Building Your Leadership Bench

Building the leadership bench of your company is an enormously important ingredient to long-term success. Part of the process involves increasing the technical or knowledge competence of individuals as they gain experience in the business. Another aspect, often left until late in the process, is development of a person’s ability to manage human assets. This begins with the capacity to manage others and evolves to include skill at managing oneself. Long-term success in professional leadership – what we call Leadership Health – requires expertise in both of these critical arenas.

Two Tracks of Building Leaders

Mobius Executive Leadership offers a unique three-part series designed to be experienced over the course of nine months. This series is offered in two tracks: Emerging Leaders and Executive Leaders. In both tracks, the innovative process allows leaders to take stock of their skills and limitations, to reflect deeply about their goals, path and purpose, and to gain critical skills at understanding people and how to manage them.

In the Emerging Leaders Track we focus on the core skills and behaviors managers need in order to lead people effectively. In the Executive Leaders Track, attention is paid to the inner journey of leadership and the more involved challenges of leading self and others that executives encounter further along in their careers. Over the nine months, participants in either track attend several off-site retreats as well as work with a peer coach during the interims. At their option participants can choose to work with a faculty coach as well. Limited readings are also required between retreats.

Phase One: Taking Stock of Leadership Health

Phase One of each series takes place for the first three months and is focused on Taking Stock of Leadership Health. During this time each participant develops a clear sense of where they are right now. This process gathers data broadly, going far beyond a traditional 360 degree review. Mobius consultants work with each person to create a full picture of their current state, including the person’s work performance, vitality, strength, and professional vision. In our pioneering program, experts in integrative health build upon the latest medical research to develop individualized physical assessments while other faculty work with interpersonal factors related to professional success. By the end of phase one people have a snapshot of their Leadership Health and will make a series of commitments to their own development going into Phase Two.

Phases Two and Three

In the second and third phases of the Bench Building Series, the two tracks of Emerging Leaders and Executive Leaders evolve in different directions.

For Emerging Leaders, the focus is on learning to manage and lead other people. Depending on the needs of the particular group, we choose from a set of leadership models, tools and skills to equip participants with the material they most need. Typically this includes maps of basic human dynamics and communication patterns, skills for mediating between employees, and tools for offering coaching and feedback as well as performance development. In consultation with each client we then choose from a set of themes related to other fundamental management and leadership skills. Participants will leave with a broad repertoire of behaviors that enables them to navigate the waters of managing people successfully. Direct reports, colleagues and clients will look to graduates of this program as model communicators and problem-solvers.

For Executive Leaders, the focus is on self-mastery as a means toward masterful leadership. After the technical and behavioral territory has been learned, advanced leaders need to grapple with deeper questions such as the meaning in their work and the purpose and direction of their organization. As executives the workforce looks to them not only for guidance in problem-solving, but as role models of integrity and character. Further, at executive levels people often find themselves tired and burned out and yet busier and more stressed than ever. At times they seem to be getting killed by their success.

In Phase Two and Three of the Executive Leaders series, Mobius faculty work with executives to discern their own answers to these deeper questions. Participants leave the program with a newfound clarity about personal and organizational direction as well as a new understanding of what leadership health really means. They leave with a restored sense of mission and focus about achieving new goals and challenges in the years ahead. They also bring back to their work a deeper quality of character that models a new kind of leadership within their company. This includes a broad approach to wellness and success in order to produce on-going business results alongside real satisfaction with work and life.

Ultimately, this program enables executives and senior managers to step back, reflect, and make thoughtful choices so they can exemplify mature and seasoned leadership. Each curriculum can be tailored to the particular needs of your group. Please inquire about customization for your specific team.