Leadership at Anthea: When CXOs Need to Learn Too
Senior leaders don't need another classroom defining leadership. They need space to examine what it looks like in their context.
Leadership programs are often designed around competencies. Communication. Decision making. Strategic thinking. Change management. But when we were approached for a CXO to N-2 leadership intervention at The Anthea Group, we knew this needed a different approach. The organisation was looking at themes such as: Change Management. Collaboration. Decision Making. And aligning leaders with the larger vision of the organisation. But before designing the program, we spent more than a month understanding the organisation.
Discovery. One-on-one conversations. FGDs. TNI. TNA. The diagnosis became the foundation of the intervention. Because senior leaders don’t need another classroom telling them what leadership is. They need a space where they can examine what leadership looks like in their context. The program was eventually designed as a highly experiential intervention. The conversations were not hypothetical. They were anchored in the realities of the organisation. The objective was not to give the leaders a new set of leadership definitions.
It was to create reflection around the decisions they make, the way they collaborate, the way they respond to change and how they collectively move towards the larger organisational vision. Ganesh Dalvi steered the program with Sapna Jain and Vahista Anklesaria as co-facilitators, with the entire intervention spearheaded from our end by CA Sarita Mehra Pandey. One of the things we particularly enjoyed about this intervention was the depth of preparation.
Sometimes the visible workshop is only the tip of the iceberg. The real work happens weeks before participants enter the room. And perhaps that is one of the biggest differences between conducting a program and designing an intervention.
