team and the individual.

There are many ways to build a team; throw each other off cliffs, go abseiling, build a raft, spend all night working to meet a deadline, plan next weeks strategy over a weekend. Some play five-a-side rugby after working hours while others go on a company picnic.

What is important in any event, is that a few key elements need to be present;

• Creating trust amongst team members
• Allowing differences
• Allowing mistakes
• Recognising individual strengths, styles and skills
• Ensuring tolerance
• Keeping lines of communication open

A good team is a great place to be; exciting, stimulating, supportive and successful.

This all sounds pretty obvious, but is rarely achieved in practise without good leadership. Understanding where the team is at and leading the team through its natural development is crucial in embedding all these important characteristics.

The FSNP Model, developed by Bruce Tuckman gives a unique insight into how teams develop and the likely leadership style that is therefore required to support this development. The FSNP is stands for Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing to describe the attributes and characteristics of a teams’ performance.

What is important is that a team will not develop if inappropriately led, and therefore this model provides an excellent way of identifying the leadership needs of the team.

Developing Your Team

Forming: New teams go along with things to start with while they get the used to others and the task. Telling Leader gives a lot of structure, directions and support.

Storming: Team a little unclear of their role, feel frustrated / confused and question what is going on. Selling Leader builds confidence, praise and reinforces ground rules.

Norming: Team used to tasks and establishes a competent pattern of work and strong team spirit. Participating Leader involves team in decisions, develops individuals.

Performing: Team comfortable and wants to share leadership. Delegating Leader gives new responsibilities spends time mostly co-ordinating.

The question is; “Why do we work?”. At first for food and shelter, but few of us stop there. We need more out of life than a meal and a home. We want careers that take us to new places, new skills and competences, prestige and even power, recognition and reward. The issue surrounding motivation is similar to that of leadership, we all run on different fuels – do you go to work to see friends or because I am a dictator. So developing universally accepted rules for motivating people is unwise, as is one kind of leadership fits all! Thought leadership has proposed many answers in the pursuit of motivation, but it is some of the older theories that have endured the test of time. Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is still true today. At the bottom are physiological and safety needs and at the top is self actualisation with social needs in the middle. Only when needs are met at one level can you expect to proceed to the next. So if your working conditions are poor and you are working in an unhealthy environment, and you have arrived at work without your lunch, you may be motivated to realise your full potential. Leading therefore also means being aware of these needs and providing the right environment and working arrangements that allow people to succeed. Fredrick Herzerg also led the way in his thinking on motivation. He suggested that two categories of influence in the workplace. Herzberg’s motivators were achievement; recognition for that achievement; an enjoyable job; responsibility; growth; and advancement. He didn’t particularly believe in the power of money as a motivator. Whether you do or not depends on the way you think (and may be cultural). Secondly, Herzberg’s coined “Hygiene Factors” (the things that made people unhappy and demotivated) were obstructive company policy, unhelpful administration, intrusive supervision, bad working relationships, poor conditions, uncompetitive salaries, low status and job insecurity. But the complexities of the human psyche mean that money as a motivator can not be dismissed, it does engender high emotions. Leaders therefore need to be aware of these motivators, as well as the subtle and sensitive imperatives discussed earlier. Role Model Behaviours to Motivate and Inspire • Do what you say you will do, always • Give praise, personally and daily • Encourage new ideas, actively • Lead by example, mostly sell not tell • When faced with a problem ask yourself, what can I do about it • Never blame others, ask what is the problem, not who • Provide timely, accurate feedback to others • Ask your team to participate in decisions, and listen • Turn a negative into a positive • Make yourself visible and approachable

We believe coaching identifies and addresses; needs, motivations, desires and facilitates the use of critical knowledge and skill applied to solving an organisation’s problems enabling real, lasting change. At Innovation Consultancy Partnership we believe coaching is vital to achieving real success as it is the process that enables learning to be applied effectively” Coaching is common sense, but good coaching it is rarely achieved in practise. To be effective, a coach requires a thorough understanding of ‘process consultation’, as well as knowledge of the necessary tools & techniques that need to be used to problem-solve and improve. One without the other leads to a poor result and a big missed opportunity! This is a truly powerful methodology that we call process/skill coaching. Individual and team effectiveness is paramount in realising the human potential through appropriate and bespoke training. But this must be delivered within a learning environment that is enthusiastic and motivating, with humour and positive recognition of achievement. Also, recognising the different ways people learn is vital to harnessing strengths and managing weakness, and we use a range of different methods to create a positive learning experience for everyone. Good training must be seen as an investment and the initial enthusiasm and desire harnessed. Process/skill coaching during and following training is a must to harness individual capability and in implementing new knowledge if today’s problems are to be solved.

We provide for our clients extensive training programmes and coaching in the area of, leading change, leadership and team-building, supervision skills etc.

Our process/skill coaching is results focussed (and measurable) and tailored specifically to individual / team needs, appropriate to solving your problems. This is extremely stimulating and motivating for everyone involved.

Through one-to-one or team process/skill coaching we are able to support organisations achieve real and lasting change working within the ‘live’ workplace.

Also we provide support for the three most important aspects of team effectiveness;

• team selection
• team leadership
• Team development.

All too often these are ignored and teams are selected purely on their task/technical ability, resulting in poor solutions and ultimately, failure to achieve desired outcomes.

Our capability and experience allows us to partner process consultation with most, if not all, of the major technical and non-technical improvement tools & techniques used within organisations today. For example, Six Sigma, Change Management, Generic Structured Problem Solving Tools, Taguchi Methods, SMED, etc.

Moreover, we are experienced practitioners in using some of the most well-established models of thought leadership, in the areas of team selection, development & dynamics, learning and leadership innovated by such eminent people as; Bruce W. Tuckman, Dr Meredith Belbin, David A. Kolb and Dr Paul Hersey, Professor John Adair, and John P. Kotter.

Process/skill coaching makes best use of new (or previous) knowledge to achieve lasting and measurable improvement in developing your people, and improving your organisation – this is one of our key; “differences that will make the difference”

Sustainability is the key and we believe it vital to transfer our knowledge to the organisation’s people to achieve an in-house expertise, avoiding any lasting dependency on us. To do this we use train-the trainer workshops, as well as trainer/facilitator and learning-by-doing support programmes.

Our history and experience of process/skill coaching has achieved quite amazing results!