DISCUSSIONS OF THE EMERGING PARADIGM

February 12, 2008 – Jim Selman participated with 22 other transformational leaders and officials in the United Nations to begin a dialogue to distinguish the emerging paradigm and how transformational leadership principles might offer a breakthrough in empowering developing nations and assisting leaders in those countries to undertake full-spectrum responses to their most pressing issues and intractable problems.

HISTORIC COACHING SUMMIT

August 12, 2006 – Jim Selman participated this week in a groundbreaking coaching conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. Forty-three key thought leaders from 14 nations gathered to discuss the current challenges facing the coaching industry and to invent new possibilities for moving the profession forward. Attendees were carefully selected based on several criteria, including their background, culture, specialty, affiliations and geographic location.

“It is absolutely essential in these times of increasing uncertainty and rapid, constant change for us to effectively develop and empower more people to become leaders,” stated Selman. “This seminal event was a first opportunity for us to collectively look at the opportunities available to the coaching profession given the current state of the world. Conversations like these are critical not only for the evolution of our industry, but also for the future of our clients, our societies and our environment.”

PASSING THE TORCH

Accelerating the Development of High-Potential Leaders

Organizations today face increasing uncertainty about their future. All aspects of business operations—from access to resources and new technologies to customer relationships and investor confidence—are influenced by constantly changing economic, social, environmental and political realities. Traditional planning strategies and conventional wisdom, both of which project the past into the future, are of only limited use when our collective future is increasingly unknowable. Thriving in this unknown future will require extraordinary leadership.

What’s needed now—more than ever before—is for companies to develop and empower people as leaders who can create the future, rather than simply ‘cope’ with the realities of today. What’s needed is a generation of leaders who can create possibilities where none have existed before, who can inspire and empower others in action and consistently achieve breakthroughs.

As the Boomer generation begins to retire, the pool of leaders is falling short of the demand for effective leadership. Companies must look at ways of fast-tracking younger generations to assume responsibilities for which their predecessors had years of experience. Preparing someone to lead is not simply a matter of ‘learning the ropes’, transferring information about best practices, and embracing the corporate history.

Tomorrow’s leaders won’t succeed because of their ‘knowledge’. They will succeed by being a stand for the future they envision. They will demonstrate the key principles of responsible leadership: good judgment, open-mindedness, inclusiveness, long-term thinking, and an unshakable commitment to authentic communication, empowerment, innovation and collaboration. And they will inspire individuals to make extraordinary commitments, and then lead them to achieve breakthroughs.

The Passing the Torch program is designed to develop promising executives and managers as leaders who can embody and teach the key principles of responsible leadership to others. The program moves beyond mentoring (which is usually unstructured or based on transferring information and ‘tips’) to engage senior leaders in transferring their perspectives, insights and competencies—the best of ‘who they are’—to their younger colleagues through coaching and collaboration. Younger executives and managers focus not on gathering knowledge, but on mastering ‘being a leader of leaders’ in this increasingly complex, globally connected world.

View the complete Passing the Torch program details and curriculum online.