The Telos Swirl – guiding leaders to achieve sustainable success

Adam Campbell introduces the Telos Swirl

Meet the Telos ‘Swirl’.

It captures what Telos Partners has learned about the key elements of sustainable success through 25 years of working with clients around the world.

Or, as our Managing Partner Adam Campbell says, ‘all the things a leader must deliver against to optimise the performance of their business’ now and in the years ahead.

That’s no small task – but this is where the Telos Swirl comes in.

It stems from Telos Partners’ earliest days, when the 14 people who founded our business wanted to capture the way in which their diverse set of skills could help a client.

Over the years, it has become integral to the way Telos Partners works: a framework for how we create long-term sustainable success for our clients, our business and ourselves.

Here, Adam explains why.   

Strengthening the power of connection

‘We live in an ever-changing world,’ he says. ‘Yet, in a world connected by relationships, some fundamental truths stand the test of time.

‘People need communities. Communities need people. Communities need organisations. Organisations need communities. Organisations need leaders. Leaders need followers. Our planet gives us life. Life gives us our planet…

‘More than ever, a business needs to work hard to remain relevant to deliver in the best way for its stakeholders.

‘The Telos Swirl is a framework for informing and achieving this. It simply asks: What do you have in place – and where is further attention required?’

Gaining a deeper understanding   

‘Simple’ as that may sound, our team’s ability to apply the Telos Swirl to a range of complex business challenges has already proved a game-changer for the clients Telos Partners serves.

'More than ever, a business needs to work hard to remain relevant to deliver in the best way for its stakeholders – the Telos Swirl is a framework for informing and achieving this'

‘A client might approach us with a question, an idea, a performance issue or a pressing problem,’ Adam explains.

‘The Swirl informs the questions we might ask to gain a deeper understanding of what’s going on and what might need to happen.

‘For example, we might identify something about the leader, the team, the culture, the strategy, employee engagement, the behaviours, processes, structure or capability of the organisation that needs to change.

‘The solution arises from that discussion.’

 

Engaging people in strategy and change

This sounds like an effective (and very fulfilling) way to work.

‘It is,’ Adam agrees, adding: ‘There’s nothing better than the feedback Telos Partners receives on the impact we create for our clients, their teams and their organisations.

‘I’ll always remember the emails I got from an ecstatic and exhausted client team after 18 months of strategy and transformation work that culminated in a large engagement event for 1,000 people.

‘And there have been many more like that, which are always a delight.’

 

A framework to achieve success

So what does Adam enjoy most about working with the Telos Swirl?

‘The simplicity of it,’ he replies. ‘The Swirl is a framework to guide and inform – not dictate and inhibit.’

Thinking of the Swirl’s ‘Seven Elements of Sustainable Success’, he identifies the first two – ‘Self-determination and ambition’, combined with ‘Leadership formation’ – as the ones that resonate with him the most.

‘The spark for an organisation needs to be looked after. Leadership is an incredible responsibility and opportunity, but also a very lonely place without the trusted few around you.

‘So, for me, self-determination and ambition, combined with leadership formation, are where the path to long-term sustainable success begins.’

Find out how Telos Partners can support you. Get in touch with us today.