Being an effective and influential leader in the future

Ambition recently hosted an exclusive board-level event for a small group of our senior clients, in partnership with professional services consultancy, Arcadia.

The topic of the event was; ‘Being an effective and influential leader in the future boardroom’and consisted of two interactive workshops.

Exploring the Future Landscape

The first session was led by Charlie Curson and was focused on exploring the future landscape of a business.

It was a challenging and thought provoking exercise, where each group concentrated on one of the attendee’s business, assessing where the business currently stands and where, with visualisation and more robust strategy, it would get to in the next 3-5 years.

We discussed how, in this increasingly connected and fast-changing world, the best performing companies are the ones who look further ahead to better understand anticipated and unexpected changes and to identify emerging opportunities and challenges.

We debated that, as today’s business leaders, it has never been more prevalent to take the time to step away from the day to day and develop a more informed view on the future to enable more strategic choices over a longer term horizon.

The discussions surrounded the mapping of the chosen organisation and explored the impact of future shifts of internal and external business threats, from cyber security to the shortage of oil and gas and global uncertainty and instability. We considered the influence and implications this would have on the organisation today and in the future.

We spent time focusing on how to learn to create unique foresight for each individual’s organisation to help identify risks, issues and opportunities and to create understanding as to how to apply future thinking/foresight practically for our businesses.

Executive Presence

The second session, led byAndy Wolfe, saw the conversation developing around ‘Professional Presence’ and how to inspire and influence the boardroom.

We discussed that there was an expectation that successful leaders and board members are able to inspire, engage and importantly convince at all levels and to do so in a compelling and energising way. They are expected to have ‘presence’ – a natural ability to put views across effectively and command a discussion. Often this is not taught or developed, it is just expected.

The session focused on the impact of effective communication and of having gravitas. We discussed how adopting a growth mindset can enable people to develop and grow and ensures that new ideas are created and implemented. Alongside this was the thought process that we need to structure a compelling message to be able to influence and inspire teams.

It was an enjoyable event with lots of takeaways for all and a reminder of the power and influence that good leaders can have. Of being open to continuously learning, developing and searching for constructive feedback to ensure continuous development and improvement.

If you are a Director of a Professional Services firm and are interested in attending one of our future boardroom events, please contact us.