Leadership for possibility

Excelerator's leadership development philosophy is focussed on capacity building and on enhanced possibility.  

Building individual and collective capacity for an "anything is possible" future involves deep level learning or what we call leadership learning.

Leadership learning is about developing different ways of noticing what is going on around you and how you are thinking about yourself in the world - now and for the future. Leadership learning is also strongly connected with others, capturing enhanced possibility for collective enterprise.   

Leadership learning is anchored on developing a deeper understanding and awareness which moves beyond current assumptions, mental models and tradition. It involves both creativity and unlearning with the release of the thinking and self-imposed boundaries that no longer serve you. Ours is an active process involving numerous learning mechanisms and contexts.

Leader and leadership development

Combining leader and leadership development is about the capacity building of individuals, groups and systems. It involves seeing new possibilities and releasing potential that is in reserve or hasn't been sparked. 

Leader development involves:

• Enacting personal potential
• Future orientation (seeing past the reality of today to the opportunities of tomorrow)
• Purposeful movement and direction
• Recognising leadership opportunities in addition to mandated leadership positions
• Realising the need to always be a learner - becoming a reflective practitioner
• Taking courageous action
• Being efficacious - knowing that you can and must make a difference
• Being confident with ambiguity and uncertainty in the future

Leadership development involves:  

• Looking and engaging outside of yourself
• Shaping and creating with others
• Recognising others' perspectives
• Offering the tools and time to learn and grow
• Creating systems and culturewhere people are encouraged to contribute and where there is courage, love and care
• Seeing the people inside organisational processes
• Recognising interdependence - seeing complexity between structures, people, processes, effects and outcomes
• Acting to challenge or change things in collaboration with others
• Seeking a clarity of purpose and alignment of activity towards that purpose

What Makes this Development Process Different?

Your own sense of leadership

Our learning process allows you to apply your own new thinking to past experiences, current reality and future opportunities. We do not tell you what to think, how you need to change or what leadership is, instead you envision and expand your own picture of leadership now and what you want to create, and be a part of, for the future.  

Leadership spheres

People often see their leadership sphere as small, finite and boundaried. Through our development process you extend your sense of leadership responsibility to a much wider sphere. You see your ‘ripple effect' and act courageously to enhance those ripples and create waves.  

We do not believe that leadership is like a jacket you put on when you leave your house, and take off again when you leave the doors of your organisation.  You live and lead in many different environments and the programme focuses on you as a leader in all of these domains. 

We describe our programme as leadership specific and context sensitive meaning that our focus is developing leadership, your focus is on applying that leadership in your different contexts and deciding for answering the "leadership for what" question for yourself.   

Sustained focus 

Our 18 month programme gives you the time to understand and build leadership informed by elements in life that you don't normally give yourself time to consider and learn from. Our development is anchored on adult learning where daily experiences and ongoing reflection are used as a primary source of learning.

We provide ongoing support and stimulation to make the changes that stick and are sustainable.

As international leadership expert Jay Conger noted in his research into leadership development - "How can a three or five day programme have a significant impact in terms of developing lasting [leadership] skills? Clearly it cannot" Learning to Lead, The Art of Transforming Managers into Leaders).

Combining reflection with action

Increased awareness that doesn't lead to renewed action is fruitless.  Equally, constantly taking action and not stopping to reflect and learn from the experience is ineffective.

As leadership expert, Manfred Kets de Vries has written, "Leaders of the future will need to combine passion with reason, and action with reflection"

This allows for an increased likelihood of getting greater value from your leadership experiences and ongoing refinements of your "in the moment" leadership actions rather than relying on packaged responses to leadership issues.  Reflection combined with creative problem solving will significantly expand the range of possibilities for action.  

Leadership Network

As the programme is long term, there is time and opportunity to develop a strong and trusted network of peers to learn from and with. These peers can challenge and stimulate leadership learning at deep level and be there as ongoing support as your leadership development progresses.     

What if....

During our programme there are numerous opportunities to shift your leadership thinking and action, just imagine if as a part of this process:  

• You began to realise ways you have been holding yourself back by not naming your aspirations
• You could unlearn the self imposed limitations of your thinking and actions
• You saw the potential in others before you saw the limitations 
• You understood that you didn't need to have all right answers but needed to ask the right questions
• You could see that your leadership action was for the prosperity of the whole business not just your team and area
• You could start talking to othes in your environment about the difficult things that normally get pushed to the corners of the room
• You and those around you could see new possibilities by learning to build ideas together
• You began using new ways of thinking to solve old problems