1. Leadership for 2015
A Dove Nest Thought Paper
Written by:
Mike Kitson - Dove Nest Group
Mike.kitson@dovenest.co.uk
015395 67878

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Introduction
As we enter into the sixteenth year of the 21
st
Century the time seems right to explore exactly what is needed
in terms of leadership within the corporate and business sectors, here I include private, public and not for
profit sectors. The past fifteen years have seen a proliferation of articles purporting to have the solution to
“21
st
Century” leadership, many of these being out of date within six months or so of having been written – so
fast is the pace of change that all leaders are working within. This paper tries to offer neither a grand nor a
100 year solution but rather to confine itself to 2015, or at least what we, at Dove Nest, feel is relevant to
leadership at the time that this article is being written.
As one of the UK’s leading exponents of experiential leadership development we work with leaders from a
wide variety of sectors and organisations and increasingly we see that many of the “traditional” models of
leadership are only now fit for purpose within particular circumstances. Confined to history books are the
“heroic” or “great man” theories of leadership that predominated a few years ago – although many books in
this mould are still being written, published and bought. Leadership development has moved towards
different models including, “dispersed” leadership, “servant” leadership, leadership competences, to name but
three such models.
The Context
To a certain extent the context within which 2015 leadership sits is well known, it is the world within which we
are all working and living, however, it is worth reiterating as there is often a difference between ‘living in’ and
‘understanding’ something, and this difference is extremely pertinent to the development of relevant and
effective leadership abilities.
The world is increasingly being recognised as an intricate, delicate and complex matrix, or web, of
interconnecting relationships and strands of information. The concept of power and status is changing,
increasingly becoming diffused from traditional positions and often becoming extremely transitory in its
nature. Information, thanks to the internet and social media, is now dispersed accessible to more and more
people at a time and at faster speeds, and this includes the spread of rumours and false information as much
as it does for correct data.

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Global economies are still in a state of flux; growth is still slower than predicted in many areas despite political
spin in many countries. Conflict is still a clear and present danger in many areas, there are many disputes that
could suddenly escalate; other unknowns include epidemics, will Ebola break out of West Africa, and politics –
what will the May 2015 elections bring to the UK, will we still be in the European Union in 2016. And the
environment is rightly still at the forefront of many people’s minds.
As well as the above global and universal challenges there are many others that face 2015’s leaders, no matter
at what level in an organisation they may be; two of these main issues are:
 Changes in customer expectations and perceptions
o In the past organisations used to measure themselves against the “opposition” and this
opposition was clearly identified – they were other (local?) businesses in the same market
place, with the same or similar products and services. Now the customer tends to regard
each element of a business in contrast to whatever they perceive the best in class they
receive from other organisations and industries. For example the customer service via the
internet or telephone of a high street retailer or utilities company may be measured against
people such as First Direct.
o Coupled with this the expectations from different generations will differ, often considerably.
No longer will one size fit all, organisations need to encompass all mediums of service and
product delivery; some will want everything on-line, whilst an increasingly larger elder
generation may expect face to face service.
 Sustainability
o As the economic realities of the past years have hit home, coupled with both climate change
and the beliefs and values of younger generations, there has been an increasing demand for
organisations to ensure that what they do is sustainable – whilst still making profits. This
latter issue has meant that leaders are being increasingly challenged to make more with less,
less materials, less staff, better processes and systems etc.
All of this spells uncertainty and change for all of us; two factors that can create a lack of confidence, feelings
of panic and distress within many of us; this is when we need clear and strong leadership, not just from the
top, but all around us to help lead us through the maelstrom of 2015 and onward.
What 2015’s Leaders Need to Do
From our experience of 32 years of running experiential leadership development programmes for managers
and leaders from a wide range of sectors, organisations and cultures we have come to the understanding that,
in 2015 and for the (current) foreseeable future, there are seven major things that leaders need to be able to
do. Whilst this is not a competence matrix as such, these are competencies that leaders need to develop; and
we believe that these apply throughout an
organisation irrespective of the level in the
power hierarchy the person is. In fact the major
difference between top and lower down an
organisational chart a person’s role is placed is
the level to which there is an added
responsibility to create the culture and
atmosphere within which these competencies
are allowed to be developed and utilised.
This figure provides a quick overview of the
seven areas.

