The purpose of working with
an adviser in leadership

‘Alas! I am, Lord, powerful and solitary’
extract from Old and Modern Poems by Alfred de Vigny.

Managers, regardless of the size of their institution, find themselves alone or isolated when taking up a function or when confronted with a crisis or routine. Their environment evolves and brings their role, organisation and the durability of their institution into question. Since no manager is omniscient or omnipotent, their vision and understanding of problems can and must be supplemented.

To do so, the manager/leader needs to converse, but with whom? The first reflex may be to talk to someone close. However, that person may lack the detachment and objectivity needed to elicit new ideas, broaden the perspective and deepen it. Moreover, managers often receive projections from colleagues who may lock them into an inappropriate role.

We firmly believe that only a ‘external’ person – not belonging to the institution – can support the manager’s thought process to generate an alternative image of his/her role and institution. This is done by creating a space for the expression of wishes, convictions and values. The role of the adviser in leadership is to raise the following question:
How can a manager conceptualise and better implement the action needed for the transformation of the institution?

Using this approach, the adviser in leadership encourages reflection beyond automatic responses and rational reactions. By linking ideas that appear scattered or unrelated, this synthesis-focused work enables reflection, fosters creativity, facilitates decision-making and promotes efficiency.

Our objective is TransformaCtion®, which we define as the implementation of a transformation process in a concrete and pragmatic way.