What is Leadership Consulting?

What is leadership consulting? Learn how leadership and management consulting can help growing companies build stronger leaders and ensure future success.

Leadership consulting, defined.

For organizations seeking to enhance their leadership capabilities, Boyden Leadership Consulting provides tailored solutions to address complex business challenges. We partner with leaders and their organizations to develop the necessary expertise and empower them to achieve their goals.

Leadership consulting focuses on improving leadership effectiveness and driving organizational success. It involves working with leaders at all levels, including executives, managers, and supervisors, to enhance their leadership skills, make informed decisions, and foster a thriving company culture.

Our team of senior leadership advisors brings extensive management knowledge, experience, and skills in leadership development to support clients in reaching their leadership objectives. We understand that each client and organization is unique, and we customize our services to align with their specific goals and objectives. At Boyden, we assist leaders in acquiring and refining the essential skills, abilities, and behaviors needed to excel in their roles. We act as change facilitators, guiding businesses through transformation efforts and cultivating an adaptable culture.

In short, leadership consulting is a collaborative partnership between senior leadership experts and organizations focused on improving leadership effectiveness, fostering growth, and driving positive change. Our approach emphasizes long-term development and organizational success, encompassing a range of services and techniques tailored to meet each client's specific needs.

How Leadership Consulting can help businesses.

Onboarding and Integration
Assessment and Profiling
Leadership Development
Succession Planning
Change and Cultural Transformation

Onboarding and Integration

We provide personalized onboarding support that prioritizes individual development, pivotal relationships, and team effectiveness. We specialize in assisting businesses seamlessly integrate new leaders into their roles and the organization.

Our tailored onboarding programs from seasoned business consultants enable newly appointed executives to familiarize themselves with the company's culture, values, and objectives. We guide them in navigating the unique dynamics of their new environment, helping them establish strong connections with key stakeholders and teams. Our aim is to ensure a smooth transition and accelerate their ability to make a positive impact.

In addition, we support organizations in gaining a deeper understanding of the new leader's background, skills, and aspirations. We collaborate closely with the leader and the organization to provide ongoing support and guidance throughout the integration process. Our holistic approach helps foster mutual understanding, collaboration, and alignment, resulting in a successful and effective leadership integration.

Assessment and Profiling

We leverage powerful analytics and proprietary tools to support leaders in unlocking their full potential and predicting their future performance. Our comprehensive approach throughly examines and profiles individuals and teams to assess their leadership potential.

Using a range of methodologies, we delve into key aspects such as motivation, decision-making styles, preferences, and competency-based strengths. Our assessment process provides a holistic view of the leader, combining a competency profile with other critical dimensions such as past experience, potential, aspirations, context, preferences, and the business life cycle.

Throughout the assessment process, we compare the candidate's competencies against the desired profile, allowing us to identify areas of alignment and areas for further development. We believe in the importance of providing constructive feedback to candidates, ensuring transparency, and facilitating their growth.

With this comprehensive assessment approach and individualized development plans, we empower leaders to enhance their capabilities, drive organizational success, and realize their full potential.

Leadership Development (including executive and team coaching)

We specialize in co-creating bespoke leadership journeys that are experiential, directly relevant, and tailored to individual needs. Our approach combines hybrid tools and methodologies to deliver impactful leadership development programs.

As leadership consultants, our primary focus is supporting leaders in enhancing their abilities, competencies, and behaviors. We collaborate closely with them to design and deliver customized leadership development initiatives that align with their organizational goals. Fundamental principles that disrupt and transform behaviors in leaders guide our programs.

Within our ecosystem, we have a team of experienced business consultants, executive coaches, and team coaches who focus on developing individuals, peers, and teams of leaders in alignment with the company's vision, strategy, culture, and goals. These coaches work closely with executives to enhance their leadership style, overcome challenges, and unlock their full potential. Through personalized one-on-one coaching sessions, leaders gain self-awareness, develop crucial leadership skills, and align their personal and corporate goals.

Succession Planning

We specialize in comprehensive succession planning strategies that focus on developing a robust pool of successors and identifying the most suitable candidates for key roles within your organization. As leadership specialists, we understand the importance of effective succession planning and its impact on long-term organizational success.

Our approach to succession planning goes beyond simply creating a plan. We believe it is an opportunity for individual and organizational development. By leveraging Boyden's extensive market and global leadership data, we provide a holistic view of future role requirements and talent needs.

To assess talent readiness, we utilize a proven, research-based process that provides a complete picture of your talent pool and highlights the best ways to develop and prepare individuals for future leadership roles.

Our succession planning services aim to nurture and develop their capabilities while identifying potential successors. We work closely with organizations to design and implement targeted development programs that address identified gaps and accelerate the growth of high-potential individuals.

Change and Cultural Transformation

We develop customized cultural transformation approaches tailored to your organization's strategic objectives and values. As leadership specialists, we understand the importance of leveraging analytics, change management strategies, and people-focused approaches to ensure active participation, motivation, and enthusiasm throughout the transformation process.

In today's fast-paced and customer-focused world, companies must embrace data-driven insights to inform their transformation efforts. Our approach incorporates robust analytics to assess the current state of your organization's culture and identify areas for improvement. This data-driven approach allows us to design targeted interventions that address specific challenges and capitalize on opportunities for growth.

We emphasize people-focused approaches to inspire and motivate individuals throughout the transformation journey. Our methodologies include fostering a culture of collaboration, providing leadership development opportunities, and creating meaningful leader and employee experiences.

We help organizations navigate the complexities of cultural transformation by ensuring a collective commitment to the process and creating an environment where everyone is eager to contribute to the organization's success.

