AI Magazine Issue 1 2017

Acquisition International - January 2017 13 Excellence in Executive Coaching results. From that perspective, we succeeded in 2016 to enhance the performance of over 60 regional and international organisations, including: • The General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs: ongoing intervention, developing a positive energy mindset of the department’s employees. • Dubai Islamic Bank: ongoing assessing, profiling and developing leadership competencies and implementing leadership best practices. • Emirates National Oil Company: assessing, profiling and consulting organisational leadership culture. • Dubai Police: designing, structuring and delivering the Dubai Police happiness forum. • Executive Council: coaching contestants for the Ajman Excellence Award. • Central Department of Human Recourses Development: intervention developing innovative mindset. • Sajaya Young Ladies of Sharjah: structuring, designing and delivering the Sorouh Leadership Development Program for the female members of the Youth Parliament. • The Living Room Initiative: a community initiative to support and raise awareness on the positive impact of self-realisation and self- actualisation. What levels of client satisfaction is your firm achieving? At KTalk we have been achieving substantial high levels of clients’ satisfaction, which requires that we continually monitor and examine the experiences, opinions, and suggestions of our clients and people who are potential clients. Improving service quality to meet their standards is an ongoing part of doing business. That was achieved and sustained through our strong belief that at the same time - our organisations act to attract and satisfy clients – and our clients themselves exercise ultimate influence. Their satisfaction depends on both their expectations and their treatment. Through their choices, our clients decide the survival and thrive of our organisation, they determine what products and services are needed, and shape how they are provided and we listen carefully and deliver accordingly. We embrace the fact that in addition to using their purchasing power, informed clients can shape the marketplace by communicating their preferences and standards to organisations that are poised to listen and respond. To what extent do you feel that modern business leaders have to be prepared for a variety of complex realities in today’s world? With over 25,000 coaching hours at KTalk we came to believe that the current regional environment has changed because it is more complex, volatile, and unpredictable. The skills needed for leadership have also changed – indeed more complex and adaptive thinking abilities are needed. The methods being used to develop leaders have not changed (much), the majority of leaders are developed from on-the-job experiences, training, and mentoring; while these are all still important, leaders are no longer developing fast enough or in the right ways to match the new environment. This is no longer just a leadership challenge (what good leadership looks like); it is a development challenge (the process of how to grow ‘bigger’ minds). We have noticed that the majority of current leaders have become experts on the ‘what’ of leadership, but novices in the ‘how’ of their own development. From our own ground work, we have realised that there are four essential trends for the future of leadership development: 1. Levels of consciousness : there are two different types of development - horizontal and vertical. We have realised that organisations have been focusing on ‘horizontal’ development (competencies), but very little time on ‘vertical’ development (developmental stages). The methods for horizontal and vertical development are very different. Horizontal development can be ‘transmitted’ (from an expert), but vertical development must be earned (for oneself). Vertical development is about mastering inner game rather than controlling the outer game. Enhancing the leader’s inner operating system is what is needed. 2. Higher sense of ownership : people develop more quickly when they have no one to blame; they take charge of their choices and be responsible for the emerging consequences. We have noticed that the current adopted model within organisations encourages people to believe that someone else is responsible for their development - human resources, their manager, or trainers. Leaders need to be out of the passenger seat and into the driver’s seat of their own development. 3. Collective vs. individual leadership : current Leadership falls into the lap of a person or a role, leading to development being too individually focused and elitist. The complexity of the current environment is in need of a drastic shift from monarchy to democracy, in which leadership is a collective process that is spread throughout the organisational human capital. 4. Innovative Leadership development : there are no simple, rigid, off the shelf existing models or programs that will be sufficient to develop the levels of collective leadership required to meet current increasingly complex future. Instead, a better understanding of the existing culture should be recognised and a collective understanding of the aspired culture should be acquired. Organisations then would experiment with new approaches that combine innovative ideas in new ways that fulfills the recognition of the aspired culture being it more creative and innovative. Leaders who embrace the changes will do better than those who resist it. Does your firm plan to conduct ongoing activities in leadership development and organisational culture in the future? Yes definitely, KTalk main concern is to introduce intervention that allows leaders to lead from the emerging future, which coerces a drastic organisational cultural shift from the current reactive culture to an aspired creative culture, which will reflect on a system shift from an ego system to an ecosystem allowing a breadth of creativity and innovation to flow. The challenges presented to leaders in the current economical arena compel a broader mindset that serves sustainability. The concept of sustainable development has received growing recognition, but it is a new idea for many business executives. For most, the concept remains abstract and theoretical. In KTalk we have realised that protecting an organisation’s capital base is a well-accepted business principle. Yet organisations do not generally recognise the possibility of extending this notion to the organisational natural resources, the human capital. At KTalk we believe for sustainable development to achieve its potential, it must be integrated into the organisational culture and the leadership development process of business enterprises. And for that to happen, the concept must be articulated in terms that are familiar to business leaders and that is our role as consultants and coaches. To what extent do you think that external coaches are the preferred option today for executive and senior management? Current Leaders need accelerated growth to match the fast moving, volatile market dynamics, which in our opinion can only be catered to via an external coach. In the current fast moving complex reality focus, should be directly on the four conditions of vertical development (an area of frustration, limits of current thinking, an area of importance, and support available). Such areas need high confidentiality as it represents areas of exposure and vulnerability that is hardly revealed through any other engagement. Many leadership programs operate on the assumption that if you show people how to lead, they can then do that. However, the most difficult challenges that leaders face in their work lives are often associated with the limitations of the way they ‘make meaning’ at their current level of development. When a person surfaces the assumptions, they have about the way the world works, they get the chance to question those assumptions and allow themselves the opportunity to start to make meaning from a more advanced level, this can only happen within a safe engagement that only external coaching can offer. What are your company’s priorities for the future? A major part of our job is helping people develop how they think. How they get to an answer matters more than ever for us. A new leadership paradigm seems to be emerging with an inexorable shift away from one- way, hierarchical, organisation centric communication toward two-way, network-centric, participatory, and collaborative leadership styles. Most of all a new mind-set seems necessary, apart from new skills and knowledge. All the tools in the world will not change anything if the mind-set does not allow and support change. What we are aspiring is to educate organisation on the mindset shifts needed for them to thrive and effectively flourish.