Gail La Grouw
Let me introduce myself. I entered the world of consulting and leadership coaching over 35 years ago after an interruption to my flying career meant that I could not continue as an airline pilot. I was devasted! However, I quickly recognised that during my time in the cockpit I learnt some invaluable practices in how to keep your eyes over all operations in a single view. I also learnt how important it was to have a readily executable flight plan, with simple measures to use along the way to update, and correct, progress in a timely manner – flight optimisation. This lay the foundation of my early consulting with leaders in strategic execution, operational design and corporate performance.
As technology become available to help automate processes and performance measurement I was at the forefront of engaging in mobile data and supply chain optimisation. Combined with my education in corporate law, I was able to forsee how companies could benefit from technology, how they would need to change, and the legal pitfalls that new technology introduces – something very often overlooked.
The outcome of this experience with high tech companies. is my evangelist passion for the power and leverage that advanced technology can contribute to our lives, and our businesses. However, sadly I have also witnessed the gradual decline of human value within business – what I refer to as the #HumanFactor.
Technology has meant that individuals and businesses are always on, always visible and always contactable. With that seems to have grown the expectation that individuals employed within large enterprises must also be always available. Work hours are getting longer and longer, with the misconception that productivity will be higher. However, studies and personal experience have shown that top leaders are getting disconnected as individuals, not only from themselves, but from their personal lives and relationships.
My ongoing mission is to protect the value of the individual in enterprise, and raise awareness of both the positive transformational impact technology will have over the next decade, but also signal the potential dangers to the human emotional being. In pursuing this goal I took two years off to study neuroscience, with a particular emphasis on neuroeconomics – the application of neuroscience in decision making. I engaged in further studies in data analytics, social network analysis, the science of happiness, conscious leadership, EQ and mindfulness in business, and other interrelated disciplines that would provide a comprehensive and holistic perspective of how decisions have been made in the past, and how artificial intelligence will impact decision making in the future.
And guess what? That same thing came up again…the #humanFactor. It was still getting lost. So I set out to find out exactly what will fill the gap – what was The Missing Element. And it came down to emotional intelligence [EQ]. The answer seemed almost too simple, too academic. So I embarked on my own study of how EQ would factor into all the new understanding from neuroscience as to how the brain works. I focused on the primary activities senior leaders engage in, and the stresses and challenges they face each and every day. This combination of neuroscience and EQ is what led to our NeuroEQTM program stream. Naturally, the first program within this transformational coaching stream is specifically for leaders – EQ Leadership.
Throughout the programs I have attempted to provide an efficient and effective approach to leadership today – one that is more suited to the complexity and advances we will experience in the coming decades.
Throughout this website I aim to provide articles to support the programs, incorporating curated content that will balance technology with opinions of their impact from both current business leaders and those offering a more academic viewpoint.
I invite you to stay connected with me, and benefit from updates in the area of leadership transformation for the AI era. You can:
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