How to know if your company can benefit from leadership consulting

Organizations that prioritize leadership development efforts are poised to thrive in an ever-changing environment. They foster innovation, build resilient teams, and gain a distinct competitive advantage. During times of continual turbulence and uncertainty, strong leadership becomes a vital driver of organizational success.

Here are some examples of how organizations can benefit from leadership consulting in specific scenarios:

Onboarding and Integration: Tailored integration programs for new leaders to improve their onboarding experience and accelerate productivity in new roles.
Assessment and Profiling: Evaluating the executive team of a potential acquisition during due diligence to inform restructuring decisions. Supporting the board and executive team in addressing organization and cultural transformation issues. Assessing and developing leadership profiles and skills. Conducting post-merger assessments to ensure smooth integration.
Leadership Development: Developing a team of leaders equipped with the skills and capabilities needed to execute a new strategy aligned with market needs and trends. Building an effective and high-performing leadership team.
Executive and Team Coaching: Business consultants support new leaders in building core pivotal relationships for success. Developing new leadership skills. Resolving conflict within leadership teams. Improving key relationships within the executive team.
Succession Planning: Establishing a succession plan for key leadership positions. Increasing functional mobility in leadership roles. Assessing, identifying, and developing a pool of high-potential leaders within the organization.
Change and Cultural Transformation: Assisting organizations in managing and implementing major changes, such as digital transformation or restructuring initiatives. Supporting during mergers and acquisitions to facilitate smooth integration and cultural alignment. Partnering with organizations to revitalize their culture and renew their strategic direction. Assisting organizations in developing agility and adaptability to thrive in a rapidly changing business environment.

Leadership consulting delivers tangible benefits across various areas, enabling organizations to navigate challenges, develop effective leaders, and create a thriving and adaptive culture.

Trends in the workplace

Leadership consulting is becoming increasingly crucial in today's dynamic business landscape. Our 2023 Boyden Leadership Trends Report highlights key insights that shed light on the evolving leadership landscape and the need for solid management and leadership skills. Organizations can thrive in an uncertain and ever-changing world by understanding and adapting to these trends.

The report analyzes seven critical leadership trends, offering solution-oriented insights and strategies to address them:

Humanism is the heart of leadership: Leaders prioritize the well-being and professional development of individuals, promoting fairness, transparency, and authenticity. Creating a human-centered workplace that leverages people's strengths and fosters a safe environment is key.
Working with flexibility, staying connected: The ability to choose one's work style has become a priority for employees, and leaders recognize the importance of providing flexibility while maintaining a sense of belonging. Strategies such as enabling a freedom-centric culture can help achieve flexibility at work.
More agility = more responsiveness: Leaders understand the value of embracing change and developing learning agility. Agility and adaptability contribute to resilient workforces, enabling organizations to navigate complexity and remain competitive.
Focus on high value-added learning: Leaders recognize the need to adjust their approaches based on diverse working styles, values, and beliefs. Personalized development initiatives that increase self-awareness and impact learning are highly valued.
Being in sync with technology and innovation: As technology continues to shape the business landscape, leaders and teams must become more digitally savvy. Strategies such as digital-enabled processes, communication tools, and digital skills training help organizations stay relevant.
High time for responsible and transparent businesses: Responsible business practices are gaining importance, with leaders focusing on mitigating negative impacts and aligning with societal interests. Connecting employees with the organization's purpose is seen as a crucial strategy.
Shifting from diverse to inclusive leadership teams: Diversity and inclusion remain essential, as organizations that embrace these initiatives tend to be more successful. Overcoming challenges such as lack of urgency and sponsorship from top leadership is key to creating and sustaining better performance.

To succeed in this evolving landscape, leaders must embrace a more human leadership and management style, demonstrating care, respect, and support for their teams. Flexibility and digitalization should balance with a sense of belonging and human connectedness. Leaders can create a culture that enhances engagement, productivity, and well-being by tailoring work routines, promoting individual preferences, fostering inclusion, and encouraging productive collaboration.

Leaders hold the power to drive change and make actionable decisions that shape organizations, lives, and society. Building strong relationships between leaders and employees is non-negotiable and amplifies the importance of leadership in the transformative landscape of today.

By leveraging the insights and management strategies provided in our report, organizations can adapt to the latest global leadership trends, optimize their leadership capabilities, and navigate the challenges and opportunities of the future.

Starting the conversation

Navigating complex business challenges requires innovative leadership solutions.

At Boyden, we understand the intricacies of today's business landscape, including business transformation, the future of work and workplace, diversity, equity and inclusion, impact and purpose, and business and enterprise agility.

With a global network of experienced industry and leadership specialists, we offer comprehensive services to address your organization's most pressing issues.

Drawing on our extensive executive search expertise and global presence, we provide tailored solutions, proprietary knowledge, and thought leadership to empower our clients.

Our focus extends throughout the entire leadership cycle, encompassing the challenges of an organization and it needs, including solutions from their leaders.

We are committed to helping organizations and leaders thrive in a rapidly evolving business environment by providing innovative strategies and insights.

How we differentiate ourselves:

Senior consultants that are experts in leadership and organizational transformation, especially in highly complex and competitive environments.
Knowledge accumulated through extensive international experience in the assessment and development of leaders.
Proprietary tools developed from research and empirical evidence that reflect key global leadership trends and best practices.
Psychometric tests designed to identify the diversity of leadership profiles and their potential for each phase of an organization's life cycle.
Easy and fast access to digital solutions that support assessment and leadership development processes.

Partner with us to unlock your organization's full potential and embrace the opportunities of tomorrow.