What TLS Brings to Clients that is Unique

The Leadership Sphere is a solution-focused firm that has been helping organisations since 2007. We identify challenges quickly and design strategies to address them. Leadership is a key driver of sustainable organisational performance and health. Our purpose is to support and develop leaders who support and develop others.  

Our ‘How’: We help leaders gain clarity, build capability and contribute in a meaningful way.

Our ‘What’: We deliver impactful evidence-based solutions through workshop facilitation, coaching and our digital courses which are delivered through a network of highly engaged and results-orientated consultants.

Consultant Experience and Capability

• Proven experience designing, developing and delivering leadership programs within the broader context of organisational strategy and change.
• Qualifications and experience in adult education, instructional design or relevant field. Please see bios for our extensive qualifications and certifications in relevant areas.
• Successful implementation of program measurement and evaluation methods. 
• Sound knowledge and experience in the application of adult learning theories and digital learning principles. We have deep expertise in adult learning theories and also make extensive use of digital learning principles and platforms, including Actionable Habit Builder our online learning community (private spaces and general community space).
• Experience in both face-to-face and virtual delivery is an advantage. We utilise many face-to-face and virtual delivery methods, including Zoom, our TLS Community Hub, Actionable, Google Docs and Miro.
• Broad industry experience. TLS has worked with a broad cross-section of Australian organisations, Boards, and industries.

Our Competitive Advantage

In response to the questions ‘Why should we partner with you?’ and ‘How are you different to all the other leadership firms out there?’ we offer the following:

1. 1.Systemic Thinking - We understand how systems and people are inherently part of each other. We understand role theory, systems thinking as well as deep expertise in being able to work with mindsets and behaviours. A focus on one without the other is akin to ‘blaming the victim’. 
2. 2.Best People – our consultants have a rich history of developing leaders in government and across most sectors, so we are able to bring rich learnings to the program.
3. 3.Longevity – we have been developing leaders in Australia and internationally for three decades. We have an excellent track record, bringing a transformational yet low-risk approach.
4. 4.Easy to Do Business With – this is an important part of how we operate. We are proactive, timely, respectful and diligent. We form strong relationships with our clients.
5. 5.Partnering - We love partnering with organisations because we want to strengthen the leadership capability and the organisation’s core purpose. We actively move away from a co-dependent relationship, instead of working hard to ‘leave’ organisations in a stronger position than when we started.
6. 6.Results - We are invested in achieving leadership, team and business outcomes – and we’re good at it.
7. 7.Leadership Toolkit – we have a wide range of tools, frameworks, accreditations, certifications and approaches at our disposal. We know when to use them and when not to use them.
8. 8.Blended Learning – we use technology and complementary learning modalities to support learning but it never becomes the main driver. We know how to use blended learning to optimise learning and embed true behaviour change which leads to better business outcomes.

The Leadership Sphere has a long and successful history of working with client organisations across most sectors and industries.

We measure our success on your success.

Manufacturing / FMCG

Case Study #1

Situation 

A long-standing FMCG manufacturing business needed to improve manufacturing efficiency and outputs which it had struggled to achieve over many years. Highly unionised environment and being a dominant duopoly, it was very hard to achieve buy-in and change to date. We needed the leadership team to be the drivers of change and the ones to work with their manufacturing teams to come up with the solutions and not from a top-down approach which hadn’t worked previously. 

Approach 

Firstly we set up a clear plan of what was needed to meet future business success (setting clear KPI’s) and conducted a number of leadership workshops to obtain detailed buy-in from the leadership team. Then conducted a series of leadership assessments to help each leader identify where they were strong and where maybe they needed help and development to achieve their goals. Once we had a leadership team measure against the business KPI’s we developed a set of Capabilities needed to drive the business performance forward and developed a set of targeted development programs to support the leaders.

Outcomes

1. 1.Achieved both union and staff buy-in to the change program;
2. 2.Within 14 months achieved an increase of 40% production increase;
3. 3.As a new entrant came into the market, the business was able to maintain its market position; and
4. 4.The Executive Team went onto other more senior positions in the larger business.

Case Study #2

Situation 

Heavy machinery manufacturing business needed to improve manufacturing efficiency and the performance and teamwork of its leadership team. The business had developed a significant strategy plan already and needed to have a simple and effective capability and development framework to meet that strategy. 

Approach 

We developed 3 different approaches based on the business strategy based on 3 different rates of change and development for their leaders. The business decided to go with the mid-level change and development approach which we then used to drive the program outcomes. The initial step was to put the leaders through leadership assessment framework to provide a starting baseline of capability. Once we had a leadership team measure against the business strategy, we developed a set of Capabilities needed and developed a set of targeted development programs to support the leaders. Leaders knew that this was not going to be used as a management of their performance in the initial stages until they had time with support to develop their capabilities.

Outcomes 

1. 1.Became a highly dynamic team;
2. 2.Produced the highest profit performance in the companies history; and
3. 3.Several leaders of the team have moved onto CEO and other senior roles within the industry or larger global business.

Mining / Resources

Situation

TLS was asked to partner with the Chief Operating Officer and his team of General Managers and functional specialists. While some had been in the team for an extended period, there were also several new members. The Leadership Team did not see itself as a team and each member largely worked independently. When they came together, meetings were mostly about operational updates that looked backwards.

Approach

A team discovery process was undertaken and 360-Degree Surveys were conducted for each team member. The team showed low levels of trust, a lack of clarity regarding team purpose and the vision, collaboration was low, and trust and real dialogue were poor. Members of the team did not demonstrate an open and transparent leadership style with their own Site Leadership Teams. Working with the COO and the HR Director, a five-year roadmap was drawn up by TLS to step the team through a planned and structured (yet flexible) development program, including annual 360-Degree feedback surveys, workshops, and coaching.

Outcomes

1. 1.There was an immediate and rapid improvement in team functioning;
2. 2.After one year, a team discovery retest showed changes in the following: Values: + 23%; Trust and Real Dialogue: + 29%; Coaching and People Development: + 35%; Collaboration: + 9% and Innovation: + 5%;
3. 3.The 360-Degree Feedback Survey results demonstrated a significant increase in constructive thinking styles (Humanistic-Encouraging +11%; Affiliative +11% and Self-Actualising +5%) and a decrease in defensive styles (Oppositional -17% and Power -25%);
4. 4.In terms of behaviours as rated by others, there were significant increases in two constructive styles (Humanistic-Encouraging +5% and Affiliative +15%) and decreases in defensive styles (Oppositional -18%; Power -15%; Competitive -8% and Perfectionistic -20%);
5. 5.In a challenging context and market, overall team and organisation performance improved significantly; and
6. 6.Each GM was sufficiently impressed with the results achieved that TLS then worked with each Site Leadership Team around Australia.

Want to Read More?

Read more case studies online or ask us for some references.

Our values are important to us. These are the non-negotiable minimum standards to which all our work and dealings apply. These values are not a high aspiration we strive for, but rather the way we do business. When we are true to our values, our clients know it.

The Leadership Sphere is a solution-focused firm that has been helping organisations since 2007.

We pride ourselves on identifying your challenges quickly and designing strategies to address them, always keeping top of mind your business's need for minimal disruption.

We see leadership as a key driver of sustainable organisational performance and health. We have extensive experience working at the Board, CEO, Executive and middle manager levels in some of the world's largest companies. We have several case studies and testimonials available as an attachment.

Some of the companies that we've completed major projects for:

About The Leadership Sphere - Who We Are!