Imagine an organisation focused to the point of being idealistic about serving its clients. All of its members (as they don’t define themselves by title, rank nor seniority, but rather as members of a Professional Community) hold a Deep Intent in common: “to enable their clients to achieve the extraordinary in a complex and uncertain world!”

People are invited to join by co-optation and, contrarily to the famous “Hotel California”, they can always leave when they need to, to work on their own passion (Ballet dancing, Classical Music, Walking in the Moroccan Desert, Starting a Milk Farm in Indonesia, Working 3 months/year for Médecins sans Frontières, Mental coaching in Football, Cycling, Maintaining a sort of Zoo at home, Coaching Neurodivergent people, Coaching women entrepreneurs in Africa, organising a yearly TED event, Training for Iron Man, Climbing summits in Nepal, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, etc.) They haven’t made Diversity, an objective. They rather focus on creating a culture of Psychological Safety, Generosity and Inclusion. As a consequence, they are very diverse, not only as far as gender, ethno-cultural background, sexual preference are concerned, but also in terms of Cognitive and Social Diversity. One thing they will realise, with time, is that they all share wounds of the past that they decided to transform into a healthy fuel for their personal energy and for others.

They responded to an invitation, usually issued after an informal and friendly conversation, not after endless rounds of interviews, graphology analysis, psychometrics, nor assessment centres. They mutually chose each other. The organisation does not belong to any shareholder. All are members. There are a few rules which basically mean: We trust you to behave in a way that doesn’t damage our collective reputation and makes our clients proud to have us working for them. The organisation’s aims are about conveying their knowledge as widely as possible and provide them with continuous learning and improvement.

I was lucky enough to receive what some of them came up with, in a recent January… 2nd meeting, when they expressed their Hopes & Dreams for 2024. Here they are. I found them so inspiring that I asked to share them with you:

I’m super motivated to work with our Community this year. I truly believe that we have something special. I love to learn. That’s what keeps me alive. I’m learning with you all and am willing to give also everything I can to you. It’s so good to work with a team that is motivated, a team that gets along, a team that knows how to do this. 

I find amazing to work with a group of people like this. Amazing in the sense that there’s no judgement, there’s nothing we need to prove to each other, there’s nothing such as competition. So the spirit is just very different. If we share the spirit, we can share that with the people we talk to. And I think people understand it. Why is it that we have such good feedback from our clients? They really feel, really enjoy what we do. I also very much believe that we can achieve something. Looking at the reports we have from the program, when you hear people say, well, you’ve changed my life, I find it rewarding and exciting. 

Those are the things that matter to me as well. I mean, the community and the spirit, the values that we all share. It’s the fantastic spirit, energy, and the fun that we had together during our Summer University, those are the things that are increasingly important. It’s the people, the calibre and the diversity of this group that gives me energy and hopefully I will contribute something back to in some ways support everyone else in the community. The dream is that this is the foundation for a sustainable business model that will continue to fuel the community to grow and to have a real impact for clients. 

What I love with you and what I like to do with clients is that I don’t feel like I need a mask. I felt like I could be myself, deeply myself, and share what I love to do with my clients. So my dream will be to keep being a human, even if it’s about work and I think we face challenges that go beyond business today.

My hope is that we can create a space in which we make no calculation. Not the best version of ourselves, but the truly authentic version of ourselves. Having said that, my dream for this year is to do something together, to perform, to be in action. And not to live good moments and to have a lot of fulfilled hopes, etc., but to live all the moments. The good ones, the stressed ones, the bad ones, the ones where we challenge each other, etc. So I think that this challenge will come when we have a major project in which we have to create and profound impact. I’m interested in it because it will confirm that our intuition was good. And that we can overcome together. And if we can overcome, our clients will. So yes, my hope is to live rough moments together… that will challenge us and bond us together. 

I wish us all the energy to thrive and get the right push forward for a really meaningful contribution. I also think it goes beyond money, business, whatever, the challenge is far more complex. And we can’t do it alone. So I’m  happy to be part of a vibrant and very diverse network.

I don’t want to stop as long as I feel I’m contributing to making the world in which I live a better place and that I may influence people. I’ve learned so much over my life. I’ve made every possible mistake in leadership in my various roles in corporates over the years. And I want to give some of that back and try to help people to see that there’s a better way and help both at the individual level and at the wider organisational level people and organisations to flourish.

You might have recognised the organisation in which members express their dreams with such a drive and determination. They are no consultants, nor coaches nor professors. Those people call themselves… Enablers and I am proud to be just one of them and no longer the sole leader.

Regarding the illustrative picture, it is a hyper realist painting made by an extraordinary artist, Paul Roberts who could have been part of our Community as well. First a Rock Star (see his band, Sniff ’n’ the tears, most popular hit) he then became a reputed artist and painter. I bought the copy exposed here as it speaks to me.

May you feel the same about the organisation and the teams you will work with in 2024. I thank you in advance for helping us turn our Hopes & Dreams, into Reality, as, without you, your trust and interest in us, none of these will come true. Our success depends on your decision to choose us.

Enjoy your leadership Journey. May 2024 be a good year to us all!