strategic leaders program
A Leadership Program Aligned to Your Business
CEOs and senior leaders understand that organisational success is not a solo game. Performance and overall direction are shaped by the quality of leaders across the organisation.
Yet true leadership has never been harder. Operating environments are more dynamic, strategic risks are more pronounced, and the path forward is less certain. In this environment, the ability for an individual leader to identify, understand, and respond to change has become increasingly difficult. To do this effectively, it must now be done collectively.
Leadership development now matters more than ever, but it must go beyond capability building in isolation. Instead, it needs to be delivered as a deliberate and collective response to the strategic pressures an organisation is facing.
The Challenges of Modern Leadership
Leaders are overwhelmed
Much of the challenge for modern leaders stems from the sheer pace and complexity of change. We are awash with information, shifting expectations and competing priorities and it’s become increasingly difficult to distill what truly matters. Left unchecked, this uncertainty is driving leaders to fight fires, micro-manage and focus on short term problems rather than moving forward on strategically important initiatives.
When leaders react to every crisis, opportunity, or trend as it arrives, teams lose alignment, resources are misapplied, and progress stalls. Unless addressed, strategic thinking becomes an afterthought rather than a driver of action.
Reactive decision-making
Overwhelm and constant pressure are also pushing decision-makers to be increasingly reactive. Leaders focus on what demands attention now, rather than what will matter most tomorrow. Choices are made quickly with incomplete information and without consideration of broader impacts.
This reactive decision making cycle also tends to be self-reinforcing: the more leaders respond to immediate pressures, the less capacity they have to step back, anticipate risk and consider other strategic options. The result is a leadership workforce that although capable and committed, lacks the capacity to operate strategically.
A lack of alignment
Reactive decision-making at the individual level has organisational consequences. When leaders and teams respond in isolation, without a shared understanding of priorities or context, effort is duplicated, initiatives conflict and resources are wasted.
This is amplified for organisations operating in volatile and high growth sectors of the economy. It’s also pronounced for leadership teams with high turnover, diverse backgrounds, or who are geographically distributed. If time isn’t put aside for developing and maintaining a level of shared understanding, leaders may be operating with the best of intentions but in a way that is entirely out of sync with the rest of the organisation.
Coaching rather than leading
Most leadership programs focus on developing the people skills that leaders need, such as coaching, feedback, and providing psychological safety. These are important, but they are only half the equation. Leadership is an active process of moving your people forward, and that requires a clear understanding of the future you aspire to and the direction you are heading in.
Strategic awareness can’t be confined to the CEO and executive leadership team. Without a strategic perspective, leaders struggle to prioritise initiatives, anticipate challenges, or guide their teams toward meaningful outcomes. The organisation may have capable managers, but not leaders equipped to shape its future.
A Business Aligned Leadership Program
Addressing these challenges requires more than ad-hoc workshops and one-off training initiatives. It requires a structured, long-term approach that acknowledges your existing business cycle. The Strategic Leaders Program is designed to align professional development into the natural rhythm of your organisation such budgeting, planning, and other key forward focused events.
By working alongside three to four key strategic moments in the year, we give leaders the time and space to step back, reflect, and apply strategic thinking where it can have immediate impact. This “learn by doing” approach ensures interventions are practical, memorable, and directly tied to organisational outcomes.
Although a key outcome of the program is to develop more strategic leaders, the real goal is to create a structural and enduring response to short-term thinking inside organisations.
Program Design
The Strategic Leaders Program takes place over 9–12 months and combines three to four high-impact in-person workshops with supporting initiatives designed to maintain momentum and embed learning. Workshops are strategically timed to coincide with the organisation’s key planning and decision points, ensuring that insights are immediately applicable and actionable.
Supporting elements can include the development of custom future scenarios, online masterclasses, small group or one-on-one coaching, and targeted communications to reinforce key concepts. This multi-layered approach turns learning into action and ensures leaders build and maintain a level of strategic awareness across the organisation.
If you’d like to support your leaders to feel less overwhelmed, operate with greater clarity, and at the same time drive long term organisational performance, the Strategic Leaders Program might just be what you’re looking for. If you’d like to find out more, please get in touch.
The energy that Simon brings is infectious, and the different tools he used to get people to think strategically and understand the scenario development process meant that everyone could contribute.
Laura Jo Mellan
Director, Maribyrnong City Council
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