The Leadership Accelerator

Days instead of decades, wisdom for a lifetime

BEHAVIOUR BY DESIGN

What if you could create 10 years' worth of leadership experience in a matter of weeks?

  • Are you a People Leader, who needs to develop seriously credible leadership capability at scale, while balancing the investment and delivering business impact?

 

  • Are you a new manager? Thrown in at the deep end? Do you want to build confidence and clarity, and create value fast

 

  • Are you a stuck business owner, who wants to get out of operations and grow your team?

 

  • Have you been on traditional management training but found it didn’t reflect real life?

Andy Currie - Think Distinct Coach
“When commissioning leader and management development  I needed a partner who gets the business agenda and can translate that into defined people characteristics for success.
Andy was instrumental in supporting me to develop and apply distinctly defined solutions.
The outcome delivered success and skillsets that drove performance.
We utilised his analysis to develop our succession planning, career pathways and people outcomes when we changed our organisation's objectives and structure.
 Andy’s facilitation tested, evaluated and supported our organisation's change strategy and delivery".
   Michael Easton, FCIPD, Chief People Officer | HR Director    

Why does traditional leadership training fail?

The Experience Myth:

First of all, many new managers are thrown into the deep end and never receive any training at all. They figure out a rough way to get by in the first few weeks on the job and then reproduce the same problems and issues over and over for years. Over time, they think they have 10 years' of experience, BUT they actually have 1 year's experience 10 times.

If they get traditional training, they usually experience the following disappointments and frustrations:

Vague and hard to apply:

Traditional training talks about leadership but you don't functionally practise it. The result is that delegates complain it feels abstract or vague and hard to apply in real life. It's like teaching people ABOUT driving a car, and never getting to drive, or learning ABOUT swimming without ever getting in the water.

Guru Ideology:

Traditional training usually starts with a prescribed Leadership Theory or Guru Ideology (a style or fad, sometimes drawn from sport or military, or from academic research) that seems exciting at first, but again, doesn't fit with the day-to-day, grounded challenges you might face as a manager on the job.

Out of date:

Traditional leadership training is often based on old assumptions about what leadership actually is. These assumptions were developed in the industrial age or earlier in history, not the digital age, let alone the age of ideas we are currently experiencing. They typically get distracted or confused by creating a false wedge between Leadership and Management, instead of appreciating that modern managers need to lead AS Managers, managing in organisations.

Clunky Bits:

Traditional leadership training often comprises of various bits, tricks and techniques, cobbled together. A dash of neuroscience, mixed with motivational quotes, and common folk wisdom. What's lacking is a coherent, integrated and holistic methodology. The results again are disappointing. They might be fun and interesting but it's not REAL and it DOESN'T WORK. It feels clunky and leaves the manager feeling frustrated and less confident.

Flawed Training Method

The biggest problem with traditional leadership training is that it's based on flawed design methods and a flawed assumption about what training is good for. It emphasises accumulating "bits" and participants are then left to try to figure out how close the reality gap. Even when something sounded like a great idea in the training room, participants struggle to make it work in real life. The problem was that the trainer tried to teach leadership, without teaching participants HOW TO LEARN LEADERSHIP!

How do I know?

Because I've stress-tested traditional leadership training for over 20 years.

Hi! I'm Andy Currie,
Founder & Chief Curiosity Officer at Think Distinct

(I get to give myself that job title)
For over 20 years, I've applied a functional behavioural and psychological approach, to study how managers learn to lead. And for over 20 years I've stress-tested from the inside, the conventional leadership development programmes provided by mainstream brands in the UK and internationally.

Along the way, I've bent and broken conventional wisdom, de-bunked the bunkum, and modelled what really works. The result is a new standard in functional leadership skills development.


The material in this Leadership Accelerator has, until recently, only been available partially, in closed, exclusive programmes. For the first time, I'm excited to open it up, as a completely integrated approach that amplifies the best of what works, in this powerful 8-week programme.

I'm excited that you get to be the leader people deserve, not because "you were born that way", but because effective leadership is genuinely learnable when you use the right approach.

I'm prioritising this special programme because the world desperately needs grounded, ethical, skilled leaders who can critically think through the significant challenges we face.

Leadership is how, together, we scale wisdom and mutual learning.

I can't wait to show YOU, what you and your team are really capable of.
"Through his passion, knowledge, expertise, help, support and patience our staff have developed significantly both as team members and individuals which has been translated into overall business performance.I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending Andy to anyone looking to work with him. "
David Philips
Director and General Manager
"Andy delivered high quality, life changing leadership coaching to me. I have recommended him to several friends and colleagues."
Ann Innes
CEO

Introducing

The Think Distinct Leadership Accelerator

The Leadership Accelerator is a unique, non-traditional, non-theoretical, experiential, Leadership Development programme.

It's designed to accelerate what managers should learn in their first 10 years. It provides reality-tested leadership skills, and the key insights you need so that you can create the conditions of high performance, faster and more comprehensively, through precision learning, functional psychology, and behavioural skills.

