I help people to develop their leadership, strategic and conflict skills!

Typically, clients work in competitive R&D environments in science and engineering. They are acknowledged experts in their fields. However, they have not been equipped with the tools required to lead in such environments.

Scenarios

Do any of the following scenarios fit your situation?

• You got thrown in at the deep end. Being a top-class scientist or engineer didn’t prepare you for leadership. You need to complement your technical skills with the leadership tools that can help you to build and manage your team.
• Your people don’t match your level of commitment. Some even find the time to keep their facebook page up-to-date. You wonder whether you can infect them with your passion.
• Your main strategy for dealing with a conflict in your department is to ignore it until one of the parties leaves. Unfortunately, this often leads to the conflict spreading or escalating. You’d like to be able to handle a conflict without getting pulled in.
• You notice that your staff or students don’t respond to the style of leadership you were exposed to at the same stage in your career. Barking out orders doesn’t seem to grow them to independence.
• No matter how many problems you solve, ten more monkeys turn up to take their place. Some days you wish that someone else would lead, so that you could get back to the science or engineering. Other days, you think about how you could get your people to take care of their own problems.
• Competitive pressures leave you without the resources you need to produce the results. Increasingly, you ask yourself, how can you balance the demands of your bosses with the needs of your people?

Ideal Clients

My clients are leaders who typically share many of these characteristics:

• High standards. You want you and your people to be the best in your field. You also display integrity in all your dealings.
• Willingness to reflect. You realize that you are your own best teacher. You want to learn from your successes and your mistakes. You give yourself the time and space for this.
• Make a difference. You understand the importance of your work to you, to the long-term well-being of your organisation and – in many cases – to society.
• Curiosity. You are open to new approaches and tools that will help you to lead better.
• Be yourself. You accept that different people have different leadership strengths. You accept yours and know how to avoid your derailers.
• Enjoy your success. Results matter. So does having fun on the way to achieving them.
• Assume responsibility. At work you take responsibility for what you do, or neglect to do. You also take responsibility for your learning.

Next, learn about how I work with my clients.

(Photos: Yuri Arcurs and claudiaveja)