23/02/2026
Thanks again to the extended leadership team from Grand Royal Group International in Myanmar for a day of reflection and practice on Friday.
We called the workshop Leading with Influence.
Practical, not theoretical, working on real challenges and future ideas.
Early in the day I asked: “If the data was enough, would every new idea get approved by the CEO?” and of course, the group shook their heads.
At a senior level, decisions aren’t just about logic. They’re about risk, timing, reputation, competing priorities, trust and relationships. You can be right with the data and still get a no.
So we worked only on real situations. Lots of writing, plenty of thinking and hopefully, a fair bit of challenge too.
We explored:
- a conversation they’ve been avoiding
- a relationship that needs strengthening
- an initiative that needs buy-in from above
No case studies or hypothetical situations, just reflection, discussion and practice in pairs, threes and small groups.
The groups presented their new ideas and others challenged their thinking. What would the CEO or stakeholder question? What could go wrong? Who might resist it and why?
We finished with four personal commitments and set them up with accountability partners who’ll check in with them in 3 weeks time.
- one conversation I’ll have is…
- one relationship that I’ll strength is…
- one behaviour I’ll improve is…
- one habit I’ll stop is…
Training has to be challenging. It’s easy to design training that makes people smile (I think we had smiles during the day too!), but reality based design is harder, but that’s what senior leaders want. Not theories.
If you’re running programmes at a senior level, think about the work that they do and design around that with real actions to take away.
Thanks to Mi Mi Thet, Chief People Officer for inviting us back again to work with the group.