Learn how to:

  • Create the conditions of high performance and a place where people love to work
  • Manage yourself through tricky professional situations with confidence
  • Engage people so that they thrive and perform at their best
  • Empower others so that decisions flow to the people best placed to make them
  • Lead through mutual learning and navigate challenging conversations
  • Promote a culture of continuous learning and wellbeing

 

"Leadership is how you scale wisdom and create collective value"

Leadership hierarchy

What’s special about this programme?

This programme is unique in the way that we emphasise learning HOW TO LEARN leadership. The result is that you will feel much more confident and capable because you've tested the application in your personal experience. 

  • You will create decades worth of value and experience through our unique, holistically integrated, Learn How To Learn Leadership acceleration approach. This helps you develop critical thinking, autonomy, and practical agility.
  • Learn a comprehensive Functional Description of leadership. This gives you deeper thinking and awareness and allows you to know precisely what, how, and why to do things, in real situations.
  • Develop Future Fit leadership principles, ditch clunky industrial-age thinking
  • Practice state-of-the-art material, stress-tested over 20 years, for reality and relevance, in top-tier organisations. This makes it universally applicable, regardless of industry or sector.
  • Our Super-natural format teaches you high-performing leadership skills that feel natural and real in your personal style, rather than a prescribed mechanical technique or vague "one size fits all” leadership theory.
  • Baked in applications, so that you can bring to life leadership in your unique career path.
  • Go beyond mundane “common sense” and hyped “guru” advice, to genuinely think differently about real professional scenarios

How do we achieve this?

The Leadership Accelerator brings together a small, focused group of participants in a live, experiential online space, once a week, for 8 -weeks, supported by group coaching, on-demand support, and a peer-to-peer learning community, that continues after the formal learning with a 4th Month Alumni Review, This creates a wrap around learning experience designed to accelerate your learning and give you grounded confidence.

  • Live, immersive experiential web-workshops. NOT a chalk-and-talk, slide-based webinar

  • On-demand Digital Resource Hub - Recordings of all live events, supplementary material, and workbook.

  • Live Group Leadership Coaching

  • Community Membership - Leadership Think Tank Community of Peer Practice
  • BONUS 4th Month Alumni Post Review workshop
  • Improvised session variations and taskwork, recommended reading and supplementary material, that responds with agility, to the unique needs of your group

  • Certification optional

  • Limited group size to optimise focus and learning and we only consider working with the right kinds of people

  • 100% money back guaranteed! If you're not completely satisfied that this programme significantly accelerates your leadership skills, we will return your payments in full.

What’s in the live programme?

Module 1

Your Learning + Leadership Launch. 2 hrs

Set yourself up for success! Learn HOW to LEARN leadership to begin your acceleration through the programme.

  • Personalising your own learning and leadership development
  • Ditch the pseudo-science and rethink what you know about leadership and learning
  • Learn how to learn and practice leadership, to make it real, functional, and practical
  • Getting the most out of the Leadership Accelerator

Module 2

Mindful Self Management and Leadership. Full Day

Most traditional leadership programmes fail because they’re based on outdated, industrial-age thinking. This module brings leadership right up to date and provides a crystal approach for navigating the often confusing and frustrating work of real management. Create the conditions of success and confidence for yourself and others.

  • Integrate Management and Leadership. Create alignment and avoid typical management traps
  • Lead high performance. Transform reactive to proactive systems
  • Co-creating the work: Negotiating, Delegating, and Allocating
  • Creating the Conditions of Motivation: Productivity, Engagement and Wellbeing
  • Mindful Self Management: Developing Self-awareness, learning from whatever happens and making better choices

Module 3

Group Coaching. 2hrs

Facilitated Group coaching with your peers.

Review your application of the first two modules. Make sure you can apply it in real life.

Applications of leadership in groups, high-performing teams, and learning-teams. 

Supportive materials, unique to the group.

Q&A

Module 4

Coaching For Leaders. Full Day

Coaching is often confused with Teaching, Mentoring or merely giving Advice. Coaching as a leader has similar skills to Executive Coaching, Sports Coaching, Life Coaching but is also very different, with unique challenges. This module carves out a clear space for coaching in moments of organisational leadership to promote empowerment, continuous learning and grow your team.

  • What, How and Why Coaching for Leaders
  • Advanced Skills for coaching as a leader
  • Common traps, variations, and applications in coaching
  • Coaching your team
  • Experiencing Coaching moments

Module 5

Group Coaching. 2 hrs

Facilitated group coaching and peer coaching.

More applications tailored to your individual needs. We'll do this by working with your real examples and learning from the examples your peers bring as well as deepening your understanding with Q&A

The aim is to develop your approach to leadership. 

Module 6

Leading Challenging Conversations. Full Day

Most of the work we do as managers is through talk. This module helps you reframe influence and communication to one of mutual learning and helps you navigate the most challenging conversations.

