Leadership Effectiveness Training

In the 30 years that Wilson Learning has studied leadership and has helped its clients develop their approaches to leadership effectiveness, we have come to believe that how leaders view their purpose will set the course for their organisation's success. For Wilson Learning, the purpose of a leader is to engage others in committing their full energy to the creation of value and success.

Leadership Model Wilson Learning's approach to assessing and developing leaders begins with Leadership Character - those elements of leadership that are enduring and core to how people view the purpose of leadership. While Leadership Character is the foundation of effective leadership, alone it is not sufficient. In order to produce tangible results, effective leaders need the skills and knowledge required to execute on those values and principles.

Our perspective, based on both in-depth research and practical experience, is that the skills required to execute effective leadership can be defined as four core roles that each leader must fulfil: the Visionary, the Tactician, the Facilitator, and the Contributor.

All leaders, regardless of level, need to fulfil all four roles. But they do not need to emphasise all four roles at the same depth and to the same extent. The prominence of each role will vary, depending on the leader’s level. At Wilson Learning we have identified three main levels: performance leader, growth leader, and strategic leader.

Integrated Leadership: Performance with Fulfillment

Integrating the four roles — the Visionary, the Tactician, the Facilitator, and the Contributor - with the underlying foundation of Leadership Character creates the conditions necessary for achieving performance with fulfillment. We believe that both performance and fulfillment are essential to sustained high performance — that people will not achieve sustained high performance without feeling fulfilled, and that people will not feel fulfilled at work unless performing at high levels. Helping organisations and individuals achieve performance with fulfillment has been Wilson Learning's mission for more than 40 years. It encompasses everything we are about as an organisation. Integrated leadership creates the conditions necessary for performance with fulfillment. A leader's inability to assume any one of the four roles reduces fulfillment, performance, or both.

Without vision, employees do not gain fulfillment from knowing that they are contributing to a greater good. Without tactical insight, employees find difficulty determining whether or not their actions are contributing to organisational success. Without facilitative direction, work environments can become hostile and unproductive. Without a sense of meaningful contribution from their leaders, employees lack role models of performance with fulfillment. And in the absence of Leadership Character, employees will sense a lack of reflective thinking or values in their leaders, and will adjust their own personal level of commitment to organisational success accordingly.

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Profiles of Leadership

We believe that effective leaders need to:

Engage others: inspire and harness the talents of others towards an exciting vision and targeted business results.
Commit their full energy: generate passion that fuels the highest level of commitment so that employees are ready and willing to give all of their creativity, capacity, and knowledge to the organisation, day in and day out.
Create Value and Success: for all stakeholders, customers, employees, owners and shareholders to achieve both personal growth and growth for the organisation and its stakeholders.

Wilson Learning’s Leadership programs help individuals successfully integrate leadership essence (the qualities that give leaders their identity) and leadership form (what a leader says and does). Effective leaders can balance the two sides of the leadership coin — the "being" and the "doing" of any leadership role, so that they engage others, gain commitment towards a vision, and create value and success for personal and business growth.

All leaders, regardless of level, need to fulfill all four roles. But they do not need to emphasise all four roles at the same depth and to the same extent. The prominence of each role will vary, depending on the specific responsibilities of that leader. Plotting the importance of eac leadership role on the graphic representation of the model illustrates how different leadership positions require different profiles to be effective. While there are probably an infinite number of possible profiles, below we define the three that are most common.

Performance Leadership

The Performance Leadership profile is a typical profile of a first-line supervisor or manager. Performance Leadership requires strong Contributor and Tactician skills because of a leader's responsibility for tasks and objectives. These Leaders focus on ensuring that all employees are adding value, and are often expected to have the answers to technical or functionally specific questions.

Performance Leadership Solutions

Growth Leadership

Growth The Growth Leadership profile is the most balanced of all three types, representing a typical profile of a mid-level or division manager within a midsize to large organisation. Growth Leadership requires moderate to strong skills in all four leadership roles. Growth Leaders are expected to execute strategy, require strong tactical skills, and are often called upon to contribute their unique talents to solving functionally specific problems or making critical decisions.

Growth Leadership Solutions

Strategic Leadership

The Strategic Leadership profile is that of an executive-level leader. The primary roles of the Strategic Leadership profile are Visionary and Facilitator, as these leaders are expected to drive change, create a vision for the organization's future, and develop strategies for achieving that vision. To accomplish this, Strategic Leaders need strong facilitator skills to get diverse functions and employee groups working together toward a shared positive future.

Strategic Leadership Solutions

Integration of Essence & Form

We believe that, unlike the four roles of leadership, Leadership Character is equally emphasised regardless of where, or at what level, a leader works. Leadership Character may be expressed differently, depending on a leader's position, the organisation's values, and even the specific business the organisation faces. But it is not the case that Character is more critical as you move toward higher levels of leadership. This is because people need a leader who is clearly grounded in what he or she stands for as a leader — especially in times of change. With so many factors disrupting the work environment today, leaders with a well-developed sense of self can provide that beacon of stability: the consistency of purpose and values that employees need to remain focused and on task, regardless of the level in the organisation. In the end, effective leadership is about both Essence and Form — a clarity of purpose for what one wants to be as a leader, and the ability to execute the roles of the Visionary, the Tactician, the Facilitator, and the Contributor. Only through this integration of Essence and Form can a leader effectively engage others in fully committing their energy, creativity, and talents. Today's business climate requires leaders who are role models for this integration - leaders who express an excitement about the possibilities of leadership. To them, leadership is being of service to others. And despite the many challenges they face, effective leaders exude a profound energy, a contagious excitement, and an undying hope about the future that is inspiring to everyone around them.

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Contact Us

Please call us! Our team would be delighted to help you with your enquiry:

+61 2 9232 4124

For questions or comments you would like to direct to us through email:

Email us - clientservices@wilsonlearning.com.au

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