Although leadership is hard work, the work of developing leaders is at its essence ‘heart work.’ That became increasingly clear to Wayland Lum as he thought about how to help business executives achieve transformational change in their leadership.
“I started Copperbox because I believed that we could do leadership development better,” says Wayland, Copperbox’s Founder and Managing Director. As a former consultant at a global leadership and talent firm, Wayland delivered large-scale coaching and leadership programs. While his clients achieved benefits from being coached, the time needed for a leader to develop using conventional coaching was too slow and the improvement too incremental. “While my clients were making gains, their development was not keeping pace with the rate of change demanded by their organizations. Thinking strategically, dealing with complexity, casting a vision, building and inspiring diverse teams – they needed to develop more quickly in these areas.”
Wayland recognized a need to help leaders draw from who they fundamentally are, to transcend the day-to-day operations and instead lead from a more grounded and lasting source – their Core Purpose. And building a strong partnership with the client was foundational. “We seek transformational growth for our clients, which requires us to experiment, take risks and be vulnerable with them, too.”
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“We develop strategic leaders, and infuse them with a dose of Nature, Wonder, and Magic.”
– Wayland Lum, Founder and Managing Director, Copperbox
“We create a true development journey that inspires people – that gets them excited about the future, curious about what’s around the next corner, and leads them to deeper meaning,” Wayland says. “They gain a stronger sense of how they want to impact the world. This alignment enables leaders and their teams to achieve exceptional business results. Along the way we seek to bring more nature, wonder, and magic to their work and life.”
“The client is the star or protagonist of their own movie – we help them draw out the narrative,” explains Kim Herrera, Practice Leader. “We tell our clients – ‘You are our work.’ And ‘You are our work.’ Both statements are true and get to the heart of our client service ethos.”
ELEVATING STRATEGIC CONTRIBUTION
Many senior leaders do not think strategically and improving strategic thinking is difficult. “Through our experience evaluating executives, we’ve found that only about 30% are strong strategic thinkers. There’s a huge gap between what’s expected of senior leaders and their actual strategic contribution,” Wayland said.
According to B.K. Simerson, Copperbox’s Strategist-in-Residence, “Leadership without strategic thinking lacks focus; strategic thinking without leadership lacks impact.” Strategic leadership lies at the intersection of cognitive psychology, systems thinking, and game theory. Our firm works with executives to build their strategic leadership so they can become better at recognizing patterns, understanding their biases and blind spots, and ultimately, making better business decisions. These leaders become more adept at influencing others to gain the commitment needed for strategic change.
“You’ll recognize the leader. They’re the one with the compass and the flashlight.” — Barbara Beggs, Senior Leadership Coach
INFUSING NATURE, WONDER, MAGIC INTO THE JOURNEY
Effective leaders are self-aware enough to understand their purpose and values, and humble enough to know their contribution is both incredibly meaningful and a small part of a greater good. We help leaders get more authentically aligned with their work so they can put ‘work’ into the greater context of ‘life.’ Possibilities open up when a leader has this clarity.
We believe Nature, Wonder, and Magic are important elements of this growth process. A leader’s development has to be about business results, but the path to get there doesn’t need to be only about OKRs and KPIs. Our team challenges clients to gain insights on their business through experiences that evoke curiosity and a sense of wonder. Oftentimes, these are guided experiences with nature. We also explore different aspects of human experience and tie them back to the client’s leadership, such as The Origins of Humanity, Life’s Stages, and Coming Face to Face with History. We help leaders become more attune to the magic they experience in life’s moments – to be inspired, so that they can in turn, unlock inspiration in others.
“When it comes to leading into the future, a strong bias toward action is table-stakes. An equally strong bias toward curiosity of self and others is where the game changes.” — Kim Herrera, Practice Leader
“A good leader knows and lives by their values. A transformational leader supports others in doing the same.” — Victoria Bujny, Leadership Coach
