Leading with Purpose

by Ben Renshaw, Co-Director of Success Intelligence

I have recently completed the 18th Senior Leadership Program for InterContinental Hotels Group, the largest hospitality company in the world. It is a global program spanning Europe, Middle-East & Africa, Asia-Pacific and America. Over 250 of the most senior leaders in the organisation have participated on the journey during the last three years with remarkable results. The program has received a 100% rating for ‘recommend to colleagues’, and a 100% score for ‘return on investment’ from the delegates.

IHG created a core purpose for the business, ‘Great Hotels Guests Love’. The premise of the program is that for an organisation to become purpose-led its leaders need to understand their own personal purpose and place it at the heart of the way they inspire and lead their people.

The program is spread over a 3-day period. Day one explores the modern context in which leaders have to operate today. It is a picture that captures the complex, fast paced and uncertain times in which we live and requires a new mindset, which embraces a quantum perspective that thrives on ambiguity, welcomes the unknown, capitalises on instinct and recognises that there is not just one answer to the myriad of challenges we face. We then go on to look at the various leadership styles required to inspire, engage and align people in today’s modern age such as being visionary, directive and performance focused. The end of the day gives people the space to start to reflect upon what they stand for as a leader and identifies their own personal purpose. We use a lifeline exercise, which invites people to reflect upon the key experiences of their life to date, draw conclusions from these events in terms of their impact and identify their deepest values as a consequence. They are then asked to draw a graph that represents when they have been most fulfilled to explore their core purpose. Using questions such as, ‘When are you at your best?’ ‘What is your joy?’ ‘What do you love?’ ‘What do you want to contribute?’ ‘What difference do you want to make?’ people begin to clarify their “raison d’etre.”

On day 2 we have the opportunity for participants to share their ‘leadership story’. This is always the highlight as we listen to riveting accounts of what has shaped people’s experience and what they stand for today. Encouraging feedback is given following each presentation in order to accelerate learning and development. The afternoon is a coaching intensive in which we apply non-directive coaching skills on real business issues. We are fortunate that in the evening the President of each region joins us for an informal dialogue over dinner in which they recount their own leadership story and listen to where delegates have come.

Our final day is devoted to building more leadership skills such as engaging people and giving accurate feedback. The last assignment is that participants create their own compelling vision of how they want to be as a leader in the future. Finally people are challenged to make some specific commitments to changing their behaviour, without which the sustainability of the program will be compromised as it’s all too easy to revert back to old habits.

I believe that the program is a sign of the times. Money is not enough to satisfy our wishes. Job security although welcome does not provide sufficient meaning. Ultimately we need to discover our core purpose, our real calling in order to enjoy authentic success.