DierkeHouben Leadership Partners
Growing Conscious Leaders for the Next-Gen C-suite

As we live in a world that is accelerated by change and driven by innovation, the reality becomes more and more unpredictable. The facets of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity— or VUCA—are inherent in today’s business world. A precise testament to this is the current worldwide COVID-19 crisis, which speaks for itself. And, this ‘new normal’ is profoundly changing how organisations conduct business, where leadership is increasingly taking precedence over management. It is becoming evident that only a leader with the right vision, clarity, and self-awareness can be the positive growth catalyst for organisations struggling to maintain their course in these uncharted waters of change. But the truth is that a conscious next-gen C-level leader is a rare breed. Not because most managers are incapable of leadership, but they are not fully trained to become the imperative pillars of an organisation.

In such times, DierkeHouben Leadership Partners’ value proposition is pretty straightforward. The premier leadership development and coaching company aims at helping C-suite executives and top talents of large and mid-sized organisations across industries to grow into sovereign‘conscious leaders.’

But why are DierkeHouben’s solutions exclusively designed for the senior leaders, one may ask?

As the trailblazers in the leadership development arena, Dr. Kai Dierke and Dr. Anke Houben—the foundational pillars of DierkeHouben—has a fitting response to the question.“It all starts at the top. It’s the top leadership group that defines and strengthens the root of an organisation, and trickles down its sway to reshape the company’s collaboration culture.” Most notably, this pyramidal leadership principle has been the secret behind DierkeHouben’s own astounding success over the years.

Today, backed by the two decades of business and leadership coaching experience of both the leaders, DierkeHouben focuses on shaping C-level leaders of tomorrow who embody an ambitious professional will, personal humbleness, and a willingness to transform themselves so that they can sustain their organisations in times of disruption.

However, leading in an uncertain and chaotic world is easier said than done. It requires top-level managers to have a strong inner compass, facilitating them to adapt quickly to rapidly changing contexts. And, DierkeHouben is of the belief that a leader can seamlessly achieve this when they act as a team player and not a typical heroic manager. “The CEO of the future is a ‘Chief Enabling Officer’ rather than a ‘Chief Executive Officer,’” quips Dr. Dierke. Expanding on this thought, Dr. Houben states, “Outstanding leadership is not a ‘technical’ managerial capability. It is a highly ‘adaptive’ leadership capacity. Thus, it requires a deep awareness of the personal, interpersonal, and organisational dynamics in order to respond to what matters most.”

That being said, one of the primary reasons why DierkeHouben is considered a cut above the rest in the leadership realm today is because of its unique operational approach. In times when most of their industry peers opt for pureplay digital learning solutions, Dr. Dierke and Dr. Houben advocate that a blended model is more effective and sustainable. “Leadership development must go beyond technical skill development to adaptive mindset transformation,” explains Dr. Houben. To that end, the company’s unique blended model comprises three core building blocks: (1) in-depth face-to-face learning module(s) in a small group setting, followed by (2) a three-month proprietary high-intensity digital learning programme, and (3) individual coaching (onsite and offsite). What’s significant to note here is that DierkeHouben understands that C-suite faces challenges that are highly complex and diverse, and so the company does not subscribe to a single method or a particular school of thought. Instead, they are flexible and translate their broad portfolio of the leadership thinking into tailored programmes that can create more practical impact.

To better understand DierkeHouben’s state-of-the-art offering, the case study of how one of the largest European IT services companies spurred cultural transformation with DierkeHouben’s corporate leadership programmes is a befitting example. The challenge at hand was to create a unifying management team experience, overcome unproductive behaviour dynamics across the organisation, and above all, enable the individual leader’s self-reflection and growth. As a solution, DierkeHouben designed a corporate ‘Leadership Growth Camp’ for the client’s top 100 managers in cohorts of about 15 managers in three phases. Phase I included diagnosing the leader’s strengths and growth areas based on existing inhouse 360-degree feedback. Phase II included ‘reflecting and collaborating jointly’ in a 3-day offsite session with a diversified, experiential learning environment. Phase III revolved around anchoring new behaviours in peer work by supporting the leaders in defining the personal development trajectory for personal growth. What sums up the success of the programme was the feedback from a participant who said, “This is the most effective culture-changing, personal leadership training I have ever experienced throughout my 17 years in this company.”

Basking in the glory of many more of such successes, in 2021, DierkeHouben intends to expand their corporate Leadership Growth Camp experience into two open-enrollment programmes: “Anchoring C-Leadership,” for managers who have been in the C-suite position for one year or less; and “Renewing Leadership,” for middle managers and talents to step up for senior roles. These in-depth leadership programmes will start with a catalysing face-to-face learning module, followed by the proprietary DierkeHouben digital learning programme based on the Torch-Everwise platform and supported by individual coaching onsite and offsite for three to five months. “Our experience shows that the digital learning phase with daily input and the personal coaching is breakthrough factors to crossing the knowing vs. doing gap and ingraining new behaviours among potential leaders,” states Dr. Dierke. And that has been and will remain DierkeHouben’s compass to continually steer motivated individuals towards becoming conscious leaders.

Coping with Corona through Leadership’s Emotional Intelligence
Amidst this extremely unprecedented time of the COVID-19 pandemic, today, every leader is faced with a paradox of maintaining social distancing but emotional closeness with their employees. “Leadership is much like a contact sport, and extending a contact sport to a digital environment is extremely tough,” says Dr. Dierke. On that front, to make leadership more meaningful and contextual in the current scenario, Dr. Dierke and Dr. Houben notes that the leaders have to be more engaging with their teams not only to discuss about the professional agenda but also converse more intimately and connect on a deeper level. Alongside this, Dr. Dierke and Dr. Houben also point out how the new remote leadership trends are setting the stage for the future of leadership as well—for the post-COVID-19 era. Most offices in Europe have moved from their traditional work setup to a home office setting. To seamlessly traverse through this shift, Dr. Dierke and Dr. Houben suggest, “The key is to have a result-oriented perspective on leadership rather than the antiquated inputoriented approach. The other important aspect is to build more trust in your employees” This way, leaders can efficiently come into grips with the physical distance of managing the team and not overburden the employees with additional work.