Imagine you're going away for a week on executive training, or on holiday (a crazy idea, I admit) – what would happen without you? 

Let me guess...

Are you inundated with emails? Are you being contacted morning, noon and night?

And how is your executive committee performing? Are decisions still being made without you? Do priorities remain clear? Is your executive committee staying on track?

The answer measures your collective leadership.

In many organisations, leadership is concentrated at the top. A few leaders carry the vision, the decisions and the energy.

Result: overburdened managers, slow decision-making, teams that wait rather than act.

Leadership must operate differently: as a network. Distributed. Structured. Practised at all levels.

Here's how I implement it practically within the organisations I support.

The 3 Ingredients of Large-Scale Leadership

I'm relying on a very simple model, inspired by Centre for Creative Leadership.

Three levers structure collective leadership: Direction – Alignment – Engagement

When these three elements work together, leadership is naturally embodied within the organisation.

1. The management

The first question is simple: where are we going together?

In most companies, a vision exists. But it is often too abstract to guide action.

What I ask of leaders:

• Summarise the vision in 30 seconds maximum.
• Define 3 to 5 strategic priorities
• Clarify what will not be done

Next, we do some very concrete work:

• Translate the strategy into visible quarterly priorities
• Link each project to a clear priority
• Repeat the direction much more often than necessary

When the direction is clear, teams make decisions without systematically escalating to the top.

2. Alignment

This is where organisations most often fall down.

We have a vision… but:

• The roles are unclear
• the decisions are not clearly allocated
• Silos slow everything down

Alignment is about transforming strategy into operational mechanics.

Concretely, I'm working with the teams on four points:

• Clarify who decides what
• Define responsibilities by level
• Installing short decision rituals
• Remove organisational duplicates

A simple test: if a decision takes more than two meetings, alignment needs to be revisited.

When the alignment is good, meetings are for deciding. Not clarifying.

3. Commitment

Last question: who genuinely feels responsible for the results?

We develop engagement with real responsibilities, not just rhetoric.

In the organisations I support, we work on these practices:

• Delegate real decisions, not just tasks
• Encourage constructive disagreement in meetings
• Hold managers accountable for their team's results
• Train managers to develop their talents

Ask yourself this question: do you have firefighter managers or developer managers?

The ROI on employee development is no longer in doubt.

The practices I implement with the leadership teams

When I support an organisation, we generally work in four stages.

1. Diagnose leadership maturity

We primarily evaluate:

• the level of clarity and strategic and executive alignment 
• Team dynamics and the degree of engagement

This allows us to identify strengths and real obstacles, which are often different than imagined.

2. Clarify what “managing well” means

Every organisation must define its own leadership.

We clarify:

• expected behaviours 
• decision-making principles
• The role of leaders in team development

Leadership is becoming explicit, not implicit.

3. Working with key teams

The transformation always begins with the apex.

With the steering committees, we are working on, among other things:

• Trust 
• Constructive conflict
• Clear commitment to decisions
• Mutual accountability
• Results-oriented

Leaders stop carrying the organisation alone. They learn to grow other leaders.

4. Anchor leadership in the system

For leadership to endure, it must live within the organisation's mechanisms.

We integrate it into:

• Managerial rituals
• HR processes
• Decision support systems
• Manager development programmes

This is where leadership becomes truly collective.

The signals that leadership is diffusing

You know it works when:

• Meetings are for making decisions
• Disagreements become productive
• The priorities are understood without being repeated
• Managers develop their teams
• Results become collective

At this point, a profound change is observed. The organisation no longer relies on a few visible leaders. It functions like an ecosystem.

A bit like a forest: the trees are visible... but the real strength comes from the root network.

If you lead an organisation or function, the real question becomes: is leadership held by a few... or is it shared and embodied at all levels?

This is generally the first point we explore together at the start of a coaching relationship.

If you lead an organisation or function, the real question becomes: is leadership held by a few... or is it shared and embodied at all levels?

This is generally the first point we explore together at the start of a coaching relationship.

What if you took stock?

I propose to you (CEO, HR director, and members of leadership teams) an initial diagnosis to identify:

• Your level of leadership, alignment, and engagement
• The maturity of your teams
• Your priority levers for transformation

Contact me To talk about it!