The global and local trends that organizations are confronted with increase in number and diversity:

• In a declining economy the demand for labor lowers, yet you want your organization to hold on to talents.
• The demand for flexible labor becomes higher. Organizations want to hold on to their mobility in the current unpredictable and fast changing market into which increasingly formal labor laws are introduced.
• More and more organizations merge, are incorporated or need to cut down expenses via outsourcing.
• Client problems still increase, both in number and diversity.
• Less and less people are born, the baby-boomers are retiring and the remaining employees have other career needs.
• There will be a shortage of talent, and this smaller talent pool will have other career- and life needs.
• Human Resource management will take an increasingly strategic place.
• There is a bigger need for unique strategic capacity.
• Personnel needs increase in number and quality.

For those reasons, the number of things that are demanded from organizations in this persistently unpredictable economy have increased. Boards of directors and management demand entrepreneurship, client focus, cost efficiency and effectiveness in order to reach the financial goals.
Clients become more demanding as well. They ask more and different questions than before. The demand for client intensive services has helped this sector grow. Clients also demand more quality, flexibility, uniqueness and a perfect provision of services. It is important for organizations to train their employees to focus on these aspects and to keep them focused.

These general trends have their negative impact on the local conditions within organizations. More organizations are confronted with the symptomatology of being ill or becoming ill. Increasing workload, more health-related absenteeism, less motivation, less unique strategies, focus on short-term results, faster job-hopping of (the best?!) employees, quick fix solutions, less loyalty, ego marketing, myopia (=blindness for new developments), burn-out and political games are the symptoms that organizations increasingly show.

These symptoms are often ignored, but result from the aforementioned tension and the way in which organizations deal with it in their own policy and management strategy.

It seems like more organizations will have to control the “monster”that they themselves have created in the past few years!

Focused actions aimed at fixing the abovementioned organizational problems, have had their impact. All the projects that the organizations have started have possibly been of added value within the current organization and have solved or lessened the main problems and the symptomatology. Yet many symptoms remain and it seems like we are confronted with symptoms “in different ways than before” for which there now seem to be no solutions.

‘In seems like we keep the symptomatology in existence ourselves!?’

We know it, and we do not like it, but we do nothing or not enough to make it change. Or we simply do not know how to change it!!

The trends seem to be assembled around a few themes: leadership, entrepreneurship, general management, change management and talent management.

These trends cause a growing sense of discomfort in organizations, which could be a sign that there is a growing need for a new form of leadership. In other words there is a growing need for a new paradigm of leadership.

Managing has become more than applying the familiar theoretical styles. Insight in what it takes to be a good leader of an organization that is ruled be the illusion of the day, has become a crucial factor for survival.

Big leaders have always had the ability to draw people in on the basis of personal qualities. They do this through sharing their outlook on certain matters. The new leader needs to have originality and passion.

What are these personal qualities?

• The new leader must be charismatic and must be able to inspire people.
• The new leader is pro-active.
• The new leader is emotionally intelligent.
• The new leader is capable of critical self-reflection.
• The new leader is a good communicator.
• The new leader can reflect on his own conditioning.
• The new leader can draw people in because they see a need for sharing his view.
• The new leader can draw people in, so that there will be cooperation in reaching organization goals.
• The new leader is capable of learning as well as letting his employees learn so that the company as a whole can learn.

In short: the profile that is described above is based on the new leader’s personal qualities and forms of emotional realization. This makes the ability to coach more important than ever before.

‘Then how can we coach unequivocally?’

For this reason new leadership should be focused on personal motives and originality. Using “tools” or “tricks” is out of the question. There are still too many leaders that base their qualities on their knowledge about a specific field instead of on what they should be doing on the base of their passion and originality. New leaders have insight into their own personality and qualities and can use that to gain insight in other people. They use that to motivate people to get better organization results.

Support is not always needed, as a new leader you must win support. This requires a level of insight in the personal motivations and preferences of employees. Good quality of communication and emotional intelligence are crucial to this end. One must be a good example of originality and passion. For that there must be a mutual level of trust while certainty and uncertainty interchange constantly.

‘The new leader is not born!!’

The new leader can learn all the essential things that are needed to deal with the current trends. For that, the new leader needs to learn in an environment in which knowledge, skills and ability are available. The new leader can create him/herself in this interactive and dynamic learning environment.

In offering this dynamic learning environment for the new leader “The ALMA” the Academy for Leadership, Mental Toughness and Attitude (=ALMA) wants to play a crucial role of importance.

‘The Academy for Leadership, Mental Toughness and Attitude is looking for the ALMA’s of the Netherlands’

'De ALMA’ stands for the “new” leader. The new leader that can, with the help of learned behavior, pro-actively deal with the impact of the global, local and intrapersonal trends.

'De ALMA' a title of recognition. It is a synonym for personal mastership, because our clients work on their personal knowledge and realization, from their originality and passion in a dynamic learning environment.

'De ALMA' means that our clients have developed knowledge, skills and attitude for pro-actively dealing with the impact that global and national trends have on their organizations and the people that work fort hem.

'De ALMA' means that our clients are capable of creating a unique and successful policy; to form a strategy that is fruitful and can make a change in a human way.

'De ALMA' means that our clients have developed a personal conviction and the ability to coach, that makes them able to bind employees to them. The employees see a good reason for following the ALMA.

‘In Search Of The ALMA’