- Critical Conversation Series, News
Why Great Leadership Programmes Fail Before They Begin
- Harrie Ellaway
- Meta Team
Two years ago, a CEO told me politely and accurately that I had answered the wrong question.
The programme I was presenting had taken months to build. The brief had travelled through layers of HR and L&D before it reached us, and somewhere in that relay it had quietly become a different brief from the one in the CEO’s head.
We rebuilt the programme. It was signed off. The content was strong. The facilitators were experienced. The teams it was designed for engaged with it the way people often engage with imposed development: professionally, politely, and without ownership.
- Harrie Ellaway
- Meta Team
Two years ago, a CEO told me politely and accurately that I had answered the wrong question.
The programme I was presenting had taken months to build. The brief had travelled through layers of HR and L&D before it reached us, and somewhere in that relay it had quietly become a different brief from the one in the CEO’s head.
We rebuilt the programme. It was signed off. The content was strong. The facilitators were experienced. The teams it was designed for engaged with it the way people often engage with imposed development: professionally, politely, and without ownership.
- Amanda Cahir-O'Donnell
- Award-Winning Executive & Team Coach, Founder & Managing Director of SkyRed Leadership
Arthur C. Brooks has made a compelling case that we are overusing the analytical, task-driven part of our brains — what he calls left-hemisphere thinking. It's the mode built for executing, judging, and solving. It's also the mode most of us live in from the moment we open our inbox to the moment we close the laptop. The always-on nature of leadership rewards this kind of thinking. It does not leave much room for the right-hemisphere territory of meaning, mystery, and connection — the part of us that asks why rather than how.
- Tom Armstrong
- Executive & Team Coach, Facilitator & Mentor
So, what’s happening on the tennis court…what helps performance and what hinders it. When it comes to skill and fitness levels, I’m sure there is very little to choose between the top 10, 20 players in the world. So, what gives some players the edge? And what principles might be transferable to leadership and performance in the world of work? Timothy Galwey’s “Inner Game of Tennis” is a widely acclaimed guide to mental performance and is very helpful in unravelling this question.
- Amanda Cahir-O'Donnell
- Award-Winning Executive & Team Coach, Founder & Managing Director of SkyRed Leadership
One of the coaching practices I return to again and again is:
“Dance in this moment.”
Not the next moment.
Not the prepared question.
Not the coaching framework in my head.
This moment.
- Laura Lawless
- Leadership Consultant & Facilitator
It’s understandable why leaders fall back on generational explanations. They are tidy, easy to repeat, and can seem to make sense of complex workplace dynamics quickly.
But they can also quietly undermine performance.
- Isolde Norris
- Executive & Team Coach & Leadership Consultant
Most managers I work with are not avoiding feedback because they don't care. They are avoiding it because they care too much and don't quite know how to begin.
The cost of that avoidance is higher than most managers realise.