Tool: Leadership Canvas

The Leadership Canvas is made up of 7 sections. Approach each section as a short individual reflection: take a few minutes to consider the question or questions and tap into your past experience, current case for change and future intention. Try to be as honest and true to yourself as possible – remember that it is an exercise for you and not something you will be evaluated on.

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For each section, make some notes. If you’re more of a paper and pen type when it comes to reflection, consider doing the exercise in a notebook or with post-its before documenting it in the digital format. Make the type of notes that are useful for you. For some that might be total stream-of-consciousness where you write down everything that comes to mind. For others it might be to summarize your thinking in short bullets or keywords.

Finally, use the questions as guidance, but feel free to interpret or build on them. Maybe one of the questions makes you think of a related area that is not explicitly part of the canvas. Go there! Ultimately, the aim is to support you to be highly conscious and growth oriented with your leadership as you work to drive transformation.

7 PARTS OF THE LEADERSHIP CANVAS

The canvas is divided into 7 main parts. Each part asks a set of specific questions to help harness your leadership potential.

Leadership for my change case
Fears
Blockers
Behaviours & Mindsets
Boundaries
Strengths
Learning

1 . LEADERSHIP FOR MY CHANGE CASE

Your Change case will require lots of different things, your leadership is one of them. You might have started to think about this already, continue to develop your ideas around the type of leadership needed for your case, and how it relates to you.

Some project may require a visionary leadership, where your job is to inspire and support your team to see potential and possibilities. Other may require being supportive and involving, to create safety and calm in the team. What is needed for you?

REFLECTION:

Summarize your case for change.
Describe the leadership you aim to manifest to drive that change.

DO:

Fill in ‘Leadership for my change case’ in your ‘Leadership Canvas’.

2. FEARS

Being aware of your fears is important when you work with challenging projects, because fears often hold back actions. To recognize how and when they show up is a helpful tool in your progress, and perhaps most importantly, not letting them hinder you on your path forward.

For some, the fear is related to private life: being overwhelmed, not having time for family etc. For others, the fear is related to their career, driving transformation projects etc. It can be high risk work! What are your fears?

REFLECT:

What do I feel scared about in driving this transformation?
What risks do I see?
What are the risks in my professional & private life?

DO:

Fill in ‘Fears’ in your ‘Leadership Canvas’.

3. BLOCKERS

We recommend you read this War of Art summary, if you haven’t already read the book by Stephen Pressfield. Understanding the concept of blockers, and how it shows up for you is very powerful to enable action and progress. There will be plenty of time to explore this theme as we will return to it throughout the program. There is no magic potion for how to act and follow through when blockers (your own or external) appear, but like Pressfield says in the book: “inspiration shows up at 8am sharp”. Finding the time, space and focus to sit down and do the work will take you a long way.

REFLECT:

Where am I feeling blocked?
What support and resources do I need to make some progress?
What tools can I use to unlock myself and others?

DO:

Fill in ‘Blockers’ in your ‘Leadership Canvas’.

4. BEHAVIOURS & MINDSETS

This is a rather big topic, and again - is something we will continue to return to.

Being mindful and consciously choosing behaviors and mindsets is the first step. This awareness will come from exercises and processes that you will go through on your own and likely with the people affected by the change as well.

If you’d like a short read on this topic, we recommend the article "How mindset, habits and behaviours drive change, transformation and progress" written by Hazel Swayne, one of the coaches you'll meet on the program.

If you want to indulge further, we recommend the book The Outward Mindset.

The video below also talks about behaviours and thoughts from a neuroscience perspective.

REFLECT:

Which mindsets and behaviours do I want to embody during this process?
Which come naturally and which do I need to deliberately apply?

DO:

Fill in ‘Behaviours and Mindsets’ in your ‘Leadership Canvas’.

5. BOUNDARIES

The upcoming six weeks will be intense, and just like Hyper Island coworker Bella writes in the article Why driving change is a marathon and not a sprint, identifying and articulating your boundaries will help you stay focused and keep your wellbeing.

So often we get so engaged in the process and cause, that we forget how to stay balanced. This article by Neil Strauss introduces the Ulysses Strategy. The idea is about identifying when we are most susceptible to falling off track (for example, it may be when you’re having the most trouble saying no, staying focused or true to what you believe is right, or dealing with other external forces outside your control).

REFLECT:

What do I need in order to keep my well being sustainable during this process?
What boundaries do I need to set to keep myself well?

DO:

Fill in ‘Boundaries’ in your ‘Leadership Canvas’.

6. STRENGTHS

With change can come the pressure to fix things that are “not working” or “broken”. In this course we certainly address various behaviours, mindsets and systems but it’s important to recognise the strengths we bring to the table as they will undoubtedly be the fuel you use to drive transformation.

We know that you are awesome, so here’s a chance for you to think about what makes you so strong already and how you can use these strengths throughout the process.

REFLECT:

What are my strengths that I can use to drive this change?
How do I behave when I'm at my best?

DO:

Fill in ‘Strengths’ in your ‘Leadership Canvas

7. LEARNING

How can you continuously learn to become stronger and continue to evolve as a leader over time and through change. Setting ourselves up to not only survive but thrive in a context of volatility, uncertainty, change and ambiguity begins with a commitment to lifelong learning.

Watch the short interview below between John Hagel and John Seely Brown as it outlines how the speed at which organisations can facilitate learning will be the determining factor of their future success. shift.

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