Pratap Nambiar, Executive Chairman of Singapore-based Leadership Coaching & Consulting Company Thought Perfect, explains the leadership transformation journey.

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·       Information and Transformation

Training involves imparting new skills to the existing form – they are going into the existing form hence informing. Transformation is about changing the form itself– creating a greater capacity for thinking. It expands the form of our knowledge.If we look at our minds like a cup, all information goes into the same cup.With Transformation, the size of the cup itself changes.

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·      Self-Awareness

Leaders want to know why they need transformation. Fundamentally, there is a performance gap between what one sets out to achieve and what one is currently achieving.
For leaders, the most critical part of closing this performance gap is to see it not in terms of the outcomes but of self-awareness.

The question to ask is, what has been your role in the results you are getting?

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·      Complexity

As businesses become more complex, leaders need a more complex way of thinking to deal with them effectively. Making decisions based on the past will not provide the right answers, nor will a cause and effect mode of thinking.

Dealing with complexity requires leaders to look at things from completely new and unexpected perspectives. A more complex mindis a more developed mind and will be able to distinguish between complicated and complex problems to find a simple solution.

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·      Adaptive Challenges

An adaptive challenge requires a new way of thinking and cannot be resolved by throwing technical solutions at it or using skills that have worked before.

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·      Inner and Outer Game

Usually, leaders focus almost entirely on the outer game which requires an investment of time and effort in learning new competencies to try and overcome the external challenges. However, most external challenges are difficult to control. What can be controlled is the way we respond to them- this requires a strong internal process of reflection and introspection, creating a new way of being.

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·       Unconscious and Polarity Thinking

Like the iceberg, what is hidden from view is the unconscious mind and it influences decision making.
When we talk about bringing about a transformation of a leader’s behaviours, we have to start with what is underneath the surface- the unconscious mind; we have to address the hidden beliefs and the assumptions that have to be surfaced and changed so that behaviours can then change.

Disclaimer: This article was originally published in a longer form on thoughtperfect.com and is penned by weryz advisor Pratap Nambiar.

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