WHAT DO WE MEAN BY

Everyone has their own definitions of what is important to them. For us, those two are Love Leadership and Adult Learning Principles.  Below you will find our definitions of both.

How we define Love Leadership 

Love leadership is a leadership philosophy that emphasises leading with compassion, empathy, and a genuine commitment to the well-being and growth of others, and the business. It involves fostering deep, meaningful connections with team members or followers by valuing their humanity and empowering them to reach their full potential whilst also ensuring a duty of care to the growth of the organisation. Love leadership is rooted in the idea that care and emotional intelligence are essential to building trust, inspiring collaboration, and driving sustainable success for people and businesses.

Core Principles of Love Leadership:

  • Empathy: Understanding and respecting the feelings, needs, and perspectives of others. Helping to drive diversity of thought and lived experience to innovate.
  • Authenticity: Being genuine, transparent, and consistent in words and actions as dictated by the situation. This does mean that there are times when a leader cannot be authentic if it will detract from the needs of the people or the business.
  • Compassion: Demonstrating concern for the challenges others face and offering support without judgment. Accepting that we are all human but also that we are all adults and to grow we need to face our own challenges with support.
  • Empowerment: Encouraging personal and professional growth by providing opportunities, trust, and resources to stretch and develop people and the business.
  • Integrity: Acting ethically and in alignment with values that promote fairness, kindness, and respect.

Key Attributes of a Love Leader:

  • Self-awareness: Recognising their own strengths and limitations and how their behaviours affect those around them to lead effectively and impactfully.
  • Emotional intelligence: Managing their own emotions and navigating interpersonal relationships effectively.
  • Visionary focus: Inspiring others through a clear and compelling purpose rooted in service to others and the business.
  • Commitment to service: Viewing leadership as a responsibility to uplift and serve the people they lead. To ensure that developing people both to the needs of the business and the ambitions of the individual.

Benefits of Love Leadership: 

  • Enhances team morale and trust.
  • Increases collaboration and creativity.
  • Builds resilient, motivated, and loyal teams.
  • Fosters a positive and inclusive organisational culture.
  • Encourages sustainable, ethical and faster decision-making.

In essence, love leadership blends emotional intelligence with a commitment to nurturing meaningful, positive relationships, making it a powerful approach in both professional and personal contexts.

Why we focus on how busy adults learn

Andragogical principles, which focus on adult learning, are crucial for supporting adult learners in leadership and management development because they address the unique characteristics, needs, and motivations of adult learners. Hence at Defy Expectations, we embed these principles in all our leadership and management programmes. These principles, developed by Malcolm Knowles, provide a framework to create more effective, engaging, and relevant learning experiences. Here’s why they are important:

  1. Self-Directed Learning
    1. Relevance: Adult learners are often self-motivated and prefer to take responsibility for their learning. Leadership and management development programmes that allow autonomy, such as choosing learning paths or self-paced modules, align with this preference.
    2. Practical Application: Self-directed learning fosters critical thinking, a key skill in leadership, by encouraging learners to independently analyse and solve complex problems.
  2. Experience as a Resource
    1. Leverages Existing Knowledge: Adults bring a wealth of personal and professional experiences to the learning environment. Using these experiences as a foundation for learning helps in contextualising new concepts, especially in leadership and management where prior knowledge is invaluable.
    2. Collaborative Learning: Discussions, case studies, and peer learning activities benefit from the diverse experiences of participants, enriching the development process.
  3. Goal-Oriented Learning
    1. Immediate Applicability: Adult learners are typically goal-driven and seek education that directly supports their career or personal aspirations. Leadership and management training should clearly connect content to real-world outcomes, such as improved decision-making or team performance.
    2. Clear Objectives: Establishing clear goals and outcomes ensures that learners understand how the training will help them in their roles.
  4. Relevance and Problem-Centred Learning
    1. Practical Focus: Adults prefer learning that is directly applicable to their roles. Leadership and management development often involves problem-solving, strategic thinking, and decision-making, which align well with problem-centred learning approaches.
    2. Customisation: Tailoring content to address specific challenges or opportunities in their workplace enhances relevance and engagement.
  5. Intrinsic Motivation
    1. Personal Growth: Adults are often intrinsically motivated to develop leadership and management skills for career advancement, personal fulfilment, or a sense of purpose.
    2. Empowerment: Aligning learning with personal and organisational goals fosters deeper engagement and commitment to the learning process.
  6. Readiness to Learn
    1. Life Stage Alignment: Adults typically pursue leadership and management development at stages in their careers when they are ready to embrace these challenges. Linking content to their current roles and responsibilities maximises their receptivity to learning.
    2. Just-in-Time Learning: Providing learning opportunities that meet immediate workplace needs ensures that the knowledge is relevant and applied promptly.
  7. Collaborative Learning Environment
    1. Mutual Respect: Andragogical approaches respect adult learners as equals and value their contributions, creating a supportive environment for leadership development.
    2. Networking Opportunities: Programmes designed around these principles often foster collaboration, teamwork, and professional relationships, essential for leadership growth.

By aligning leadership and management development programmes with andragogical principles, Defy Expectations creates learning experiences that are more engaging, practical, and impactful, ensuring that participants develop the skills and confidence needed to succeed in leadership roles.

Thanks a lot for the insightful as well as enjoyable sessions. Always interesting to see how we can get carried away when throwing a ball at each other 😉!  

I am very keen to see our team continuing to develop and grow and am convinced that last week gave us a good push in the right direction. I hope and expect that we can keep building on it. 

– Head of product and asset management

The seminar exceeded my expectations (as much as they were already "Defy-ed"). ;-)

It is clear that you both connected at a deep level with the team.  Your leadership, along with the seminar content, were very much appreciated by myself and the team.

Thank you both and I look forward on building on this further together.  Pictures & videos will be forthcoming.

Thank you for the experience in California. It was a pleasure to spend time with you and the rest of the team on such an important topic! I look forward to receiving the upcoming resources and support. Your commitment to helping us become a High Performing Team is greatly appreciated.
 
Head of strategy
"I found our sessions very insightful and productive. I think this was a solid first step to improving our efficiency as a team."
 
- President