Leadership Academy

Join the Adventure and Transform Your Leadership!

Peter Shields

• Publisher: Corporate Alchemy
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9780648434009
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Mentoring & Coaching
• Index: Business

Great leadership is hard to find. Companies spend millions trying to fix their leadership issues by recruiting new leaders, hiring consultants to tell them how to restructure and a myriad of other 'outside-in' initiatives that fail to achieve the intended results. What if they're approaching the leadership dilemma entirely the wrong way? 82-year-old Ben Luckeridge is wise enough to know his business needs an inside-out leadership solution. Despite having all that a billion-dollar company and a successful career affords, Ben has serious health problems, regrets and an estranged daughter with whom he longs to reconnect. He must choose an heir to the Luckeridge Group of Companies before it's too late. Ben's nephew Jack, the heir apparent, is barely clinging to his role as CEO of The Luckeridge Group, thanks to his autocratic and arrogant leadership style. How could Ben possibly bequeath the business to him? With the help of his confidant Angela, a transformational executive coach, Ben devises a 12-month leadership adventure which Jack must successfully navigate if he is to become heir. Jack is soon joined on the challenge by a host of would-be challengers, including the engaging and energetic Zenobia, and he is immediately drawn to her calm confidence. While Zenobia is fighting emotional battles of her own, her patience, empathy and leadership potency shine through, showing Jack that to unlock his inherent leadership potential he must overcome his emotional reactivity. As Ben hurtles closer to death, Jack and Zenobia navigate their way toward a business that is more profitable, more meaningful and more sustainable than ever before. Their quest uncovers startling truths that transform all of them – and the organisation – forever.

CHAPTER 1

The Ubiquity Contract

Angela had bought the aging yet refined vehicle she drove to her meeting at Ubiquity to celebrate her promotion to CEO of a well known telco. It was a ‘95 two-seater Porsche 911, made in that year, of which she refused to let go.

Her reign as CEO lasted three years, but ended painfully with the collapse of the business, and her being cited by the corporate watchdog for negligent practice. The board, her team, government policy writers, consultants and the lawyers that once supported her were absent during her inglorious demise. The financiers of the company had done a lot behind the scenes to set Angela up for the fall.

Angela reflected on that time as her “corporate penis days” and maintained that, “If you live by the penis, you will die by the penis.” Hanging on to her ancient car kept her humble.

Angela had always been different to others, and now in her 60s was finally finding comfort in that difference. She was at peace with who she was, and the once-familiar voice of self-judgment had relaxed to near silence. She’d accepted the aging process, embracing the wrinkling of her skin and the greying of her hair as part of life’s journey.

Angela found the car park and designated spot Ubiquity had reserved for her. There was no time to waste, so she resisted the temptation to stop and collect her thoughts. Instead, she drew her attention to her breath and made her way toward the lift.

Once on the third floor, she was greeted by Jenny, the gracious and professional receptionist, and was led to the meeting room where four of the ten partners of Ubiquity Consulting Group were waiting. On entering the meeting room, where she joined one of the only five clients for whom she continued to work, Angela immediately felt contempt for her presence. However, she soon warmed the energy of the group with eye contact, polite greetings and compassion for the obviously overworked and exhausted partners of the business.

The Ubiquity Consulting Group, more commonly known simply as Ubiquity, employed 120 people, of whom 80 were in client-facing consulting or service roles. Its biggest client was Ben Luckeridge, and The Luckeridge Group, known by the acronym TLG. Ben had long been critical of both Ubiquity’s lack of growth in sales and its lack of creativity. He believed they delivered the bare minimum of what he expected for TLG; the minimum was never enough for Ben.

As a remedy, Ben had told Gerald Raper, Ubiquity’s senior partner and managing director, to develop the skills of younger people from within their employee ranks and promote them into partnership positions, or TLG would take their business elsewhere. Bringing the younger people up would add value beyond what the current partners delivered. He told Gerald that Angela Bernstein would be happy to help.

“Thanks for being on time,” said Gerald. He respected Ben Luckeridge as his most important customer, but also resented him for forcing Bernstein onto them. Gerald was of the old school autocrat mould, a guy who hated to waste time and who felt far more productive when he was talking and others were listening.

“We’re excited to be moving forward with your somewhat vague proposal,” he continued.

Wow, Angela thought, there’s the news right up front, with a dash of defensive cynicism thrown in. Who’d have thought they would have accepted what I proposed? I was actually expecting and hoping not to get this job. I only met them because Ben asked me to.

The people and dynamics within the walls of the meeting room reminded Angela of what she detested about corporate Australia. The defensiveness, the pretence, the strained smiles and the fictitious humour combined to create a “where’s the fire escape?” impulse in her gut.

Wanting to see what was possible, Angela mused as the CFO, Martin Peel, began to talk.

“Luckeridge says you weave magic and will be an invaluable resource to us, is that right? If so, how do we measure the dollar value of this significant investment? What are the milestones, and where is the detail behind what Gerald describes as your ‘vague proposal’?”

