Leader’s Toolkit

Leader's Edge > Leader’s Toolkit

Welcome to the N Vision Leader’s Toolkit section! Keeping to the spirit of our Statement of Purpose, especially “we motivate and enable people to develop pragmatic mindsets that stimulate change”, here you will find pragmatic tools that may help you clarify your vision and engage the group to release their true potential.

A word of caution here; we’ve used the following interventions with very positive results, however we cannot guarantee your outcomes. From time to time we will describe activities from other sources, and if so, will clearly identify the source. If you are a leader and would like to use one of these learning interventions, please prepare carefully and feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

Additionally, we nvision this section to be organic and dynamic, and continue to grow from your suggestions. We will review your contributions and consider listing them in this leader’s toolkit section! Just send us your experiences and let us know if you’d like us to post them on this site with your name.

Pragmatic Ideas to Bring Your Values Alive (38 KB)
Push or Pull Kick-Off Meetings (36 KB)
Your Leader's Forum (30 KB)
Leader Feedback Processes (36 KB)
Your Expectations Exchange (34 KB)
Capturing Your Leadership or Group Reality (30 KB)

Ensure exercises are clearly explained, and use these “learning interventions” as positive and constructive development opportunities! Review and discussion afterwards are very fruitful, especially when relationship issues and differing perceptions are raised. Plan and practice all unknown aspects of the activities before using them. Logistics, facilitation and especially how you split the group into the numbers of team members per team are factors which have a big effect on how the exercises work and the experience for all.

Additional ideas for leadership development and group dynamics can be found at:

How Leaders Build Value

Using People, Organization, and Other Intangibles to Get Bottom-Line Results
Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood

Team Fitness

A How-To Manual for Building a Winning Work Team
Meg Hartzler and Jane E. Henry, Ph.D.

The World of Moderation

The Neuland Approach: Philosophy and techniques for extraordinary group performance and active learning
Michèle Neuland

Winning Group Results

Techniques for guiding group thought and decision-making processes with the Moderation Method
Karin Klebert, Einhard Schrader and Walter G. Straub

Learning Instruments

The world would be a pretty boring place if everyone were the same. Thank goodness we're all different in some ways. Yet differences can be difficult to talk about constructively. Psychometric instruments are a tool for objectively making differences between individuals transparent. They have a wide application within personal and team development. We prefer to call them "learning instruments" because they help people learn about their strengths and development areas. By providing a framework in which people can learn and talk constructively about similarities and differences, they can significantly improve individual, team and organizational functioning.

Find out more about the following learning instruments:

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator MBTI (33 KB)
STRUCTOGRAM (51 KB)
The Intercultural Conflict Style Inventory (33 KB)
The Intercultural Development Inventory (30 KB)
The Kolb Learning Style Inventory (32 KB)
DiSC (35 KB)
The Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (43 KB)
Leadership Practices Inventory 360° Feedback Tool (33 KB)

Leadership Facts & Figures

In this section, you’ll find new, interesting and useful facts & figures about leadership from latest research on various leadership topics, selected studies and publications. Please note, however, that the facts stated below are not always empirically proven facts.

Building Leaders from Within

Over 75 % of companies indicate building leadership talent is a significant challenge.

Over 75 % of companies indicate building leadership talent is a significant challenge. Companies in the Asia Pacific region are most concerned with their ability to develop future leaders (88 %); followed by Latin America (74 %); Europe, Middle East and Africa, (74 %); Japan (73 %) and North America (69 %). The inability to rotate top leadership talent is also cited as an important issue.

IBM, The Global Human Capital Study, 2008.

Poor Results of Strategy Development

Despite the enormous time and energy that goes into strategy development, many companies have little to show for their efforts.

Despite the enormous time and energy that goes into strategy development, many companies have little to show for their efforts. Indeed, research by the consultancy Marakon Associates suggests that companies on average deliver only 63 % of the financial performance their strategies promise.

Marakon Associates, 2010.

The Enterprise of the Future

The enterprise of the future is home to visionary challengers, with innovation being one of the five factors for future success.

The enterprise of the future is home to visionary challengers, with innovation being one of the five factors for future success. More than 40 % of the CEOs polled strive to gain competitive advantage through enterprise model innovation, which particularly means increasing collaboration. CEOs of outperforming companies embark on even more disruptive and extensive business model innovation than their underperforming peers.

IBM, Global CEO Survey, 2008.