Why TDL
At TDL, our purpose is to build leaders and teams that create positive and effective change for their organizations, and, in so doing, make the world a better place for us all. Unlike management, leadership is about change. TDL began with a realization that most leadership is change and most change efforts fail--that is, they either are unsuccessful or short-lived. At the end of a career of leadership and change, it has become clear to me that there are three distinct steps in leading lasting change. TDL exists to coach leaders through these steps.
Build The Leader
TDL is not about career coaching. It is about achieving alignment within you and between you and your organization, then changing things for the better. To do this, we start with the leader—we build an authentic leader by getting clear on what matters most. We determine what you will and won’t do and what you believe about core issues. Through a set of weekly “discoveries,” we get clear on how you approach crucial topics and write a set of core beliefs. Once we know explicitly what you believe and what you want to achieve, we build the team.
Build The Team
When we talk about what leaders do, it is called leadership. I find it interesting that there is no correlative to that word for teams. “Teamship” is my word for this phenomenon. It is the team version of “leadership” and is what teams do. It is the crux of section two of our work together. “Team” is so rare that we often misidentify a group as a team. A collection of people working together is not necessarily a team. True teams have distinctive understandings and operational agreements that make them focus and work as a single entity stronger than the individual parts. We collect the right people on the bus and determine what matters most. We coach them in teamship. Once we achieve team, we introduce the most important concept, TEAM ONE. It is up to TEAM ONE to lead the change.
Lead the Change
Change is at the heart of leadership and is different and more difficult than ever before. And more necessary. Unsuccessful change efforts result when the leader and/or the team are not built for it, or when change leadership is misunderstood. All we can surely change is ourselves and when we do that, we change our world. Through the TDL process, we build a self-authorizing, core-centered leader, the team sees real change in that leader and the organization sees real change in the team. This serves as proof of concept for the transformation to come. By building a determined leader who builds a true team that leads substantive change, the transformation is purposeful and lasting.
Go deeper
The idea of the “complete leader”—the person who always knows just what to do and when to do it—is a myth. It clouds the understanding that we are always evolving and, if we are doing it right, always learning. There are not failproof “three-step plans” for this and “exact processes” for that. Leadership is never perfect; we learn more from our failures than our successes; it is art and science. There is not the way—there are ways. TDLs believe it matters less what you decide than that you decide. The TDL coach’s role is not to dispense advice but to “poke the bear” and make certain the leader thinks fully and carefully. And decides. History is written by (and about) the winners. What if Lincoln had lost the Southern States? What if Susan B. Anthony lacked the will to lead toward women's suffrage? What if non-violent protests did not change hearts and MLK never got to share his dream? Would we judge their thoughts and actions differently? Would we still quote them? Would there be books written about their “leadership style”? Leadership is messy. Even the best leaders win some and lose some. Most were shaped by painful mistakes and losses. Too many leadership tomes act as if the method can be dissected, bottled, and distributed with 100% efficacy. It's just not true. For most tenets of leadership, you can find a credible source to spout its opposite. It matters less what we decide than that we decide. "Perfect" is a pipe dream and even if we became “perfect leaders” no one would follow us. People are inspired and even aspire when they see commonality with a leader—when they see humanity and vulnerability. If you were the perfect leader, you would only attract perfect followers—hard to do since they don’t exist either. TDL is not a “how-to manual.” It is not a “surefire” method or a “get smart quick” scheme. It is the beginning of a practice—the exploration of ideas more than an explication of theories. It is designed to provoke thought and rumination, to spark conversation and “coachable moments.” The TDL writings we work through are more workbook than book. It is malleable and configurable to your world. It will bring as much to you as you bring to it. At TDL, our purpose is to build leaders and teams that create positive and effective change for their organizations, and, in so doing, make the world a better place for us all.