How it works
Behaviour follows belief, and beliefs make up your identity
Most leadership development works on the surface. It teaches skills and techniques to treat the symptoms, so the change rarely lasts. Think how often you have left a seminar fired up, and three months later abandoned everything you committed to. That is not a lack of willpower. It is work aimed at the wrong thing.
The foundations
Belief. Identity. Behaviour.
Your goals are set slowly and deliberately. What you do under pressure is run by the fast brain, the automatic, effortless thinking that Daniel Kahneman won a Nobel Prize for describing. Its job is to save energy and keep you safe, so it protects one rule above every new goal: do not break the story of who you already are. That story is your identity.
Willpower can hold a new behaviour for a while, but it is a small reserve, not an engine. When it runs dry, the fast brain pulls you back to who you were.
So I work on the belief instead. When what you believe and what you do no longer match, the brain feels it as discomfort, called cognitive dissonance, and it brings the two back into line. Behaviour follows belief. Change the belief, and the behaviour comes with it, at work and at home, because you are the same person with your family as with your team.
The process
Six months, one step at a time
The Executive Development Programme follows the same sequence for everyone, because each step builds on the last.
A conversation
A brief email, then an hour together to see whether this is right for you.
Thirteen assessments
Worked through one at a time, in your own time. Each takes from fifteen minutes to two hours.
Weekly calls
A one-hour video call every week for eight weeks, to work through what each assessment shows.
Daily practice
Put in place once the picture is complete, to hold the change between sessions.
Monthly calls
Once a month until the six months are up, so the change has time to settle.
What you come away with
A complete and honest picture of you
The space between the assessments matters, because the findings need time to settle. By the end, they build a picture across three things:
How you see yourself
The beliefs you hold about who you are.
What you are really aiming at
Not what you say you want, but what drives you.
How you come across
Including the parts you cannot see for yourself.
From that grounding we build the change.
The result is not a more convincing mask. It is a leader who no longer needs one.
Where these methods come from
Applied, not academic
The techniques come from applied behavioural work, developed where reading a person accurately was the job and being wrong carried a real cost. I trained formally in this work, and I use it for one purpose: to help a leader build an identity they have chosen, rather than keep running one they inherited under pressure.
I spent twenty-seven years at Cisco and finished as an EMEA vice president. Applying this work to myself showed me how it answers the challenges I faced, and that leaders still face. It is not some trendy self-help process promising transformation in ten easy steps. It asks for real candour, and it changes how you see yourself and the people around you.
A boundary I keep. This is developmental work, not therapy and not diagnosis. If something comes up that needs clinical support, I will tell you and suggest you speak to your doctor or a qualified professional.
Start with a conversation
Send me a brief email: what you are trying to achieve, what you see as your challenges, and any questions you have. If I think I can help, we will set up an hour to talk it through. No judgement, no sales pitch and no obligation. If it is not right for you, I will say so.
Or write to me at richard@gain-intelligence.com