Gerald immediately felt uncomfortable. He did not expect Martin to quote him, and felt almost ashamed to have used the phrase to describe the investment, because his intention had always been to accept the initiative and move on, and not to play games, as Martin evidently was.

Another straight shooter in the bar, Angela reflected as she responded to Martin. “What does Ubiquity need to achieve from this? You tell me what your measures are for that, and then we’ll see if and when we get there.”

Martin screamed inside. That fucking Luckeridge! Feeling his inner, furious radar blip incessantly, he piped up. “What does that mean? You want us to measure the progress and outcome of this cloudy 18 months you’ve failed to map out for us?”

Angela, conscious of the rapid rate of Martin’s breathing, held a warm fixed gaze on his strained eyes. “If measurement is what you want, Martin, measurement is what you’ll have to do for yourself. If you leave it up to me, you won’t get a flint from a milestone because I don’t know what’s possible here, and that’s precisely the point of this work.” Slowing her pace, and breathing more deeply, still holding her warm gaze and with more empathy for Martin, she said, “This initiative is what adult development researchers might refer to as a Deliberately Developmental Engagement, which means there is no linear path with measures for such a venture. We are going to discover what’s possible here, and we’ll do it together. It just may be far better than your wildest hopes and dreams.”

“Yes, that sounds fantastic,” chimed in Greg Soster, the handsome, charismatic and confident Communications Director of Ubiquity. “Let’s relax our rational measurements for now, and see what’s possible here. I’ve heard many inspiring stories about how Angela has assisted companies to achieve remarkable results.”

Ah, the peacemaker, noted Angela. “Corporate transformation, when done well, is both a remarkably simple and fantastically complicated journey of discovery that delivers results beyond what seemed possible before. The trick is the ‘done well’ part. It comes down to you and other partners of this business; you are the alchemists, I’m just the guide.”

There was a long pause. Everyone had his or her own response to the tension and to the conversation.

Angela continued. “The support I’ll provide to your potential partners will be to challenge their ability to perceive, think about and take action towards achieving the growth goals you have for this business. I understand from our earlier conversations that those succeeding in becoming partner will be those who contribute to significant growth in new business.

“I’ll support them to develop their level of consciousness to be more creative, more efficient, more effective and more resourceful. Those who succeed will have matured their thinking beyond their current stage of consciousness. Ben Luckeridge calls this ‘Putting wise heads on young shoulders’.

“While I’m stimulating these bright minds to break through to new levels of potency, your job will be to create the space for them to thrive. This is vital, because if I do my job properly they will challenge the status quo and collective thinking of people here at Ubiquity. I am available to support you at any time throughout this journey. Your leadership is vital, so if you need help, give me a call.”

You won’t be hearing from me, thought Martin, not in a thousand years.

“This experience will be challenging, and some of the participants may initially go backwards,” said Angela. “If that happens, let’s be in contact to ensure you provide the right amount of support and encouragement internally, and the sensitivity and stretch from me externally.”

“What methods do you use?” asked Greg.

“Everything is presented to the participants on a choose forward basis. They are in control the whole way, and can call time on their participation at any stage. The methods I will use across the 18 months will include one-on-one coaching, transformational mentoring, collective leadership workshop sessions and offsite activities. All of this will allow the participants to gain new perspectives and the improved ability to develop objectivity, and a solution-focused approach to their work.

“In regard to measures, some of my clients use their organisational engagement survey results to measure improved employee engagement. Some watch the cash flow, margins and revenue growth, and others observe the rate of workplace injuries, staff attrition, sick days, and so on. There are a thousand ways to measure the occurrence of change. In my experience, you will notice when change begins because it will happen to you and will be evident in the new conversations that will transform how Ubiquity operates.”

“So you’re saying you’re happy for us to baseline the factors you mentioned, and anything else we can think of to measure these next 18 months?” said Martin, with a flush of excitement at nailing something down. Martin’s intelligence always seems to be overruled by his need for drama.

“Yes. Only, please don’t ask me to be involved in gathering, reviewing or reporting on such details; they are the cart in this conversation and my job is to work with the horse.”

Again, there was a pause as Gerald wrestled with an old energy bubbling up from below. Greg smiled in amusement; Gerald had met his match. Martin‘s next comment was to be one of ridicule, but he somehow managed to hold it. Angela carried herself with a level of confidence and assuredness he had not experienced in many women, and it scared him.

Gerald and Martin sat in silence in the boardroom they had dominated for years; they were on the back foot, even with the home court advantage. The junior partners sat, hardly breathing, riveted in suspense for the next move.

Angela offered one more thought. “The cart is representative of the collective way you manage culture here. It shows us how you relate, how you think, what you believe, your assumptions and your biases. The sum of all of this creates the dynamic Ubiquity uses to operate in a creative manner, a reactive manner, or somewhere in between. I believe the results from the Leadership Culture Survey you completed six months ago accurately illustrate this.”

