Transformational leadership

A deep systemic change only occurs if we can be the change we want to see in the organisation.

Bob Anderson, chairman and chief development officer of the Leadership Circle and the Full Circle Group.

Organisations across the globe are under pressure to becoming “more agile”, “less bureaucratic” and – in these COVID-19 times – “more resilient”. Getting these transformations to stick will take more than revolutionising our structures and processes and more than adding tools to the leadership “toolbox”. Rather, it will take a deep and meaningful shift in our organisation, in ourselves and in each of our individual behaviours and mindsets. And as a leader driving any organisational change initiative, it is up to you to lead by example.

We believe in four key principles to accelerate transformation

Accept that you are at the centre of your most pressing business challenge:

Your biggest business challenge is the core of the transformational process. It is an “upset” – an indication that something within you is triggered, out of balance. Instead of accepting them as mere frustration points and point fingers at others, these moments can be transformed into a “setup”. An opportunity for growth for you and for your organisation. But it starts with you and the question: How can you expect everything around you to change if you don’t?

Self-awareness is unavoidable

When unfolding our biggest challenges, the behaviour we experience “on the surface” only accounts for a small percentage of what is really going on. Just like an iceberg. If we look beneath the surface, we will find a much bigger picture. Our thoughts, feelings, values, beliefs and core needs make up the 90% beneath the surface, and all of these forces combine to drive the behaviour we see externally. Self-awareness means diving into the forces underneath the waterline and is unavoidable if we want to tackle (and overcome) the root cause of our business challenge.

Use your values to tackle your business challenge

Our values are our inner compass – if we tune into them, they tell us when something is important and can guide us in the direction we want to go. Gaining awareness of our purpose and values gives us the possibility to start working with our values and challenge whether the values that “got us here will take us there”. To create a real shift in relation to our business challenge, we often need to let go of a value or belief that is holding us back and let a new value come in that will unleash our potential to a higher degree.

Transformation requires disciplined practice

Real transformation cannot be achieved through self-awareness and insights alone; it requires action and practice. Nothing will change unless we actively choose to do something differently tomorrow than we did today. We believe in prototyping your future self – testing out new ways of being and behaving paired with fast learning loops and being held accountable by a peer group. We know that small evolutionary tweaks can turn into a revolutionary transformation.