The 7 Steps to Become an Inspiring Strategic Leader

PART 1 A Strategic Operating System

1. Research Findings In the last two years I coached more than 50 Senior Executives. A group of my clients agreed to participate in my PhD Research Study. They undertook a Leadership Stage Assessment at the beginning of a 12-month Coaching Program and at the end. It turned out that every single Executive moved a full stage in Leadership Development. Most shifted from Achiever to Catalyst, and one went all the way through to Strategist with another knocking at its door. This is equivalent to making the shift from business operations management to strategic leadership, from working in the business to on the business to realize aspirational goals.

You can see from the Graph that at the end of the 12-month period in 2014, the level of self-expression at the lower stages of development: Opportunist, Conformist and Specialist reduced by 30%, while the level of self-expression at the post-conventional stages of Catalyst, Strategist and Alchemist increased by 35%. Given that it’s generally thought to take years to shift Stage beyond the conventional world, these were unlikely and quite remarkable results.

2. Stage Leadership A quick heads-up on what it means to be an Achiever, vs. a Catalyst and a Strategist. Achievers work really effectively in the world. They lead teams, run projects and programs, focus on customers and deliver great results. They strive for success and drive performance focused on goals and objectives. At each stage of leadership there are both strengths and stressors. As we leverage our strengths and release the stressors of a specific stage and then focus on stretching to the next stage, we develop our leadership capacity. The main stressor at the Achiever level is always wanting to do more, to achieve more, to gain more. This is underpinned by a residual feeling of not being good enough, not doing enough, not achieving enough, and not having enough. This keeps Achievers on the treadmill of conventional business practice of being busy, busy, busy. The stretch to shift beyond the stage of Achiever, is to focus internally on who we are as a person rather than externally on what we are producing. This initiates the journey of Catalyst, the journey to becoming a more authentic leader by appreciating our own strengths, our purpose, our values and the relationships in our life. It also initiates the journey into appreciating our personal power to shape our own lives.

My purpose is to enable people to realize their potential, and organizations, their aspirations. 1 www.antoinettebraks.com © Copyright Holistic Leadership Pty Ltd Catalysts, because they are exploring personal authenticity in order to exercise greater integrity, also become more open to exploring the inner worlds of other people. This enables them to operate very effectively as change catalysts as they endeavor to understand others below the surface of things and seek higher order sustainable outcomes for all stakeholders. Please note that a Change Project Manager is not necessarily operating as a Catalyst. They are mostly Achievers focused on achieving the project milestones and results. Catalysts engage people in order to generate shared outcomes rather than deliver on predetermined plans. They seek to understand the concerns and challenges that lie beneath the surface in much the same way as they are exploring their own lives. Journeying as a Catalyst is an individuation phase in Stage Leadership Development. As the archetypal hero’s journey unfolds, we consolidate at Strategist. This landing is inevitable although the length and depth of the journey is unpredictable. As we get to know ourselves, we become more and more clear and committed to sharing our Vision, Values and Voice in the world. This is a mark of the Strategist. Strategists seek to collaborate rather than compromise or merely cooperate. They set firm boundaries, standards and priorities that are essential to their integrity and the realization of their aspirations. Strategists hold the space for deep inquiry, to explore the complexity and ambiguity of wicked problems – those that can’t be solved neatly without appreciating the systemic nature of the challenges we face in the world today. Strategists are purposeful and compassionate. They are self-validating and do not refer to others views to exercise a high level of personal integrity and graciousness in the world. They want to create a better world where we live in mutually supportive communities and conserve our environment to realize sustainable outcomes. They support the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit with equal weighting.

3. Stage Leadership Distribution Everyone up to and including Achievers live in our conventional world. In other words they continue to work in the world as it is at present. And they make up 85% of the Executive population. Only 15% of Executives operate at Catalyst and above. They have adopted a post-conventional mindset with the intention and capacity to create a better world.

I’d like to see many more Executives operating at post-conventional levels. Thus my commitment as an Executive Coach to guide and support Executive Leaders to shift to Catalyst and Strategist.

4. My Personal Journey I discovered I was anchored at Strategist in 2010. It enabled me to realize to some extent why my career had been such a roller coaster ride. The way I approached my work and the way others did were completely different. Despite having sole responsibility for three children I was prepared to risk economic security to maintain my personal integrity. Managers and colleagues had described me as “wild”, “a whirlwind”, “unable to report to anyone else”, even “scary” and yet, I was highly effective. I had been a top performer and was able to generate 2 transformational results for organizations. The problem was that I didn’t take senior executives with me on the journey. In order to be more effective as a strategic leader, I had to learn how to do this. In the roles I took from that point on as a Management Consultant and Executive Coach, I started to look for the distinctions in perspective and build the bridges between the mindset of an Achiever and the mindset of a Strategist. The stage of Catalyst intermediates this journey. I developed various strategies in Organizational Development and Leadership Development that led to terrific outcomes for a 1000-person organization where I designed and directed a People and Culture Transformational Program. People Engagement there increased by 30% in 6 months. Then I began my PhD journey. I had been reading a book each week for over a year and decided I should put some structure around my studies. I was reading developmental psychology, neuroscience, business performance, integral theory, emotional awareness, mindfulness and spiritual intelligence. I’m a perennial student who has spent most of my spare time, even as a child, reading. I decided to explore the drivers from Achiever to Strategist and a number of my coaching clients agreed to participate in my PhD research study. For 12 months I listened to their concerns and challenges, and drew on my experience, expertise and intrinsic creativity to extend and expand on the processes and frameworks that I had developed in the past. Following the 12-month period when I surprisingly found that they had all, without exception, moved a full stage in leadership development, I spent 6 months going back through the coaching conversations to identify what they held in common. I wanted to discern what seemed to be the drivers to transformational leadership from Achiever to Strategist.

