From our perspective, there is little point in having values, vision or a purpose if a company’s narrative is merely seen as abstract marketing communication. Or, if customers and key stakeholders don’t feel that a company’s promise is being delivered. In the face of relentless disruption, a focus on identity helps cut through ambiguity and enhance resilience. It helps us design safe learning experiences where people can speak openly about their challenges and take action.
The original intent of Curious Leaders® was to align people with strategy by helping people live values at individual, team and organisational levels. We got trained up across multiple coaching processes, tools, diagnostics, and brought in specialists as required. From there we designed and delivered a range of programmes to enhance ‘soft skills’ such as self-awareness, emotional intelligence, relationship selling, effective stakeholder communication, resilience, and ‘C’ suite confidence.
Over time we noticed that values were of little use unless they were measured and integrated into everyday decision making. We observed that many leadership and talent development initiatives ran independently of each other and often didn’t leverage the collective cultural or business insights that emerged. We started to ask ourselves how we could support our clients’ regardless of functional role or experience. What could bring everything together and provide more certainty despite an increasingly volatile, complex and ambiguous global environment?
As a result of that enquiry, in 2015, we launched a facilitated coaching process and sense of identity ® framework designed to work alongside any individual leadership, talent management or culture change programme. We call it Strategic Identity Management™ and it acts as a blueprint for everything we do. Our process connects 3 core areas of identity: personal, team and organisational. It’s a leadership ‘practise’ that is practical, contextual and systemic.
Our ingoing emphasis is on dynamic process vs. outcome. Results are of course important. However, in our experience, when people start with a fixed end in mind, they often lose sight of other possibilities or innovative alternatives. We find that a blend of structured facilitation alongside individual reflection and self-discovery encourages more ownership and action.
The resulting sense of identity ® maps provide clear strategies for the direction of travel today and indicators for the next phase of the journey. They are designed to help people decide how to best leverage their unique talents and gifts in order to shape more fulfilling professional and personal lives. When leaders are inspired about what they are doing it’s much easier for them to inspire others.