When we facilitate leadership and team effectiveness programs, two fundamental questions always arise: Why are we doing this work, and where are we going? These questions are the foundation of stable vision, which drives organisational and team effectiveness, enhances alignment, and boosts employee engagement. Developing leadership...
Transitioning from being a technical expert to a leadership role can feel like stepping into a whole new world. Suddenly, you might find yourself excluded from the WhatsApp group where your team used to vent or share jokes. ...
In this blog, Craig Yeatman explores whether middle managers can craft inspirational visions, examines the psychological traits and states that may hinder them, and offers strategies to enhance middle management leadership outcomes....
If conventional wisdom says that every organisation needs a “vision”, and that “leadership” cannot exist without a vision, how does that tie up with the ten schools of strategic thought? Not so well, it turns out....
In a recent conversation with a team leader at a prominent South African logistics company, a familiar challenge emerged: despite providing feedback, guidance, and tools, her team seemed reluctant to take ownership of their work. "They constantly look to me for direction when what I...
In a flash of the obvious, this week I came across research that moved my thinking on organisational strategy and design. For me, the linear progression from vision to strategy to structure had been a golden path. However – what I now realise is that...
“Design thinking is a waste of time”. “I don’t need my management team to co-design strategy, I know what needs to be done”. “There’s nothing wrong with our strategy, the problem is execution”. “I really need my management team to step up”. These are examples...
On a clear, cold winters day in Cape Town twelve executives gathered in a large room. No PowerPoint presentations but plenty of flipchart and post it notes decorated the walls. The atmosphere was tense as the group worked on their strategic foundations. ...
Operational failures or even organisational collapse are frequently attributed to poor leadership. The cause of this often includes leaders that lack a mutual understanding of the organisation's direction, fail to support and advocate for their team members, and leave employees feeling adrift and unsupported. The...
We wonder whether a significant addition to the general strategy curriculum might be “strategic leadership as the execution of agile organisational design through teams.” The schools of organisational design and development need greater democratisation as “leadership” moves to all levels of the organisation. ...
