Good leadership doesn’t happen by accident.
The strongest organisations are clear about what leadership looks like in practice — not just in values statements or posters on the wall, but in the everyday behaviours leaders are expected to demonstrate.
We help organisations define, build, and embed leadership frameworks that align with their culture, values, and strategic goals.
Whether you are developing new leaders, improving consistency across teams, navigating growth, or strengthening accountability, a clear leadership framework creates shared expectations and gives leaders a practical roadmap for success.
Our approach combines strategy with practical implementation, helping you turn leadership expectations into real-world behaviours that can be developed, measured, and reinforced across your organisation.
How we work with you on your custom leadership framework
This is very much a collaborative process, starting with getting to know you and your organisation, and what your goals are for the leadership framework. Once we know you well, we define your most important behaviours and validate that with you before moving on to the next step. From here, you decide what happens next; and our recommended pathway looks like this –
Discover - getting to know you
Getting to know you well is an essential part of understanding where things are at right now, your motivation for undertaking this investment in your people and organisation, and what you want to achieve. We’ll interview you and your leaders and other stakeholders to get a clear picture of what makes your business unique, the challenges you’re looking to overcome and the culture you want to build.
Defining the leadership behaviours your business actually needs
Many organisations have strong values, but struggle to translate those values into clear leadership expectations.
What does “integrity” look like in leadership behaviour?
What does “collaboration” actually sound like in meetings?
How should leaders communicate during change?
What behaviours support psychological safety, accountability, or high performance?
We work with organisations to define the leadership behaviours that best support the culture they want to build.
Our process may include:
- stakeholder interviews
- leadership workshops
- culture and engagement insights
- behavioural mapping
- leadership level definitions
- competency development
- facilitated design sessions
Design - building a leadership framework that matches your organisation
No two organisations need exactly the same leadership framework.
A framework designed for a fast-growing technology business may look very different from one designed for a manufacturing business, professional services firm, council, or family-owned company.
The goal is to create something practical, usable, and genuinely reflective of your business — not a generic competency library copied from somewhere else.
This may include:
- leadership behaviour frameworks
- capability models
- behavioural expectations by leadership level
- values-based leadership behaviours
- leadership success profiles
- culture-aligned leadership standards
The result is a practical framework that helps leaders understand what good leadership looks like within your organisation — not just in theory, but in day-to-day practice.
Measure progress through customised 360-degree feedback
Leadership development is far more effective when leaders receive meaningful feedback about how their behaviours are experienced by others.
In addition to standard 360-degree feedback tools, we can design bespoke 360-degree feedback frameworks aligned specifically to your organisation’s leadership model.
This allows feedback to be measured against the behaviours, values, and leadership expectations that matter most within your business.
Our bespoke 360-degree feedback solutions can:
- align directly with your leadership framework
- reflect your organisational language and values
- support leadership development conversations
- identify capability gaps
- measure behavioural progress over time
- support coaching and development planning
This creates a more relevant and meaningful leadership development experience than generic off-the-shelf assessments.
We always suggest a ‘starting point’ 360-review and then measuring again at 6-monthly intervals to understand how well you are doing at implementing the behaviours.
You can also learn more about our dedicated 360-degree feedback services here.
Develop - training and leadership capability building
A leadership framework is only valuable if leaders understand how to apply it in practice.
We can design tailored leadership development programmes and workshops that support your framework and help leaders build the behaviours your organisation wants to see.
Training can be delivered as standalone workshops, leadership pathways, cohort programmes, or integrated capability development initiatives.
This may include:
- emerging leader programmes like our team leader development programme
- people leader fundamentals
- communication and feedback skills
- coaching capability
- accountability and performance conversations
- psychological safety and team culture
- change leadership
- strategic leadership capability
Our focus is always practical leadership — helping leaders build confidence, consistency, and capability in the real situations they face every day.
Integrate into your people systems
Leadership frameworks are most effective when they become part of how your organisation operates. Once the frameworks are widely known and become part of day to day behaviours, it’s time to slot them into the rest of your people systems.
This creates consistency across the employee experience and helps reinforce the behaviours your organisation wants leaders to demonstrate.
Instead of leadership expectations existing as a standalone document, they become embedded into how leaders are developed, supported, and evaluated.
We can go as detailed as you like here – for example building key capabilities into position descriptions and even designing recruitment interview questions that reveal leadership candidate strengths and weaknesses according to your leadership capabiity framework.
Many organisations know the culture they want, but struggle to define what that means in day-to-day leadership behaviour.
