Keith is a keynote presenter with international experience, combining gently rebuking humour with deep insights and global business research. His client list speaks for itself, from the King of Sweden to multinational corporates and business schools. You can see more details at TomorrowToday’s website.

Keith uses the generic frameworks below as a basis for developing a customised presentation for your event. Please select from the list, and then contact him to discuss how it can be applied to your specific environment.

Headline Summaries:

Invitational Leadership – How to Lead in the New World of Work

• 1. What is the Leader’s context?
  2. What is the Leader’s task?
  3. What is the Leader’s metaphor?
  4. What does the Leader measure?
  5. What is the Leader’s challenge?

Invitational Leadership is a model drawn for Invitational Theory, originally located within an educational setting. It offers a vibrant and practical framework in which to understand, practice and develop leadership at both a personal and corporate level. Keith has taught Invitational Leadership at various local and international business schools including the Asia Pacific Leadership Program (Hawaii), Tsukuba University MBA program (Tokyo) and GIBS (as part of Strategic Leadership modules). Invitational Leadership synchronises well with Ron Heifitz’s (Harvard) Adaptive Leadership model.

The presentation of Invitational Leadership poses the question: “How can I be a great Leader?”

In order to answer this question Invitational leadership then explores 5 key questions:

Each of these five areas are then looked at through two specific lenses: The past 100 years – what got us here? The emerging future – where are we heading?

(The Chinese believe that the further one ‘looks back’ the further one can ‘look forwards’). Knowing ‘where we have come from’ in the leadership context is important to understanding where it is we need to go, and how best to get there.

A critical tipping point in the presentation is the realisation that order is possible without control and that the new (scary) reality is that leaders are not ‘in control’.

The presentation explores the new emerging world of work in which leaders need to lead as well as offering insights concerning the disruptive change drivers underpinning this change.

Roots & Routes: Exploring Personality Difference & Why it Matters

• • Understanding Leadership Styles & Leadership Development
  • Building Effective Teams
  • Enhancing Sales Performance
  • Personal Development / Coaching / Mentoring / Managing / Supervising
  • Parenting

You lead out of who you are. Authentic leadership is always about character rather than personality and the context for leadership has shifted in the connected and globalized world in which leaders lead. To exercise leadership you need to build a systematic framework that will yield a bigger picture and give you access to a larger field of understanding and action. This starts with personal mastery. It starts with knowing yourself and building on one’s strengths.

Roots & Routes uses the Ennegaram as a framework. This framework, based on ancient wisdom, provides profound insights into why we act the we do and therefore offers sharp insights as to ‘who we are’ and plots a clear path as to what we need to do next or, how best to go about personal development (mastery). It invites deep personal discovery and has profound applications when it comes to regulating all relationships – both personal and professional. Roots & Routes offers a framework that one can then continue to employ throughout life’s journey inviting ongoing discovery and growth.

Roots & Routes is applicable to:

Rethinking Strategy: Back to the Future

Thinking ahead, and knowing how to think ahead, is paramount to thriving in the new world of work. The global recession has left everyone, everywhere with a ‘new normal’ to negotiate and navigate. This means that the strategy and tactics we used to get us here will have to change if we want to get to where we wish to be. It means knowing what to keep, what to review and what to jettison. In After Shock the disruptive change drivers were identified, helping us understand why things are the way they are. The challenge now is, ‘what to do about it?’ In squaring up to this challenge leaders need to rethink two important areas: Leadership itself and Strategy. This presentation traces the evolution of strategy to where it is today and then illuminates the way forward. It shows how strategic thinking is everybody’s responsibility and how best to get the entire organization thinking strategically. It is an ideal follow-up to TomorrowToday’s presentation After Shock.

Engaging in the what and how of ‘Strategic Planning’ has been part of every business school curriculum for the past several decades. Within this context we have all been taught Porter’s model of formulating strategy and it has been a served as a reliable guide as to how strategy ‘gets done’. As a result sophisticated methodologies around data capturing, analyzing that data, execution and implementation have all been centre stage to our understanding of ‘strategic planning’. The process has consumed vast amounts of time and budget. But, the reality is that little of what we say we need to do, gets done. (The statistics suggest that less than 10% of strategic plans get implemented). So why is this?

