People
Issue No. 6 - July/September 2002
Doing Leadership
‘There’s no such thing as a born leader’—as the saying goes. While that’s absolutely true, the question of how best to train effective leaders remains wide open.
Adelaide-based leadership and change management consultancy Teleran approaches this task from a novel angle. Instead of indoctrinating trainees with ‘what you need to know’, principals Anne Skipper and Andrea Pink help determine“ who leaders need to be” within their “context” of leadership.
“It is the ‘being’ aspect of leadership that enables breakthroughs in what people do and what people learn,” Anne Skipper says.
“We aim for the insights and ‘aha’ moments which are the illumination of the participants themselves. That experience is much more meaningful and relevant than trying to learn someone else’s methodology.”
Teleran gets course participants to explore their views of the world, their companies and themselves – and how often those perceptions shape their behaviours, opinions and actions.
“Context can be an individual’s mindset or the organisational culture,” Anne says. “It includes all of the assumptions and perceptions as opposed to the facts or data.
“Most change programs inside of companies don’t work effectively because they only address the content (the knowledge, structure and data in a company) or process...
