Leading with EDGE: A Transformative Leadership Story
As part of our Actif4 Leadership Programme (A4LP) we focus on highly effective leadership. The programme is built on four cornerstones for highly effective leadership – we call these EDGE:
Energy
Building and sustaining energy – yours and your colleagues.
Delivery
Bringing it together wisely with the team to bring about success
Grit
Having the resilience and perseverance to lead well through the hard times
Engagement
Creating interconnected trust across the relationships that matter most in your work
Here’s a real-life example of what it means to lead with EDGE.
One of our Actif4 Leadership Programme graduates, who leads a crucial team on a multi-company construction project of national significance, faced a serious challenge. The quality of their work slipped, leaving the client dissatisfied and demanding a redo. This threatened the project timeline, strained the budget, and hit team morale hard.
But instead of placing blame, the team leader took a step back and reflected on his own role in the problem. Using learnings from the Actif4 Programme, he reset the situation and gathered his team to reconnect with the bigger picture. Connecting with the truth and their responsibility to get it right galvanised the team, they completed the rework to a very high standard, engaging the client at every step. The outcome? A satisfied client, a revitalised team, and sustained performance.
The A4LP – a journey to highly effective leadership and a Honours-degree level award
Our 9-month journey to highly effective leadership is designed for both seasoned leaders and those transitioning into leadership roles. The Actif4 Leadership Programme equips you with a flexible framework tailored to your growth and the needs of your team.
We challenge and help you to find the right blend for your leadership growth of these broad “learning outcomes”:
- applying what you learn while on the programme
- demonstrating its impact
- undertaking whatever behavioural growth you will benefit from to be a highly effective leader.
You’ll be assessed based on key learning outcomes, with continuous feedback and guidance. Those who pass are awarded the Honours-degree level Actif4 Leadership Diploma, which is independently accredited by a Scottish Government agency.
It works—just ask our graduates who are driving real change worldwide. Ready to lead with EDGE? Join us on this transformative journey.
“The biggest, most important aspect for me was emotional intelligence… That was a real big positive”
“It’s having the purposeful time to identify the things in yourself you need to improve on.”
“We’re not always the finished article. We all have opportunities for improvement.”
We provide tools from leading experts, helping you tailor them to your unique situation. Throughout the programme, you’ll have a coach and participate in workshops focused on the EDGE cornerstones, Emotional Intelligence, and Mental Wellbeing.
In our Open Programmes, you’ll exchange insights with peers across various sectors, discovering shared challenges and forging a stronger leadership path together.
Why EDGE matters
Consider this extract from President John F Kennedy’s great 1962 speech, announcing the USA’s mission to land on the moon… “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organise and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.”
While that’s at a high level of leadership, so much of it is in common with challenges that we face with in our work on planet Earth.
Consider a challenge you’re currently facing or have faced in the past—one that’s tough but crucial, where you know the responsibility to lead falls squarely on your shoulders. It could be anything from expanding your business, driving transformative change, or, as we’ve discussed in this blog, rescuing a project that’s off course.
In these situations, just like JFK’s Moon mission, leading with EDGE matters. Here’s why, along with how we integrate the A4LP principles into real-world scenarios for our delegates:
Energy
Be clear on a meaningful goal. As the leader, you check your own energy first, using A4LP tools to be aware of how you set yourself up and then to do that in an effective, lasting way. Work to build the energy of the other people involved, with a clear shared sense of why we do what we do. Keep at it to ensure this energy lasts and stands the tests of day-to-day.
Delivery
Take accountability for getting to our shared goal. Adapting the A4LP’s framework for delivery, build awareness of the wider context and work with the team to develop and pursue the plan to get there successfully.
Grit
Have a tool kit for travelling successfully along an often-rocky road. For example dealing constructively with the push-back that many people make when change is needed of the sort that will feel tough for quite some time before it feels better. There is much in here from the A4LP for managing moods and mindset (yours and others’), while finding a way to see it through.
Engagement
Work hard on the key relationships for success. The A4LP’s focus on these and on Interconnected Trust are about stretching across the internal and external boundaries to work in a highly effective way with the people / stakeholders / organisations upon whom success depends.