Horizontal development

This article was originally published in Portuguese in Líder Magazine, in the spring 2025 issue.

The online version was later published on the magazine’s website. The original article can be consulted here link.

A common purpose, a shared vision and dreams allow us to face change more agilely and effectively, and transform leaders, teams and organisations. They create a connection between minds and hearts that enhances communication, collaboration, commitment and teamwork.

Organisational identity provides a sense of community and inclusion and reinforces a set of norms and values that build bridges and contribute to a feeling of belonging.

In one of the organisations we worked with, values such as transparency, autonomy and trust, defined as essential by their leader, were incorporated into their leadership practices and behaviours. This transformed the culture and made the organisation more efficient and better prepared for the future.

Transparency was incorporated to promote clearer communication and proper management of expectations. The structuring of processes and the delegation of tasks reinforced the value of autonomy. Trust, as a way of looking at others, was expanded and integrated into leadership practices to create psychological safety and develop relationships and collaboration.

Authors such as Amy Edmondson and Timothy Clark, and studies in companies such as Google—project Aristotle—, show that psychological safety is the basis of the most effective teams. Based on the perception of inclusion and security, team commitment increases, collaborators develop their curiosity and enhance innovation, and productivity and performance become sustainable.

Amy Edmondson explains that psychological safety helps people take the interpersonal risks necessary to achieve excellence in a rapidly changing, interdependent world.

in the book The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety, Timothy Clark identifies the following dimensions of psychological safety: safety to feel included, safety to learn, safety to contribute, and safety to question.

Leaders, using emotional, conversational and collaborative intelligence tools, coordinate diverse and inclusive work environments. In this way, they enhance relationships and continuous learning and contribute to the whole being more than the sum of the parts.

Relationships are the context that allows us to successfully face change, and sharing helps to strengthen them. As Richard Boyatzis points out in the book The Science of Change, a shared vision drives hope; In shared compassion we experience solidarity, and through shared energy we vibrate at the same frequency as others.

Through systemic team coaching we work on relationships and connections between people, teams and external stakeholders, building bridges towards a successful organisational culture in contexts of uncertainty and complexity.

Authors: Fátima Ribeiro and Susana Azevedo

This article was originally published in Portuguese in Líder Magazine, in the fall 2024 issue.

The online version was later published on the magazine’s website. The original article can be consulted here link.

In our work as executive and team coaches, and as leadership trainers, we recognise the difficulty leaders have in do more with less and keep their teams motivated in a context of continuous changes, in which commitment decreases and levels of satisfaction increase. burnout.

Leaders suffer tensions at different levels, coming from internal and external stakeholders. They feel pressured to react, to focus on short-term results and to choose the least bad option, instead of acting proactively and working towards the vision of the desired future, developing organisations more focused on human and ecosystem sustainability.

We hear the feeling of disconnection with current leadership, due to the perceived distance between the values communicated and the values present in the daily actions and practices of the organisation.

How to navigate ambiguity, as our caravels navigated previously unknown oceans, and build teams and organisations capable of facing challenges?

Through coaching we work with leaders and teams to identify what they need to change in themselves to promote the transformation of their teams and organisations.

We help them identify the internal and external resources they already have and those they need to develop, to increase their ability to influence and act proactively in creating their vision of the future.

We work on beliefs, emotions, mentalities and relationships, considering a purpose that creates value for both the business and all interested parties.

We create intentional spaces of learning and celebration throughout the development journey, to evaluate progress and recharge the energy that drives change.

We address horizontal development—knowledge and competencies—but also vertical development—being and mental models—considering evolution:

of the «yo» al “us”,
of opportunistic value creation a the creation of value with and for a broad base of stakeholders,
of the time as a “scarce” resource al time as an “opportunity” to do better every day,
of the thinking focused on current performance al strategic thinking in three horizons: the present, the future and what we can start doing tomorrow.

In this development journey, which includes doing, but also thinking and being, we work on skills such as communication, with special attention to active listening, which enhances the commitment and impact of leaders and teams.

We promote psychological safety, trust and the construction of inclusive teams, in which creativity and the implementation of more agile processes and structures are encouraged, and where the whole is more than the sum of the parts.

There is hope and each of us can make a difference in building a promising future for ourselves and for generations to come!

Authors: Fátima Ribeiro and Susana Azevedo

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