When your leadership behaviours are not clearly defined, it’s difficult to build the culture that you want. Here’s what we often see in organisations that are not sure about how to go from good to great –
Create leadership consistency across your organisation
Clear leadership expectations create stronger cultures, more consistent people leadership, and better employee experiences.
Whether you are building leadership capability from the ground up or refining an existing framework, we can help you design a practical approach that fits your organisation.
Get in touch to discuss leadership frameworks, bespoke 360-degree feedback, or tailored leadership capability development for your business.
Not ready for something tailored, or need something quickly? Check out our other leadership development offerings.
FAQ's about leadership frameworks and leadership capability development
What is a leadership framework?
A leadership framework is a structured set of leadership behaviours, capabilities, competencies, and expectations that define what effective leadership looks like within an organisation. It provides leaders with clear guidance on how they should lead, communicate, make decisions, and support their teams in ways that align with organisational values and strategic goals.
Why is a leadership framework important?
A leadership framework creates consistency across your organisation by establishing shared leadership expectations. It helps improve leadership capability, strengthens organisational culture, supports talent development, and provides a foundation for recruitment, performance management, succession planning, and leadership development programmes.
How do you develop a leadership framework?
Developing a leadership framework typically involves understanding your organisation’s culture, values, strategic priorities, and leadership challenges. We work with leaders and stakeholders to identify the behaviours and capabilities that drive success, then design a practical framework that can be embedded into everyday leadership practice.
Can you customise a leadership framework for our organisation?
Yes. We design bespoke leadership frameworks tailored to your organisation’s culture, values, operating environment, and strategic objectives. Rather than using generic competency models, we create leadership frameworks that reflect what great leadership looks like within your business.
What is leadership capability development?
Leadership capability development is the process of building the skills, behaviours, confidence, and leadership effectiveness of managers and leaders. This can include leadership training, coaching, 360-degree feedback, leadership pathways, workshops, and development programmes aligned to a leadership framework.
How do leadership frameworks improve leadership capability?
Leadership frameworks provide clarity about the behaviours and capabilities leaders need to demonstrate. Once expectations are clearly defined, organisations can develop targeted leadership capability programmes that focus on building the specific skills and behaviours required for success.
What leadership capabilities should organisations focus on?
While every organisation is different, common leadership capabilities include communication, coaching, accountability, performance management, change leadership, strategic thinking, decision-making, emotional intelligence, collaboration, and building psychologically safe teams. The right leadership capabilities depend on your organisation’s goals and culture.
Do leadership frameworks work for small and medium-sized businesses?
Absolutely. Leadership frameworks are valuable for organisations of all sizes. For growing businesses, a leadership framework helps create consistency, improve people leadership, and establish clear expectations as teams expand and new leaders emerge.
How do you measure leadership capability?
Leadership capability can be measured using customised 360-degree feedback, leadership assessments, employee feedback, behavioural observations, and development reviews. Measuring leadership behaviours against a defined framework provides a clear baseline and allows organisations to track progress over time.
What is a customised 360-degree leadership assessment?
A customised 360-degree leadership assessment measures leader behaviours against your organisation’s specific leadership framework rather than generic leadership competencies. This provides more relevant feedback and helps identify strengths, development opportunities, and capability gaps that matter to your business. If you don’t have time to wait and want a 360-degree feedback programme now, check out our non-customised 360-degree feedback product.
How long does it take to create a leadership framework?
The timeframe depends on the size and complexity of the organisation. Most leadership framework projects take between 6 and 12 weeks, depending on stakeholder involvement, workshop requirements, and the level of customisation required. Full implementation including integration into your people processes and conducting a second 360-degree review can extend the process up to a year – which also spreads your cost out.
How much does leadership framework development cost?
The investment varies depending on organisational size, project scope, stakeholder engagement requirements, and whether services such as leadership capability development, workshops, coaching, or customised 360-degree feedback are included. We provide tailored proposals based on your specific requirements.
Can a leadership framework be integrated into existing HR and people systems?
Yes. Leadership frameworks are most effective when integrated into recruitment, onboarding, performance development, leadership training, succession planning, talent reviews, and coaching processes. This ensures leadership expectations become part of everyday organisational practice.
Do you provide leadership framework services throughout New Zealand?
Yes. We work with organisations across New Zealand, supporting leadership framework design, leadership capability development, customised 360-degree feedback, leadership training, and organisational culture initiatives for businesses, government organisations, councils, and not-for-profit organisations.
How do I get started with leadership framework development?
The best place to start is with a conversation about your organisation’s goals, leadership challenges, culture, and future aspirations. We can help you assess your current leadership capability, identify gaps, and design a practical leadership framework that supports long-term organisational success.
Ready to talk to a us about building leadership capability?
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