Planning for the future in a world that is constantly changing makes little sense. Rethinking Strategy: Back to the Future traces the roots behind ‘why we plan the way we do’ when it comes to strategy and then proposes another (smarter) way forward. The journey into the future is illuminated by an understanding of the past. Using Jomini’s (a Prussian general during the time of Napoleon) model of strategy we develop an understanding of the need for ‘strategic intuition’ – what this is and how to develop it. For many, the term ‘strategic intuition’ constitutes an oxymoron and as such makes little sense – especially in the light of what we have always been taught. However, using compelling case studies and a sound framework, strategic intuition is investigated in a manner that brings together the best of strategic theory and practice. Given that everyone can – and should be – involved in thinking strategically, Rethinking Strategy: back to the Future becomes a relevant presentation for the entire organization but is highly suitable for strategic conferences and executive / leadership break-a-ways as well as the boardroom.

Everything I know About Leadership I Learnt From the Kids

Based on my book by the same title, this presentation explores relevant leadership principles and lessons shaped and wrapped in everyday family stories. The stories are told in a humorous and engaging manner, yet are designed to provide both insight and challenge. Using the Talk Story framework and methodology the session can be shaped into a participative workshop that allows participants to explore their own stories and allows for greater personal connections so important in the workplace and amongst teams. The learnings that emerge from the session are likely to both surprise and make a difference at several levels within the work environment. Stories connect people everywhere and I have found this to be true no matter what the context and location in which Talk Story has been employed.

Man of Destiny: The South African Story

The emergence of South Africa, the Rainbow Nation, into a fully fledged democracy has been described by some as a, ‘modern day miracle’. Certainly it is a remarkable story, one that offers insightful lessons in personal and collective leadership. This presentation has been very well received by a variety of audiences outside of South Africa having been a permanent keynote address at the Asia Pacific Leadership Program in Hawaii for the past eight years. Man of Destiny: The South African Story weaves together multiple narratives including both the historical and personal and offers inspirational insights into the life and leadership of Nelson Mandela. You’ll laugh, you may cry but one thing is for certain – you will leave deeply challenged.

Tuning the Organization – 9 Things That Need Balancing

Getting the organizational tone right is no easy task. In a world of change, paradox and connection, building organizations is tough. This presentation tracks 9 significant forces that will need to be balanced if you are to compete on the global stage. Internationally researched and presented, Tuning the Organization: 9 Things That Need Balancing explores a series of important continuums that are shaping organizations into the future. Knowing these forces becomes the first step in understanding their impact on you and your organization.

What will emerge is a clear picture of your own organization’s profile as well as strategic insights as to how best to successfully navigate the new world of work and your own future. Tuning the Organization: 9 Things That Need Balancing provides not merely a clear contextual road-map into the future but it offers a specific game-plan for your organization as to what to guard and keep; what needs to be changed; and a practical framework as to how best to achieve the desired results.

This presentation is designed to stimulate thought and discussion as well as provide strategic direction as to where it is you want to be and how to get there.

Tuning the Organization: 9 Things That Need Balancing is designed in such a way that it is suitable to be a keynote presentation at a conference as well as offers a stimulating framework for a strategic workshop or boardroom discussion.

Mind the Gap – Understanding Why We Don’t Understand

Conversations in Leadership

Leadership is difficult. It is difficult because the context for leadership is constantly changing – at warp speed, or so it seems. Leadership teams and executives seldom have the time (and sometimes the inclination) to ‘go back to school’ and even if they did, the chances are they wouldn’t get what it is they need to lead effectively in their environment. The gulf between the theory and the practice of leadership seems to be ever widening. One implication of this is that leaders cling to experience, to what has worked in the past when facing current and emergent challenges. Peter Drucker said that, “The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence, 
it is to act with yesterday’s logic”.

This new series, Conversations in Leadership is a collaborative effort between Keith Coats of TomorrowToday and Prof Nick Barker, Director of the Asia Pacific Leadership Program (APLP). Keith and Nick have taught together on leadership in a variety of settings on a global stage including places such as Japan, China, the United States, Vietnam and South Africa.  Conversations in Leadership frames several vital aspects of leadership, which are then interrogated in a helpful and practical fashion. Leadership theory is linked to the practice and reality of contemporary leadership and participants will emerge with greater understanding and rich insights on what it means to lead in the 21^st Century. The series will allow you and your team to both frame and shape relevant and strategically important conversations – the kind of conversations often missing from the predominantly operationally dominated executive agendas. Conversations in Leadership offers you and your team the opportunity to be having the conversations you simply cannot afford to ignore but often don’t know how to have.

What are these conversations?

The series frames several questions but this doesn’t preclude additional questions – questions that may be relevant to you – being framed and then explored using the tested Conversations framework and methodology. Some of the current issues (or conversations) include:

• Learning leadership
• Leading diversity
• The practice of leadership
• Strategic leadership
• Surviving leadership
• Leading change
• Leading Talent
• Leadership presence

You can see more details at TomorrowToday’s website.