Mixing up the chemistry of leadership

We supported a customer on a brilliant training event for future leaders of their business. This was a training event that spoke of everything we know from the world of sport about how training is the agent of change, rather than a nice thing to do from time to time.

It was an intensive few days and a real immersion into a different way of thinking and being – a way of thinking and being that was quite a contrast from the normal experience of the day-to-day environment. The adaptations that were taking place and the strong efforts to get familiar with a new way of ‘breathing’ as a leader were great to see. Everyone was making a huge commitment to discover what impact the training camp might have – immediate, medium term and long term for them.

First disrupt the leaders

Without this commitment from the brilliant leaders going through the training, there would be no chance of ‘competing’ differently in the future when the rules of leadership and winning are changing. The leaders would be in a different context but fundamentally the same leadership chemistry would be driving their choices and actions. There’s so much talk of disruptive brands these days, but not many organisations are working hard to shake and disrupt the very fabric of the leaders who they want to find new ways of winning.

Last week felt like something was being done to change the chemistry; alter the instinctive response; provide choice where reflex response normally wins out; pose a different set of questions rather than a different menu of answers. All of it adding up to a really compelling commitment to starting disruption from within.

Breathe a different air…

The concept of altitude training in sport has been used for many years:

1. Take your athletes to a training base way above sea level and put them through their paces
2. With thinner air, the body has to work hard to adapt and blood chemistry alters
3. Return to sea level and you end up with the benefits of these alterations staying with you in your ‘normal’ field of play… or so the theory goes.

Last week really felt like a commitment to help these leaders breathe a different air and now the challenge comes in keeping the half-life of the training impact alive for as long as possible. The quality of new air breathed will be evidenced by how each of the leaders experiences their thinking being triggered from a different starting point over the coming weeks. With the introduction of some new ingredients into the existing chemistry there should be a different feeling when faced with the familiar. A feeling to be expected and acted upon. A feeling to be enjoyed and played with. A feeling to be shared with others to introduce some of the new air into the day-to-day mix.

Serious about change

It was a humbling few days and we’re excited to see where the training leads this group.

If you’re serious about being ready to perform in a different way and have your business adapting to new challenges of winning in a world where the rules are clearly changing, then how effectively are you providing leaders with training opportunities that truly create readiness for success? In the world of sport, teams trade on the competitive advantage to be achieved through brilliant, relevant, high impact training. It’s time to out-train the world of sport for your own competitive advantage.