Therese Mumford, the People and Culture Director and sponsor of the Leadership Culture Survey, spoke up. “We scored in the 85^th percentile on most of the reactive dimensions, and only in the 45^th percentile on the creative ones. Our team aspirations showed our wish to completely reverse that.”

“That thing was horse shit. We didn’t understand what we were answering with those waffly questions!” Martin exclaimed.

“That ‘horse shit’, Martin, is another piece of data you can use to evaluate the impact this work will have on Ubiquity and its goals”, observed Greg, feeling a little over-excited to be watching Martin struggling.

Angela nodded in agreement.

Speaking peacefully and with certainty, Therese said, “I’m sold. This feels right and will be the beginning of a new future for Ubiquity. This will get us closer to our vision and to the ideals upon which this business was founded. How do we get started?”

“What a surprise you support this, Therese,” snapped Martin. “Before we think about getting started, let’s review, one more time, why we are doing this, and if now is the best time for us. I’d prefer we waited till our cash flow improved a little. After all, Ms Bernstein’s fees aren’t exactly insignificant.”

While he agreed with Martin’s cynicism in some way, Gerald had become bored of hearing it. The old man had nudged us so hard on this, it could easily be taken as a direct order, and challenging Luckeridge on his choice of consultant would not be a wise move. His patronage is 80 per cent of our turnover and without him we’re obviously screwed.

“Alright Martin, let’s not waste any more time,” said Gerald. “The decision was made at last month’s partner meeting, and it’s not going to be changed now. Your view on this matter is noted and respected. Angela, how do we get started, and how important is it that you interview the nominated partner candidates before the journey, as you call it, begins?”

“It is important that I interview all nominated candidates to ensure everyone hears the program brief from the ‘horse’s mouth’”, Angela said. Martin smirked, but she ignored him. “Because of its nature, all candidates must agree to the terms of this journey, and these interviews will allow me to establish a relationship contract of trust and respect. Normally, a few will qualify out of the program because of this interview, which will save us time and you money. Does that answer part of your question, Gerald?”

“Yes, I understand the importance now.”

“Great. I’m available to start the interviews on the first of February. How’s that for Ubiquity?”

Therese answered, “That’s fine for us; we were hoping for a similar start date.”

“What are you calling this journey?” Angela directed the question to Therese.

“We’ve been throwing around a few names, and so far, the ‘Professional to Partnership Path’ seems to be the one gaining most support.”

Thinking he was speaking under his breath, Martin muttered in a crackly, yet just audible voice, with an obvious edge of sarcasm, “The journey… pfffftttt… HR wank.”

All eyes fixed on Gerald, all except for Martin’s. He was now finding the font type and size of the report in front of him very interesting.

For Martin, detail had always been a wel...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Reviews
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Dedication
• Content
• Prologue Two Old Friends Discuss
• Chapter 1 The Ubiquity Contract
• Chapter 2 Ben Goes Into His Cave
• Chapter 3 Ben’s Coaching Session With Angela
• Chapter 4 Christmas In The Bylong Valley
• Chapter 5 Dinner At The Farm
• Chapter 6 Clarity Through The Haze
• Chapter 7 Ben’s Secret Past Revealed
• Chapter 8 Jack’s New Coaching Relationship
• Chapter 9 Ben Retakes The Reins Of TLG
• Chapter 10 Jack Goes On A Bender
• Chapter 11 Jack’s First Coaching Session
• Chapter 12 Michelle On Holidays With The Kids
• Chapter 13 The Ubiquity Adventure Begins
• Chapter 14 Ubiquity Goes To Morning Tea
• Chapter 15 Jack’s 360-Degree Feedback
• Chapter 16 Jack’s Desperation
• Chapter 17 Ben And Angela Discuss
• Chapter 18 TLG Adventure Workshop
• Chapter 19 Zenobia Adair
• Chapter 20 News About Kitsune
• Chapter 21 Neil And Carolina Go Bush
• Chapter 22 Ben And Angela Review Ben’s Blinder
• Chapter 23 Angela Bernstein’s Notes
• Chapter 24 Ben Meets Zenobia
• Chapter 25 Ben And Jack Mend Their Relationship
• Chapter 26 Gerald And Zenobia Discuss
• Chapter 27 David And Andrew Go Bush
• Chapter 28 Jack And Zenobia Go Bush
• Chapter 29 Travel Towards The Silence
• Chapter 30 The Experience Of Silence
• Chapter 31 Angela And Gerald Discuss The Adventure
• Chapter 32 Ben And Zen’s Lives Collide
• Chapter 33 The Ambulance Arrives
• Chapter 34 Zenobia Turns To Matias
• Chapter 35 Zenobia Lights The Way For Matias
• Chapter 36 Tomoko Comes To Sydney
• Chapter 37 Ben Emerges From The Coma
• Chapter 38 Zenobia Throws Jack A Lifeline
• Chapter 39 You Pitch, We Decide
• Chapter 40 The Party And Zenobia Goes Bush
• Epilogue
• Ubiquity Consulting Leadership Chart
• The Luckeridge Group Leadership Chart
• Leadership Adventure Terminology
• Bibliography