Introduction
Five Arenas is focused on generating high-impact leadership through the development and application of effective leadership practices. Leadership practices are defined as the things leaders should do. The Five Arenas Leadership Framework is a comprehensive, practical, and pragmatic model of high-impact leadership practices. The practices in the Five Arenas Leadership Framework assist leaders to meet their challenges while influencing and enabling people to accomplish purpose (for more on this see the article: Building the Five Arenas Leadership Framework.)
Structure
The Five Arenas Leadership Framework has an easy-to-understand cascading structure:
- Each of 5 Main ARENAS of leadership contains several KEY PRACTICES,
- Each KEY PRACTICE has several linked COMPONENTS,
- Each COMPONENT consists of several FOCUS AREAS where applicable.
This structure allows organisations, leadership coaches / trainers, and individual leaders to prioritise development at the arena, key practice, component or focus area level dependent on organisation priorities and individual development needs.
Terminology
To further assist leaders, the Five Arenas Leadership Framework is expressed in practical terminology of ‘what the leader must do’ at the arena, key practice, and component level. This assists the leader to immediately understand the core of a particular topic.
5 Main Arenas
Within the Five Arenas Leadership Framework there are 5 main arenas that all leaders need to be proficient in:
- Intrapersonal Leadership – Nurture and Strengthen the Self
- Directional Leadership – Create and Guide the Effort
- Managerial Leadership – Execute and Deliver Results
- Interactional Leadership – Engage and Develop Your People
- Transformational Leadership – Innovate and Change the Future
No arena is more important than another, but a person’s role and leadership function, what we call SOLA (for Scope of Leadership Accountability), will likely mean varied emphasis in each of the five arenas.
18 Key Practices
There are 18 KEY PRACTICES of leadership within the five main ARENAS. Each of the 18 key practices also has several linked components and focus areas as applicable.
In total, the 5 arenas, 18 key practices, and their related components and focus areas are comprehensive and inclusive of all foundational and cutting-edge leadership thinking.
Structure Cascade – Example
Shaded in green below is an example of how the Five Arenas Leadership Framework architecture cascades:
- 1 Arena: Directional Leadership
- 1 Key Practice of Directional Leadership: Provide Meaning and Vision
- 1 Component of Provide Meaning and Vision: Clarify DNA
- 3 Focus Areas of Clarify DNA: Differentiators, Guiding principles and Values, Core Competencies
- 1 Component of Provide Meaning and Vision: Clarify DNA
- 1 Key Practice of Directional Leadership: Provide Meaning and Vision
Conclusion
The Five Arenas Leadership Framework provides a comprehensive, practical, and pragmatic model of leadership practices. The cascading structure facilitates learning as leaders can concentrate on development priorities without ignoring the big picture.
The Five Arenas Leadership Framework and associated tools (assessments and development resources) is used to:
- Orientate leaders to the totality of their leadership role and what is required for high-impact
- Assess the current state of leadership practice and prioritise development – this can be done at individual, team, department, or organisation level
- Conduct targeted leadership development without losing sight of the larger context
- Connect strategic and operational priorities to the specific leadership practices and behaviours that address these priorities
- Align leadership culture and practice throughout the organisation
The Five Arenas Leadership Framework comprehensively covers the leadership ‘ingredients’ needed for leaders to meet their challenges while influencing and enabling people to accomplish purpose. (for more on this, see the article, “Building the Five Arenas Framework”.
Contact Five Arenas for more info on how you can use our framework and associated tools and resources in your organisation or leadership development business.
