Many people in this group are in the midst of business planning for the forthcoming financial year. At some point you will probably need to present to your direct reports about the business imperatives for the next 12 months (maybe longer). You will want to leave a positive and dynamic impact on your audience. You will also have plenty of content but may need a communication process that sounds and feels different from the past.

Over the years Jack and I have developed the Leaders Unplugged format for senior executives who are in this exact position. We have many clients who have used it and found it has made a huge difference to the impact on their direct reports. As the leader, these Executives have felt very comfortable that the messages they wanted to impart have actually been received. We are bold enough to suggest that if the right preparation is done, a great result is guaranteed!

We have now taken Leaders Unplugged to the next level by developing a website that makes this format available to the world. Simply go to www.leadersunplugged.com.au and begin.

If you are working with us you will receive access to this tool as part of the work we do with you.

We have also created a Leaders Unplugged Group in LinkedIn. This will act as a user group for ideas and suggestions from using this tool. See http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=4094671&trk=hb_side_g

Hopefully business planning season this year will be a significantly different experience for you to previous years!

Last week I was running a strategic planning workshop with the Executive Team of a family owned company. This company has been around 40 years with over $100M turnover per year, and over 700 employees. The founder is the CEO and sole owner. It’s a good story of sustained entrepreneurialism and plenty of hard work during good and not so good times.

The CEO had done his Leaders Unplugged presentation which then sparked Day 1 of the planning process. But by the end of Day 1 the team had not come together as it wanted and the output quality was thin. We all knew it. Something was needed.

The CEO provided that ‘something’. He spent plenty of the intervening evening thinking before we reconvened for Day 2. At the outset he stopped proceedings and made a bold statement. He shared with the team that he had come to the realisation overnight that he was probably the cause of the lack of progress on day 1. In fact he may no longer be the person to lead his own company to the next stage of its growth.

What a moment! The courage to think and then express that view was amazing. He could have easily blamed others, continued to express that he knew best, more of the same, I own the company etc. The silence in the room was deafening.

I won’t tell you publicly what happened to the CEO or about the Executive Team’s response. However I will tell you that the impact was extraordinary and the result of Day 2 was a thousand times better than Day 1. I have no doubt that they will achieve their strategic aspirations. The CEO knows that I have written this blog too.

However, the experience of those words made me stop and think back to great moments of courageous leadership I have personally experienced. Not many stand out like that one. Probably half a dozen in my working life, if that.

How about you? What is your count of truly courageous leadership moments you have personally experienced and that have stayed with you for years?

You don’t have to do it alone!
I was impressed recently by a presentation from Gary Hamel where he outlined a range of ideas about new forms of management needed in the 21st century. I have covered some of this in a previous Blog. (You can also check out more on this at the Management Innovation Exchange at http://bit.ly/tFLxDh)

One topic that has resonated for me is ‘crowd sourcing’ strategy. I sometimes look into the faces of Executive teams at workshops when the topic of crafting or renewing business strategy comes up. Some leap into this place as it’s a comfortable place to be creative. Others shrink away, struggling to focus on other than the here and now. To help shift that thinking I use the Three Horizons model from The Alchemy of Growth which provides legitimacy for freewheeling opinions in Horizon 3 and specific activity in Horizon 1. (See the link to this book on my LinkedIn reading list.)

One thing we can probably all use more of though is the cleverness of ideas from the ‘crowd’. Here I am thinking of informed ‘crowds’ who have a view of what they might like your future to be. Obvious examples are your staff and also your key clients. A wide range of sources will provide insight across all three Horizons.

Has anyone gone further than the obvious? I ran a session with a State Government Shared Services leadership group in using senior leaders from the IT industry, Federal Government, and media. The positive influences of that session were still evident 10 years later.

Do you have you examples where you have ‘crowd sourced’ strategy from even less obviously connected crowds? Maybe completely unconnected crowds who nevertheless have an opinion about your sector or even your organisation? Impact?

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Whether you are an established executive or someone who is aspiring to the executive ranks, ELQ™ aims to equip you with the skills necessary to be an exceptional executive, thus benefiting both the individual and the company. Accordingly, ELQ™ operates at the individual, team and organisational levels.

For the aspiring executive, Norton Crumlin provides support for them to develop those intangible qualities they need to possess to become a successful executive. Working in conjunction with the NCA network, Roger Norton and Jack Crumlin will tailor a particular program to assist executives hone their skills and polish the areas that have been identified as needing development.

From a team perspective, Norton Crumlin aims to help executives assess the calibre of their teams, and build upon them, ensuring that everyone is working to optimum capacity and pointed in the right direction. Norton Crumlin specialises in working with teams in many different industries and many different situations. Using the insight provided at the individual level will allow executives to apply those same qualities to the members of their team, thus allowing them to develop their skills and allowing you to work out the optimum skill set mix to get the job done.

The benefits of implementing an ELQ™ program are clear, especially in a business environment that is constantly seeking new ways to retain and engage staff. Those organisations that provide a clear advancement and training path for their staff will be those that have potential employees beating down their door to get in and not wanting to leave once they’re there. More productive executives with better leadership capabilities means a stronger organisation both internally and externally in the marketplace.

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Roger’s specific areas of expertise and interest include:

• Organisational and cultural change.
• Leadership development.
• Strategic and business planning.
• Organisational performance measurement.
• Workshop facilitation.

Roger is a highly regarded workshop facilitator with the ability to achieve required business results in a way that is engaging and rewarding for participants. His expertise is being able to manage the communication process within a workshop while enabling the participants – as the experts of their organisation – to provide the key decisions.

Roger’s early career was in the Royal Australian Navy where he spent 10 years specialising in logistics in Australia and overseas. He then built on these foundations by focusing on improving the people management of Navy business units. This led to a 10-year career path as an internal consultant working in strategic and business planning, leadership development and organisational culture change. He completed his Navy career in 1997 in the rank of Commander and as Head of Corporate Development for the Navy’s national logistic organisation.

Since leaving the Navy in 1997 he has continued his consulting career working with the then Morgan & Banks Limited (in strategic HR consulting) and two boutique change management consulting businesses.

His client list includes national and international organisations in media, telecommunications, professional services, financial services, pharmaceutical, IT infrastructure, food manufacturing, retail banking, logistics, and Federal, State (NSW and Queensland) and Local Government sectors.

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