At BRS we have been debriefing an increasing amount of Human Synergistics (HS) Leadership Impact (LI) reports.  Coupled with the HS Life Styles Inventory 1 (LSI 1) it is valuable tool for executive leaders as it provides detailed feedback focusing on leadership strategies, leadership impact on others based on the HS Styles and leadership effectiveness.  It has been our experience at BRS that clients are looking to build on the learnings the LSI provides and the LI is a powerful next step.   It provides more detail that is focused on your impact on others in addition to your style.

To learn more detail about the LI tool from a recent blog I wrote, please refer to this article.

With respect to focused leadership development at the executive level, the LI does provide a level of rigor beyond the LSI 2.  Debriefing the LSI 1 in combination with the LI is critical as it provides valuable insights into the causals behind the LI data.  It works through the link between your thinking and your response.  The response in this context is the impact you have on others and whether it is constructive or non-constructive.

Due to the depth of data provided in the report, the challenge through the coaching process is to provide a comprehensive debrief of the report with the participant, and then move through to the action planning stage with the clarity needed for the participant to formulate a development plan.  That is, if the debrief has been successful, the participant will have clarity around the key insights to focus on moving forward that will essentially ‘10x’ her/his constructive impact.  It follows the awareness, acceptance and action approach to the debrief process.

Typically when the action planning stage is reached, a leadership narrative has formed for the participant through key aspects of the LSI 1, and the leadership strategies and impact of the leader.

As with all individual diagnostic tools and individual coaching programs, each session is as unique as the next and it is important to not have preconceived ideas around what is behind the data. Here are some general insights I have gained recently through LI debriefs:

• Patterns between breakout impact profiles and dominant leadership strategies applied within subgroups provide outstanding, specific feedback for the participant.
• The Higher Level Manager Impact Profile is often noticeably different to the other breakout profiles.  This is a great point to explore in the debriefing, and for the participant to explore with their manager.  Is this a case of managing up, spending more time with their manager than other groups or does the manager see the individual in their “best self”?
• Peer breakout profiles tend to demonstrate competitive and approval behaviour.  External validation tends to be present which is a need to provide to your peers that you are good enough
• The link between the Impact Breakout Profiles and LSI 1 Profile is often crucial. For example, is the impact profile for peers/colleagues more defensive than the direct reports profile?  If so, does the LSI data provide insights as to why this might be the case? Are there Approval tendencies evident in the LSI 1 profile that come through strongest in the Peer/Colleague Impact profile? Why might this be and what drives this thinking and response?
• Looking at the collective LI collective data of a team is a powerful process as individuals can gain feedback around their own report, and using the Group Composite data, teams can make informed decisions around the collective impact they want to have.  It also provides a great gap analysis around current impact and the ideal impact that they want to have as a collective and united team.

As a compass, a great overall guiding focus is for leaders to consider is ‘what are the behaviours I want to drive to achieve the best outcomes for organisation?’  In the context of the Human Synergistics model, we know Constructive behaviours achieve the best outcomes all round.  In simple terms, the LI tool provides a snapshot of the current impact of the leader, and a road map to support the leader in continuing to increase the Constructive impact she is having.