Identity Based Leadership™ helps people make better quality decisions.
Strategic Identity Management ™ is a unique, facilitated coaching process and set of principles that helps individuals, teams and companies manage identity proactively. The exponential speed of change today makes it increasingly challenging to know how best to respond to external pressure. Often it’s hard to see the beginning of disruption before it’s too late. Big unforeseen changes are typically met with a fight or flight reaction. This often leads to unintended and negative consequences.
From our research and experience, individuals and cultures that have a coherent sense of identity® can respond more effectively to challenges in real time. By understanding who you are not as a marketing gimmick, but as a lived philosophy you can increase positivity and productivity regardless of what’s going on. Knowing your purpose and values is a good first step but it’s not enough. Having a holistic framework that can manage internal and external identity is essential for maintaining resilience during times of transition. It minimises anxiety and creates a possibility mindset. This applies to situations involving business re-structure, mergers, loss, career moves, growth, decline or change of context for an entire industry.
Let’s imagine you are in a sailboat in choppy waters in the middle of the ocean. The changing circumstances in your environment are represented by the strength and the direction of the wind, the water’s current and the waves. The boat’s rudder represents your strategy. The sails and how you manage them represent the tactics for how you reach your end destination.
A clear sense of identity® acts like a keel for the sailboat. It balances and determines the stability and speed of the boat as well as an ability to follow through on the ‘strategic direction’ of the rudder. Without it, the boat cannot move in any chosen direction and is at the mercy of the wind and the currents. As a result, goals and intentions may indeed change, but not necessarily in the direction originally intended. When identity is managed consciously it becomes much easier to reduce overhelm, stress and avoidance. This enhances resilience, creativity, increases efficiency and encourages genuine accountability. It also helps leaders manage obstacles, threats, fears or crises with more honesty, compassion and understanding.
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.
Please contact us to discuss how we can put this process to work for you.