  • The ethics of communication and influence
  • Creating "psychological safety" while leading productivity and change 
  • Promoting mutual learning and resolving challenging conversations
  • What do about bad feelings, politics, and common interpersonal conflict
  • Systemic Feedback, Escalations and Consequences

Module 7

Group Coaching. 2 hrs

Facilitated Group coaching and peer coaching

This module makes sure you have a complete understanding of all of the previously covered material and that you are able to apply it. 

This module takes your learning to a whole new level. With mutual learning in place, you will be able to support each other's learning as peers. This gives you the skills you need to create mutual learning in your workplace,  scale wisdom, and      co-create value.

Module 8

Creating a Culture of Continous Developement, Engagement and Wellbeing. 3 hrs

How to develop ongoing agility and lifelong learning for yourself and others beyond the programme

  • Learning how to continuously learn beyond the programme
  • Integrating meta-skills, leadership, and learning into your day-to-day
  • Promoting a Culture of Productivity, Engagement and Wellbeing
  • Next steps as an Accelerator Alumni

2 x Bonus Modules

Group Coaching. 2 hours

Bonus Module 1, 2 hrs:

This is an extra Facilitated Group coaching session to set you up for developing your peer coaching beyond the taught programme.

This module makes sure you have a complete understanding of all of the previously covered material and that you are able to apply it and sets you up for the beginning of your next step as an Alumni. We explore how to take that next step mindfully so that you can continue your development with care, precision and optimum performance. 

Bonus Module 2, 2hrs: The Alumni Review

This session takes place 4 months after the taught programme. You will have lived experience and peer support in-between times. We bring everyone back together to review progress, share learnings and experiences. You will have a chance to learn from each other as well as fresh input from Andy. Some participants may also use this session as part of their Certification if they take that option. 

How does all this fit together to create a “wrap around” learning experience?

"Andy has a great ability to motivate and build confidence whilst challenging your thought process. I highly recommend him."
Graham Scobie
Training Delivery Manager

How does the Leadership Accelerator fit your needs?

Talk directly with Andy to find out more.

Ready? Let's TalkNot ready to talk? Click here and I'll email you more info.

Common Questions

Who is this Accelerator for?

This level of leadership accelerator covers everything a 1st tier and 2nd tier line manager should ideally know and do.  Although we describe this programme as fundamental, we believe it is more advanced than the typical leadership programmes we have seen. We have found that more experienced management/leaders still benefit from the fundamentals since it's common for them to pick up understandable, but bad habits. Fundamental doesn’t always mean easy, so we always welcome more experienced managers who want to review and benchmark their skills. This programme is designed for new managers, experienced managers with little formal training or very experienced managers, who find traditional training didn’t work for them. More advanced leadership programmes will be available soon and we would expect participants of those to be very familiar with everything in this programme, because we get very advanced, very quickly.

Are the sessions live?

Yes. The live interactive experience is the ideal, leaving lots of room for creativity, innovation and personalisation. All sessions are recorded and available for you to watch again.

What if I miss a session?

You'll NEVER miss a session, don't worry we have you covered. You will have 3 complementary options: All sessions are recorded, they will be yours to catch up. Review and re-watch them at your own pace for things you missed or want to return to. You can also catch up live, in two additional ways. The first, is by attending the module you missed with the next available accelerator cohort. The second is by attending the next available stand alone training on the topic you missed. These options are complementary when you book on the Accelerator Programme. Remember whatever you choose to do, you will never miss a thing. 

How does the Think Tank Community Of Practice Work?

Each progamme cohort will have its own community of practice for the duration of the programme. We show you how to get the most out of that community. Once you have graduated from the accelerator community, you will have an open invitation to join the lifetime membership. You can participate in that for as long as you want, for as much or as little as you like, completely free of charge. You will also be invited to a follow-up review session 4 months after you complete the programme to share your learnings and support your ongoing development.

How does Certification Work?

Certification is optional for people who want to record their achievement and meet the Think Distinct “Learning Leadership” standard. We have a high standard and do things a little differently at Think Distinct. For certification you will be asked to complete an assignment, for which you will create an artifact. That could be a write-up, video, blog, audio recording or powerpoint presentation. To meet certification standards you must complete the initial task, and get feedback from both the facilitator and one of you peers. And lastly you must write up a short summary of what you do with the feedback that demonstrates ongoing continuous learning. You can complete the certification process whenever you like and it's always optional.

How much does the programme cost?

Book a call to get the latest prices. We offer discounts and manageable payment plans for self-funded participants and we discount for multiple corporate bookings.

When is the programme?

We are currently taking bookings for our late August programme intake. All timings will be based on UK time.


Still have questions?

Contact us here

Ready to Accelerate your leadership? 

Book a call to find out more 

Let's Talk

Think this is a future thing?

We only open the Accelerator doors a few times a year. We limit the Accelerator groups to optimise focus and learning. And we only consider working with the right kind of people.
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