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Why Ordinary Leadership?

Practical Leadership Coaching For Positive Change | OL

Thank you for taking an interest in me and Ordinary Leadership.

About Ben French - Leadership Consultant and Coach

I have always been extremely curious about how leadership can bring about positive change.

The more organizations I have worked with and the more I have studied leadership, the more convinced I have become that it is the everyday leadership displayed by individuals at any level or in any role within an organization that truly drives positive change.
 

Ordinary Leadership is a way of working with organizations focused on building leadership at all levels.

 

As a leadership consultant and executive coach specializing in leadership development, I balance forward-thinking strategic advice with unconditional respect for my clients, their organizations, and their challenges.

Practical Leadership Coaching For Positive Change | OL

Why become a leadership consultant?

Before becoming a leadership consultant and coach, I worked in both the public and private sectors in countries as diverse as South Sudan and Papua New Guinea. 

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My work exposed me to diverse perspectives on organizational change, team building, and effective leadership. I've met and worked with many inspiring leaders who worked hard to unlock the potential of their organizations and help people succeed.

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​In 2021, I asked myself what skills I possessed and how I wanted to use them to improve the world in the next phase of my career.

 

Ordinary Leadership is what I landed on. 

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Today, I bring my ability to understand and transform organisational cultures and a cross-cultural understanding of leadership and organisational change to my leadership consulting and executive coaching work. 

 

Allowing me to work with people and organizations on projects that enable leadership at all levels so that more people can create a positive change in our world.

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​For me, leadership is a vehicle for creating positive change in our world. Not the heroic, visionary leadership. But ordinary leadership occurs when we take responsibility for making change.

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When not working, I enjoy running, photography, mountaineering, my friends, family and dog, Twiglet.

The Ordinary Leadership Project

Ordinary Leadership arose from frustration with how leadership is defined and portrayed. Leaders are portrayed as heroic, transformative, always successful, and usually male. 

There is a disconnect between this idea of leaders and leadership and what we respect and value in our own lives, homes, schools, communities, and organisations. Most leaders who have been motivated, influenced and inspired would never be featured in a leadership book. They don’t have the highest salaries, run global businesses or command countries. Yet, they have changed our lives. 

The goal of Ordinary Leadership is to challenge our widely held view of leadership. I want to understand how teams, organisations, and businesses thrive, so we want to look beyond the top performers, highest earners, and loudest voices. My goal is to understand how leadership happens in community groups, government organisations, primary schools, and small companies – ordinary places where leadership is anything but ordinary. 

Follow my evolving thinking on my blog, or contact me f you want to participate by being interviewed or contributing ideas or tools.

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Let's connect

Are you trying to implement change?

 

Maybe you want to create more space for leadership in your organization.

 

Or, perhaps you need to bounce some ideas around to think through your challenge. 

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I can't guarantee I'm the right person to work with you, but I can promise to listen, focus on understanding your challenge, and provide practical insight on where to go next. 

 

If that sounds interesting to you, please get in touch. 

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