Leadership is core to an organisation's ability to excel. Leadership is the art of influencing and directing people to willingly achieve the team or organisational goal. Little or nothing can be done in organisations if the appropriate leadership is not displayed at all levels through an organisation.

Many leaders, particularly first line supervisors are appointed as a result of their technical competence or success as an individual.  Often little assistance is given to prepare leaders until they are in significant leadership positions.  We all know of circumstances where good people were placed in bad positions through a lack of early identification and development as leaders.

Our program assists with the development of leaders through an experiential program.  This program combines individual coaching, education on the theory and practice of leadership and collaborative techniques, where participants gain the advantage of a wide range of experience of other participants as well learning from highly successful and stimulating guests speakers who relate real life experience. This program is known as “Leadership Circles”^®.   It is  designed as a significant program that runs for a year, with a three hour joint session each month, as well as individual coaching.

The program also places emphasis on individuals understanding themselves as much as understanding the theory and practice of leadership We use world accredited tools and methods to assist with process, such as “Benchmarks”^® a 360 degree leadership assessment and development model for established managers and Skillscope^® an leadership assessment tool  for supervisors.

Just as many people are placed in leadership positions without preparation many teams are expected to operate at a high level of performance levels with little assistance.  We have a program that assists teams to develop and maintain high levels of performance.  This is achieved through three areas of attention:

Understanding the team task and all the respective roles that achieve the team task.    This may sound intuitively obvious but it is not always the case.  Few tasks in modern business can be achieved by one team in isolation. Usually there is a value chain involved where tasks are passed from one team to another to achieve an outcome or service for a customer. Similarly within teams, one role assumes a task from another colleague and passes it on to a third person. Often it is assumed that these tasks and processes are fully known. Our experience is that this is not often the case.  Understanding the bigger picture and where each individual fits into the process and how all contribute to the bigger picture is an important first step.

Understanding themselves.  It is important that staff members understand their characters and preferences in the work place.  Often people have distinct preferences for the way they work.  While preferences can be modified by education and training, it is important that staff understand where their strengths lie and where they need to be vigilant or may need support.  We use a series of well known instruments that assist staff to identify their inherent traits and assist in the preparation of personal development plans.  

These instruments include:

	FIRO-B® is a self-report instrument designed to measure behaviours derived from interpersonal needs. It measures three interpersonal needs (Inclusion, Control and Affection) and the degree to which each of these needs are wanted and expressed.
	MBTI® a self report tool to assist in understanding individual differences between people for how they perceive and uncovering new ways to work and interact with others.

Understanding the team.  In this element we combine the understanding of the task and each individuals understanding of themselves to develop how best to use the individual characteristics and preferences to achieve the team tasks required.  In the process the team gains insights into each other which builds trust and “espirit de corps”.  The team learns to exploit strengths and minimize weaknesses based on a common understanding of each other.  We use the Team Management Index ® as a tool to assist us with this process either as an adjunct to the MBTI or as a substitute.

For more information contact The Tenon Group at +61 410 441 054, complete our online information request or send email.

Leadership Circles^® is the registered Trade Mark of “The Growing Edge Consulting Service”, Chapel Hill, Brisbane, Australia

Benchmarks^®  and Skillscope^® are the Registered Trademarks of  the Center For Creative Leadership, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA