Organizational Engagement and Capability Development

Dynamic Inquiry

As discussed in the book Primal Leadership (Harvard Business Press by McKee, Goleman, Boyatzis), a process called “dynamic inquiry” was developed by Annie McKee and the Teleos Leadership Institute as a way to begin a broad-based leadership development and alignment process initiative. The purpose of the inquiry is twofold: 1) identifying the underlying issues related to culture and leadership that are helping or hindering implementation of a strategy, and 2) building ownership and commitment to the mission, vision, strategy, ideal culture and leadership framework among key stakeholders. This method of discovery uncovers an organization’s emotional reality—what people care about, what is helping them, their groups, and the organization to succeed, and what’s getting in the way. Through the process of discovering the truth about their organization, people begin to create a shared language about what’s really going on as well as what they would like to see—their ideal vision of the organization.

Dynamic inquiry starts a conversation that has momentum of its own. The creation of a shared language that is based on feelings, as well as facts, is a powerful driver of change, and provides sound focus for leadership development and team alignment. This shared language provides a sense of unity and resonance and the resulting momentum helps people to move from talk to action. They feel inspired and empowered, willing to work together to address their collective concerns.

HR4HR

The overall goal of the Teleos Leadership Institute HR4HR program is to align senior Human Resource leaders around a common and integrated standard for providing high level, expert HR services in support of business leaders.

The HR4HR program builds internal capacity. The purpose of the program is to develop a dedicated group of professionals who exhibit emotional intelligence through self- and social awareness, empathy, and self-management. Leaders learn these skills by doing; therefore, participants in the program are given knowledge and guidance which they build into skills related to four key strategic HR roles. Practically speaking, in the course, participants learn and practice skills that are closely tied to theory and research, and then they hone the skills in real work in the business. The skills are further explored and refined in the classroom following intersession work.

Four Key Strategic Roles for HR Leaders

• Strategic Business Partner

• Executive Coach and Advisor

• Leadership Development Architect

• Organizational Change Agent

Behavioral Event Interviewing

A Behavioral Event Interview (BEI) is an interview methodology that allows organizational “researchers” to better understand how leaders perform their roles. The BEI helps to identify what it is that a leader does, thinks and feels when he or she is successful—what it is that he or she does naturally in such situations. The protocol is fairly straightforward; leaders are asked to think of three or four stories related to types of events in an area of principal interest to your organization.

The interviewer asks leaders to recount “success stories,” or situations that continue to please the interviewee with regard to choices made and actions taken, as well as situations where they felt that they were less effective or where the result was not what they had wanted. Additionally, in order to obtain an accurate picture of current strengths, the BEI focuses on the description of incidents that occurred within the previous two years. Interviews are then coded for demonstrated competencies indicated in specific behaviors clearly attributable to the interviewee. We use explicit criteria to distinguish codable statements from other statements that do not necessarily demonstrate a competency.

ICF-Certified Teleos Coach Development Program (TCDP)

An executive coaching program is intended to build an organization’s internal capacity for the delivery of coaching to employees. Our approach to executive coach development is grounded in improving emotional intelligence and resonant leadership competencies, developing active listening skills, working with systems, intentional change theory, and mindful reflection.

Using a process of inquiry and personal discovery, we build the coach’s level of awareness and skills to provide the client with structure, support, and feedback that facilitates the executives’ improvement in emotional intelligence and resonant leadership competencies. We take a positive, holistic approach to coaching and we use a developmental perspective to cultivate expert, executive coaches. TCDP meets the certification requirements of the International Coach Federation (ICF).

 Goleman, Daniel, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee. Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence. 2004. Boston: HBS Press.

 McKee, Annie. Management: A Focus on Leaders. 2012. Prentice-Hall.