Key Themes

Key Themes

Last Updated (Thursday, 06 October 2011 13:20) Written by MARKITABLE (NZ) LIMITED Wednesday, 12 May 2010 14:58

"Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life differently, but life itself would come to be different." (Katherine Mansfield)

The five key themes below are integrated into each of the workshops of the programme and the Personal Development Plan project.

1. Balance and Social Responsibility

   Sustained organisational performance via balanced and socially responsible leadership is a key theme of the programme. This theme is joined by four additional integrating concepts.

2. A Whole Systems Perspective

   Leadership is presented in this programme as a holistic entity. In broad terms this perspective echoes the perspectives presented above in that sustained performance is seen as flowing from a balanced emphasis on both shareholder and stakeholder value creation. This view is in keeping with the need for the organisation to see itself as part of a wider regional, national and global community and to have a strategic perspective that considers stakeholder contribution and not just its short-term financial concerns.

3. Positive Values-Based Leadership

   The programme has an integrating model of leadership. The tasks and skills of leadership make use of the four task model presented in The Dance of Leadership (Cammock, 2003*). This model is supplemented by the positive leadership concepts developed by Kim Cameron in Positive Leadership, 2008**. It is further supplemented by the resilience strategies of positive psychology and the change methodologies of appreciative inquiry. In this way the strategies of positive leadership form a key theme of the programme.

4. Creativity, Innovation and High Value Add

   To support leaders in rising to their challenges this theme provides a strong emphasis on approaches to strategy that are both highly creative and that draw from opportunities that are unique to our New Zealand heritage.

5. Evidence-Based Best Practice

   While emphasising balance and social responsibility, the profitability of the organisation remains a key concern. As is appropriate to its Institute provenance, the programme draws from the research literature to offer leadership concepts and tools that have an evidence-based relationship to effective leadership practice and to organisational performance.

References:
Cameron, K.S. (2008). Positive leadership: Strategies for extraordinary performance, Berrett-Koehler.
Cammock, P. (2003). The dance of leadership; The call for soul in 21^st century leadership (2^nd ed.), Pearson Education.