THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW
Highlighting best practice
46 | COACH4EXECUTIVES
because, as Albert Einstein said,
“Problems cannot be solved from the
consciousness which created them.”
Published statistics reinforced this.
There are many statistics available on,
for example, the high levels of CEO
turnaround, the low levels of employee
engagement and the increasing impact
of digitisation on our personal capacities
for deep thinking andreflection.
We felt that the global challenges
that capture our economic, social
and spiritual crises to leaders are best
summarised by Otto Scharmer’sstatistics:
»It is calculated that our world
economies consume the resources
of 1.5 planets. Our current
consumption is outstripping the
resources of earth to support us
»Eight billionaires’ own half as much
as half of the world’s population (3.8
billion) combined
»800,000 people commit suicide
each year – a number greater than
the sum of people who are killed
annually by war, murder or natural
disasters combined.
As Bushong also writes, “No generation
before now has had so many of its
members simultaneously living in,
between and among countless cultural
worlds as is happening today.”
We concluded that new ways of
seeing, thinking, relating, learning
and creating, at the deeply personal
and collective levels, are now mission-
critical – not only for individuals
but also in order for organisations
to create a secure future and build
vital international relationships in
our global, virtual and diverse (GVD)
world. We created the acronym GVD
to capture the essence of business
and organisational life today. GVD is
explained as follows:
»Global – the worldwide nature,
stretch and web of work that can
cross continents, time zones, cultures
and language
»Virtual – computers, the web and
digital technology have enabled
leaders to reach, communicate,
co-ordinate and deliver work to
customers and clients globally
»Diverse – the cultural mix and
blending of many different
countries, identities, cultures, races
and languages that can exist in
just one person, in a team and in
anorganisation.
We believe leaders now need to alter
leadership style and course as they
shape vision, goals, deliverables and
inspire performance. We had both
achieved a Diploma as Coaching
Supervisors with CSA Ltd. and knew
its effectiveness. We felt that this 1:1
practice, reframed and repositioned as
1:1 Executive Reflection, could offer
a new generation of leaders with the
tailor-made resourcing and support
to develop a new reflective leadership
style that was so clearly needed for
today’s VUCA GVD world.
We therefore decided to design an
action research study to test our
hypothesis working with our research
supervisor Dr. Alison Hodge pairing
ten senior global Volunteer Leaders
with ten senior global volunteer ER
Practitioners who had been trained by
CSA Ltd.
Executive Reflection for
developing tomorrow’s
global leaders today
New ways of
visioning,
leading,
thinking and
building
strong
international
relationships
at the deeply
personal and
collective
levels, are
now mission
critical for
leaders
everywhere
“
“
Rt Hon The Lord David Blunkett, MP
Rt Hon The Lord Eric Pickles, MP