5. Coaching from the “Outside-In” and “Inside-Out” I came to realize that I was coaching in two domains simultaneously. I was coaching from the “outside- in”, setting up empowering structures and frameworks that transcended the ordinary hustle and bustle in organizational life. These enabled my clients to rise above the noise and beyond the mayhem of conventional busy-ness. It gave them a higher perspective and the confidence to operate proactively from as strategic leaders. It lifted their individual and organizational operating systems from business- as-usual to strategic leadership. After some time I distilled The 7 Steps that had each formed part of my coaching conversations with clients. They provided the structure, the frameworks and processes that created the strategic scaffolding for them to get above and ahead of the game. This strategic scaffolding held the space that enabled them to operate at a higher level and simultaneously demanded that they rise to this strategic operating level. I called it a Strategic Operating System. My book, Executive SOS, explains the 7 Steps citing a number of client success stories. This represented the “outside-in” of leadership development, or, more accurately, the leadership of organizational performance.

Every single client without exception and contrary to expectation, accomplished in a single year what is usually thought to take several years of trial and effort to achieve. The 7 Steps to Become an Inspiring Strategic Leader The 7 Steps form a new set of 7 S’s linked to developing an aspirational Vision of the future, identifying and holding our inspirational Values in the workplace, and realizing and articulating our Voice to engage, empower and encourage others to join us in creating a better world.

Step 1 Run Your Schedule with a Dynamic Diary Rhythm to Master Time

My purpose is to enable people to realize their potential, and organizations, their aspirations. 3 www.antoinettebraks.com © Copyright Holistic Leadership Pty Ltd This step leverages neuroscience to change our focus from doing as much as possible to giving priority to important strategic work by institutionalizing this focus in our weekly and monthly schedule of events.

Step 2Define the Scope with a Transformational Strategic Agenda to Master Vision The second step sets strategic direction in terms of a meaningful purpose, strategic KPIs, a series of performance and culture shifts, a set of key strategic initiatives and the guiding principles that will inform rapid and robust decision-making throughout the organization.

Step 3Set the Scene with a Major Milestones Roadmap to Master Focus This sets up an empowering framework so that you can oversee strategic initiatives rather than be immersed in the activities within projects and programs. It shows you how to be a Sponsor and select Champions to move fast forward in innovation and ideation.

Step 4Create the Style with a Values-based Leadership Culture to Master Values How people work together is an essential element in your strategic framework. Activating a strategically selected set of corporate values to uplift your Leadership Culture through recognition and other strategies makes a momentous impact on divisional performance.

Step 5Know the Score with Cascading Team Charters to Master Teamwork This step enables you to cascade the strategic agenda and values-based leadership culture in an empowering and uplifting way so that everyone is focused on performing as a team to produce a symphony that serves customers and achieves outstanding results.

Step 6Step up on Stage with a Compelling Signature Presentation At this point in the process you will be much more aware of who you are at a more authentic level. Instead of just reporting on events and expectations, you will discover how to become an influential advocate inviting others to join you in creating a better future.

Step 7Leverage Scale with Orchestrated Stakeholder Engagement At Catalyst and Strategist levels of leadership development, wide internal and external engagement is key. In this step you discover how to do this in a synchronized way so that you can lead a campaign that encourages others to aspire to shared visionary goals.

These 7 Steps enable you to unlock your creativity, double your productivity, empower your people, engage your stakeholders, lift your profile and achieve amazing results!! 7. A Few Client Success Stories

The success stories of my clients are extraordinary. They each began to operate from a more strategic perspective using the power of mindful, conscious intention and the many frameworks and processes found within the integrated set of 7 Steps to build their Strategic Operating System.

4 If you’d like to uplift the performance of your division or organization and advance your career to realize outcomes that you may at first believe to be impossible, then please take up a Complimentary Coaching 90-minute Meeting with me to see what’s possible for you! Please contact me by email [email protected] to set up your Complimentary Coaching Meeting in central Sydney or by Skype, or click on the button on my website. Antoinette Braks Executive Coach in Strategic Leadership for Senior Executives

My purpose is to enable people to realize their potential, and organizations, their aspirations. 5 www.antoinettebraks.com © Copyright Holistic Leadership Pty Ltd