Presence-Based® Leadership (PBL) is an experiential approach to whole person development that is practical and rigorously grounded in real world leadership and organizational challenges. Presence is inner state of inclusive awareness coupled with the felt-sense of stillness, immediacy and possibility. This training delivers the opportunity to cultivate leadership presence through information, perspectives and practices that support leaders to expand their capabilities and capacities, no matter what the setting. PBL is multifaceted and layered to produce consistent, effective individual and team leadership development in organizations.
The Nine Panes model is the central organizing principle of PBL and serves as an overarching framework that can be easily applied to the often seemingly intractable or unsolvable challenges that leaders and organizations face today. This model elegantly cuts through every level of situation, and offers new ways of understanding systems and patterns, while cultivating resilience and resourcefulness in the face of increased pressure to deliver results.
This training goes beyond just concepts. We offer practical applications of the material, in real time, and space to plan actions to implement after the workshop. Participating in this training, you and your team will discover skills to:
- Expand thinking to be more aware and awake to formerly hidden system dynamics and implications
- Explore what matters, so that the team is energized, aligned and inspired to take new actions
- Engage together to open up new possible directions that create different future results
Examples from two Training Modules:
#1 Working with Levels of Systems in Complexity
In this module we explore the nested nature of any system, which includes multiple layers of complexity, each of which affects and shapes the others. We distinguish three levels of scale in these systems which are always present and available for observation and intervention:
- Context: the complex challenges, people and human systems within which we are navigating
- Identity: the sense of self we are continually constructing and defending
- Soma: our body, and the psychobiology that conditions and structures our identity, unconsciously reacting to the world to defend it
When we make explicit these three levels of scale that are inherent in every situation you face as a leader, and provide new distinctions for each, you will be able to observe the nature of your Context anew. You will be able to sense the elements of complexity within this Context. You can begin to see how your Identity is at stake and understand how you may feel threatened and reactive. And, you can begin to build the capacity to stay present with yourself as your Soma responds to the world. You cultivate the skill to witness the nuances of the habitual, instinctive reactions that are the automatic (but often not useful) ways you seek to take care of yourself, your team and your organization.
In this module we will…
- distinguish three levels of scale available in every situation
- experiment with pragmatic leadership skills for observing phenomena at three levels of scale
- acquire specific developmental tools and practices to support your resilience as a leader working successfully at different levels of complex systems
- experiment with different and more effective leadership perspectives and behaviors which are more adapted for the complex systems in and through which you lead
#2 Leading in Complexity
In this module, we explore the ways complexity is always operating in our daily lives as leaders. We learn to recognize complexity “out there” in our contexts. And, “in here,” in the endless complexity of the ways we make sense of ourselves as leaders, and in the self-organizing, dynamic nature of the body itself that generates this meaning-making. We learn to work with present-moment opportunities to cultivate a self that can not only survive but thrive in complexity and to lead your teams and organizations to thrive in it as well.
In this session we will…
- explore characteristics of complexity in your context
- learn how to recognize how your Identity is challenged by this context
- recognize the disorienting gap between what complex leadership situations ask of you and what you have historically embodied that has been successful, but no longer seems adequate
- acquire specific developmental leadership tools and practices to support your leadership effectiveness
The world around us has changed profoundly and we need new ways of thinking and acting to succeed. Presence-based Leadership not only helped me see the new reality, but offered powerful and concrete strategies for navigating the complex world we’ve inherited. I can honestly say this workshop has changed my life.
Certified Presence-based Coach and Principal, Sea Change Strategies
The grace of the program facilitators and the depth of the model explored had a profound impact on my leadership practices. I recommend Presence-Based Leadership as a way to deepen your capacity to create within complexity and intentionally pursue outcomes you care about.
Tom Hardison, President, Generative Leadership Group, LLC
To gain actionable insights amidst complex business challenges, PBL is the best framework I have come across anywhere in the world.
Head of New Businesses at Glatt Pharmaceutical Services, Germany
Contact us to set up a meeting for more conversation about how this work can impact your organization, culture and leadership,
