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.
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.