Leadership and the board

Boardroom relationships are often beset by deep hierarchical conditioning.  There is a tendency to see the person above you as a parent figure, and the person below you as a child figure.

So subordinates often overestimate the power of the boss, and the boss underestimates subordinates.  If left unchecked, this can engender a dangerous isolationism and unquestioning reverence that distorts relationships and prevents a board from functioning properly.

Rather extreme, perhaps; but this dynamic is latent in any hierarchy.  And it tends to become more apparent in times of economic downturn.  When the money stops rolling, when success (or survival) becomes a fight, when decisions get tougher, that’s when people – and boardroom hierarchies – revert to type.

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Strong leaders – and members of strong, functional boards – communicate on multiple levels.

They spark a free flow of energy between our values, reason and sense of excitement, so that we become fully engaged and congruent:  we don’t think and say one thing, and feel (and do) another.

This free flow is the touchstone of true communication, and in order to engage it in others, a leader first needs to access it within themselves.

You brand Coaching is a fast and durable way of opening up this energy flow.  It:

• promotes a congruence between emotions and intellect that brings real, energised commitment to leadership values and strategies

• is a development process that is immediately practical, and because it communicates out,  prevents leadership transformation from becoming introspective or invisible

• allows leaders to recruit strong people into their vision to whom they can delegate effectively, so they themselves stay ‘in lane’ and concentrate on what they’re good at

• promotes clear, strong communication at board level, so that decisions are explicit, understood and stuck to

        The Executive board of ICG had a week long session with Julia, Mark and their team.  The purpose of the week was to improve intra board communications and to provide an environment to further strengthen the team and for it to operate more efficiently and openly.

The programme was an unconditional success.

All members of the executive team, many who started fearfully, finished the week in a much better place. Communications improved between each member. Discussions became more open and delicate matters were not ducked or avoided: much more "say what you think and say what you mean" and these discussed without side. There was a much greater degree of unity and better team work all round.
It also helped the team, but particularly me as chief executive to better understand each of our strengths and how each best contributed to the team itself; useful, of course, for succession planning and management thereafter. It also gave us all an opportunity to think about the business in an uninhibited long term way and allowed us to discuss long term strategy in a free and more open manner.
Finally it was bloody good fun!

• Tom Attwood
  CEO
  ICG plc

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        Good communication skills are essential to business leadership.  That’s precisely what Personal Presentation help you develop.

• Lord Sharman of Redlynch OBE
  Chairman
  Aviva Plc

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