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Our clients regularly site several key
ways in which Management Associates differs from other consulting firms:
Leadership as
Personal Development
Often management and leadership development is approached as developing a set of skills. Although leaders do indeed employ identifiable skills, we believe the heart of leadership is defined by the values, attitudes, beliefs, and assumptions that the leader, as a human being, brings to bear on the tasks of leadership.
Challenge vs. Training
One of Management Associates' fundamental convictions is that most leaders
experience difficulties not because they lack knowledge or training, but
because the things they "know" are not being routinely acted
upon in the workplace. If leaders are to grow and improve as leaders, they do not need
more training as
much as they need to have their thinking challenged, their mental models
probed,
and their
attitudes explored. In challenging the thinking of leaders, we enable them to
reevaluate their role and alter their choices.
Choice-based Development
Though
we as human beings often have little choice over what happens to us, we do
have complete freedom in how we choose to respond to these events. As
outstanding leaders are primarily distinguished by the choices they make
in the face of inevitable challenges, our training and development seeks
to impact the day-to-day choices made by people in positions
organizational authority.
A Focus on Culture
Truly
effective leadership creates an organizational culture that stimulates and
nurtures human unity, productivity, creativity, and achievement. Our
approach is based on the conviction that leadership must create a cohesive
and unified system committed to making significant contributions to its
customers, and that from this context the bottom line objectives of
service, profits, and productivity will be most effectively integrated.
Unity and Collective Excellence
Most organizations have learned to live with varying levels of interpersonal and interdepartmental politics, competition, silos, turf issues, and broken communication. This disunity
all too frequently stems from divisions at the highest levels
of leadership.
Unfortunately,
we have become so accustomed to these levels of disunity and competition
that they are rarely identified and addressed. Management Associates
approaches these patterns of organizational disunity as some of the most
real and demanding issues facing organizational effectiveness.
A Framework of Knowledge
Whereas
leadership development is often viewed in terms of contrasting styles or
philosophies, Management Associates approaches it through a research-based
framework of knowledge. By placing effective leadership within a
knowledge-based context of human dynamics, we help establish a grounded
development process that transcends the whims of passing trends and fads.
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