CLIMB APPROACH

The ‘CLIMB' framework is the first-of-its-kind approach designed specifically to prepare leaders as well as organisations to plan for successful transitions.

CLIMB offers a comprehensive understanding of why leadership transitions are challenging and how they can be managed:

• C – Charter: the nuances of specific role the leader is stepping into
• L – Leader: the strengths and limitations of the leader’s skills, mindsets, operating style
• I – Individuals: the complexity of stakeholders who the leader needs to manage
• M – Mountains: the strategic and organizational landscape leader is in
• B – Blueprint: clarity and support to their short/long-term success blueprint
   

UNIQUENESS OF THE CLIMB APPROACH

CLIMB enables leaders to holistically analyse their transition challenges and think through how they can mitigate risks and significantly accelerate their success. It has four unique features:

• Navigational Framework: providing support and guidance through the entire transition journey
• Stakeholder Engagement: empowering the leader to involve key stakeholders to create alignment and collaboration
• Calibrated Learning and Action: helping the leader to deeply understand their context in order to calibrate change and learning agenda
• Systemic Design: enabling the leader to step back and see all key interconnected elements of their transition

CLIMB is designed to provide both ‘leaders-in-transition’ and ‘HR leaders’ with a framework to understand and navigate ‘leadership transitions’.
 

PROGRAMME OBJECTIVES

The CLIMB programme has three major objectives:

• Build awareness of inherent opportunities and challenges in leadership transitions
• Sensitize participants to the capabilities needed for leadership transitions
• Provide training in learning framework and tools for managing leadership transitions more effectively

QUESTIONS THAT NEED ANSWERS

The Programme will help transitioning leaders answer questions like:

• What are their biggest transition challenges?
• How do their strengths, weaknesses & leadership style apply to transition situation?
• What do they need to learn/unlearn?
• What soft/hard skills do they need to build?
• How and where should they allocate their time?
• What leadership style should they adopt?
• What kind of team do they need to build?
• What relationships do they need to build?
• What does success look like in the short-term as well as long-term and how would they achieve it?

The 3-day residential programme will leverage thought provoking case studies and rich experiences of participants through group work, exercises and discussions to facilitate application of learnings.

Almost two-thirds of the programme is designed to discuss and apply practical frameworks and toolkits which the participants will be able to directly use at their job.

PROGRAMME MODULES

Day 1: Thursday, December 19, 2024

Modules 1-2: The Leadership Transition Conundrum
Module 3: Reflections - Personal Transition Experiences
Module 4: Introduction to the CLIMB framework
Guest Session: Interaction with a seasoned professional

Day 2: Friday, December 20, 2024

Modules 5-6: Case Study: Zeroing onto Transition Challenges
Modules 7-8: Learning the CLIMB Tools
Module 9: Understanding the CLIMB Mindset

Day 3: Saturday, December 21, 2024

Modules 10-11: Case Study: Solving the Transition Puzzle
Module 12: Self-Diagnosis & Planning Your Transition

TESTIMONIALS

“I was circumspect at first, but it turned out to be a game changer. Helped me hone skills critical to stepping up and provided valuable insights on navigating some difficult business decisions.” - CEO, One of the largest pharma companies in India
 

“Although my new position was on familiar grounds, I am glad to have used CLIMB. It provided a structured approach, and guided me through the initial challenges that came with my new role.” - CEO, One of the largest media companies in India
 

“CLIMB helped me see my strengths and weaknesses, against the task at hand. Played a pivotal role in helping me map out a plan." - CXO, One of largest EPC companies in India
 

“CLIMB provided me with deep insights and an analysis of the situation. It helped me clarify stakeholder expectations, prioritise my initiatives and find ways to secure their buy-in.” - CEO, One of the largest industrial companies in India
 

FACULTY PROFILES

Prof Vishal Gupta – Programme Chair

Vishal Gupta is a Professor in the Organizational Behaviour Area at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. His current areas of teaching and research are leadership development, mindfulness, emotional intelligence, R&D management and ethics. Vishal’s research has been published in international and national journals of repute and has been covered by national dailies and magazines such as the Times of India, Financial Express, Economic Times, Hindu BusinessLine, DNA, Mint, and Business World. 
 

Vishal has been honoured with the Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation award (2013-14) by the European Federation for Management Development, India’s  25 Young HR Leaders award (2013) by People Matters, the Emerging Psychologist award (2014) by the National Academy of Psychology India and the Young Scientist Award (2016) by the National Academy of Sciences India. 
 

Vishal’s ‘Leadership Skills’ course on the Coursera platform (course link: https://www.coursera.org/learn/leadershipskills) has been subscribed by more than 160,000 individuals from around the world and has been ranked as the top 3 leadership courses of all time on the Coursera platform. Vishal’s full profile: https://www.iima.ac.in/faculty-research/faculty-directory/vishal-gupta

Sachin Nandgaonkar – Mentor & Guest Faculty
Sachin is an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad and IIT Mumbai with over 30 years of industry experience. Sachin started his career with Accenture where he spent 7 years before transitioning to Boston Consulting Group (BCG). He spent 15 years at BCG where-in he was a Senior Partner in Industrial Goods sector helping clients across complex strategic, operational and organizational issues. 

At BCG, he also played a number of internal roles including Asia-Pacific leader for Operations Practice, member of Global Taskforce for redefining BCG’s strategy, establishing Chennai office, etc. Sachin then moved to RPG Group as President & CEO, where-in he was leading three companies while also driving Innovation, Digital and Business Excellence as Management Board Member.

Sachin now works as a Corporate Sherpa helping CXOs navigate complex strategic and organizational dilemmas as their mentor and guide. During his coaching and training assignments, he realized that leadership transition is a very neglected area with high risk for institutions and leaders. He has been anchoring the work on CLIMB with an aspiration to raise the level of global knowhow on this topic. Sachin's profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sachinnandgaonkar/