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Challenge
In order to lead and guide their followers through the complexity that surrounds us all the leaders of today
need firstly to be able, and prepared to challenge what they see around them. Concentrating on the status
quo will not do, either for the organisation they work for, or for the people they purport to lead; rather the act
that will demonstrate true leadership is the act of challenging, and what is needed in order for this to happen
is confidence and courage to stand up and speak, with the knowledge that you will be heard. This act of
challenge must happen at all levels; so it is vital that all senior leaders is able to create an environment that
enables others to challenge and be listened to.
Enabling and allowing challenge does not mean that each such challenge will necessarily lead to change; rather
that each challenge enables an opportunity for reflection, consideration and, most importantly, strong
decision making and accountability.
There are many things that leaders need to feel empowered to challenge, things such as:
 Values, Vision and Strategy. If these are not aligned and providing of a firm foundation everything
else is likely to suffer. What is the purpose of the organisation? Of the department? Of the function?
Of the team? Are all of these in alignment? Do the espoused values of the organisation actually
mean anything? Or are they mere words on advertising slogans that no one actually either believes
or works to?
 The Model. Does the business model fit what you are doing? Is it fit for purpose? Does it deliver
competitive advantage?
 The Organisation. Are the right people in the right places; are departments and functions properly
aligned?
 The Culture. Has this evolved by default? Is it being actively directed – and more importantly, lived –
from the top of the organisation? Is it in alignment with espoused values, both internally and
externally? It is the leaders at all levels in the organisation who set the culture for their immediate
environment.
 The People. Do you have the right people, in the right roles, in the right locations? And do you know
where their replacements are going to come from? Are your people talented or are they serving
time? Are they engaged, motivated and believe that they play a role and have a future?
 Yourself. Do the leaders constantly challenge themselves to improve as much as they may challenge
others?
Coupled with the ability, willingness and empowerment to challenge is the willingness and ability to allow
others, the “followers” to challenge the leader. If others cannot challenge you how can you be expected to
have your challenges accepted?
Align
Coupled with the ability to challenge some of the areas mentioned above is the capability to actually either
offer solutions or to do something about it. Often this means being able to bring things into alignment; are the
values of the organisation in alignment with the values of the staff? Or even in alignment with the values of
the prospective customers, clients or stakeholders? Is the organisational structure in alignment with the
purpose of the business? Is the culture? And so on.
One model we use to aid understanding is Robert Dilts’ “Neurological Levels.” Providing an illustration of the
differing psychological layers within an organisation (or person) Leaders must ensure that all levels are in
alignment:

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Robert Dilt’s Neurological Levels – Aligned and Non-Aligned
For example, are the values and beliefs that are espoused within the business in alignment with the purpose or
mission – in other words do they help to deliver that purpose – and do they fit with the identity or brand. Also
do they fit with the behaviours/competences that are needed to enable people to do their jobs efficiently and
effectively? It is the leader’s responsibility to ensure that everything is in alignment, it is when things get out
of kilter, for instance an organisation changes its direction or strategic purpose, which means a necessary
change in values and perhaps behaviours, if the people are not encouraged to shift their thinking, their values
etc. they will lose motivation, become disengaged and unhappy, more often than not resulting in poor
productivity, increased turnover of staff and so higher costs.
Empower
Fortunately as the concepts of the leader as “hero” or “great man” fade into the mists of time the notion of
empowerment is starting to come to the fore. No longer can this be seen as just an extension of delegation, it
is not just giving some of your tasks to a few people expecting them to be grateful for the crumbs of
recognition that might fall from the leader’s table. The ability to truly to empower people is one of the most
powerful tools at a leader’s disposal.
From a leadership perspective empowerment means that the leader is creating a culture within which their
followers can freely make decisions, use their knowledge and experience and take responsibility for things
whilst feeling trusted and supported as opposed to always having someone look over their shoulder to make
sure that it is happening the way the leader would have done it.
This not only means that the leader must learn to trust their staff; they also have to understand their people,
what are their motivations, their aspirations, their skills and development areas etc. Leaders will also, within a
culture of true empowerment, have to release a fair degree of control as to how a task gets done, whilst still
retaining the overall accountability for the results.
Serve
The concept of the leader as a person who serves others goes back a lot further than recent articles and books
on the notion of “Servant Leadership.” The “Tao-Te-Ching”, attributed to Lao-Tzu and written sometime
between 570 and 490 BCE, states:

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These four levels of leadership are then
emulated much later in such concepts as
Greenleaf’s “Servant Leadership” or Jim
Collins’ “Level 5 Leadership.” Within these
concepts the leader is there for the good of
their people, or the organisation, or the cause,
or the country – but definitely not there for
the sole benefit of themselves!
Some of the attributes needed by a leader who
serves are:
 Empathy – leadership always striving to understand other people and to have the ability to see things
from their perspective
 Listening – leaders now need far more than the ability to communicate, they must also have a deep
commitment to listening to others and striving to understand what they hear
 Awareness – both in terms of what is going on around them, and a heightened self-awareness
 Persuasiveness – how to influence and persuade rather than order and use positions of power and
authority
 Teaching and Developing – the 2015 leader must be able to teach others what they know and help to
develop them
 Community Development – working towards building communities of people within organisations,
not just having staff – or even just teams
Collaborate
2015’s leaders need to go further than working with people and stakeholders; they need to actively promote
collaboration – to work with others as equal partners in the achievement of tasks and goals. This means
having an excellent grasp of stakeholder interests and organisational goals as well as the ability to bring
together the best suited people that can work together as partners in achieving those goals. This may mean
turning on their head traditional models of working with suppliers or even customers, not to mention other
departments and leaders.
True collaboration means the establishment of trust and the removal of the ego from the partnership; gone
has to be the master-servant relationship, leaders need to be able to share knowledge and power, being
prepared to work together with people who might previously been seen as “the opposition” to share best
practice and work towards a common goal. As organisations get smaller and outsource processes this
increases the necessity for such collaboration, whether it be with suppliers, partners or using cloud sourcing
etc. This all means that the 2015 leader needs to be able to bring together disparate parties with differing
values and objectives and get them to work together for the common good.
Reflect
One of the greatest qualities necessary for leaders is that of awareness; of both self and of what is going on
around you. The way to become more aware is to learn how to stop, think and reflect on what is happening.
Doing this often requires a complete paradigm shift in the expected culture of leadership within many
companies; all too often leaders are rewarded, or at least expected, to be always on the go, energetic and
energising. Whilst this does work, for a while, it means that often such leaders are at their best in a crisis, they
are good at reacting but not at planning, strategizing and envisioning. To do these requires the ability to put
on the “handbrake”, stop and think for a while, and to be thinking with the prime objective of trying to make
sense of what is going on and then plan for the future.
The best leaders are those their people hardly know exist.
The next best is a leader who is loved and praised.
Next comes the one who is feared.
The worst one is the leader that is despised …
The best leaders value their words, and use them sparingly.
When they have accomplished their task,
the people say, “Amazing!
We did it, all by ourselves!”

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Learn
The previous quality, reflection, is an integral part of the ability to learn; it is part of the “Experiential Learning
Cycle” and the ability to make sense of things and not just plan but to actually learn has been vital for leaders
throughout history. Indeed the most successful leaders have been the ones who can learn from what happens
around and to them and thus make sure that errors are never repeated.
This, however, does not mean that mistakes must be eradicated. Any attempt to do just that leads to inertia
and never getting anywhere; integral to the art of learning is the art of being prepared to take risks (calculated
ones), make mistakes and ensure that they are not repeated.
Developing 2015’s Leaders
Just as the qualities necessary for leaders in 2015 are changing from what has been perceived as needed in the
past, so there is a need for change, or at least alteration, in the way in which such leaders are to be developed.
Certainly, as has always happened a few will “emerge” and thrust themselves to the fore, however the vast
majority need to be nurtured and developed to enable them to enhance whatever innate abilities they may
have and to assimilate new ones. More importantly this needs to be done within environments where leaders
of tomorrow can make mistakes, practice, adjust and learn.
This figure shows some of
the major areas that, at
Dove Nest, we believe
should be the chief
constituents of a leadership
development programme.
Around the outside of the
circle are the four main
areas of focus. Three of
these are constituent parts
of Emotional Intelligence
and the fourth is having the
commercial ability to put
these to operational use.
At the heart of the model
lies the concept of Values,
understanding these for
both self, others and the
organisation is central to
everything a leader needs to
do. Outside these are areas
of consideration for the
leader both for themselves
and for others. Taking all of
these into account means that the ability to create Trust, Rapport etc. can be generated.
Conclusion
It has been increasingly heartening to note that more and more organisations are taking leadership
development seriously; if anything the past seven years has shown that for organisations to survive in 2015,

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and beyond, they need to invest in establishing their pipeline of leaders. Only with people, already within the
organisation, with the agility, talent, skill and ability to steer and lead the workforce and the business into the
future will any entity survive. The time for developing such talent and agility is not when trouble looms, rather
it is now, before difficulties arise; that way the company can be skilfully steered through the rapids and on to
clearer water ahead.
At Dove Nest we work with organisations of all sizes and sectors to help develop such talent from Graduate
Development schemes right through to Senior and Strategic level development; if you want to know more
about how we utilise the models contained within this paper and the value we can add to your talent pipelines
please contact us using one of the methods below and mention “Leadership in 2015,” we will be more than
happy to discuss how we can aid you.
Email: enquiries@dovenest.co.uk
Website: www.dovenest.co.uk
Telephone: 015395 67878