N2Growth’s Five Lens Approach to Leadership Development

Effective leadership development fosters adaptability, resilience, and long-term organizational success. At N2Growth, our leadership development approach leverages the Five Lens and Pi assessments to help leaders gain comprehensive insights into their behaviors, motivations, and potential blind spots, thereby fostering these essential qualities.

While we acknowledge the contributions of models like Robert Quinn and Ichak Adizes as historical benchmarks in leadership development, our Five Lens assessment uniquely addresses the challenges and opportunities faced by today’s leaders. It provides a more nuanced and modern understanding of leadership dynamics that aligns with the current need for agility and transformation.

Quinn’s Leadership Model: Driving Deep Change

Robert Quinn’s leadership development model emphasizes the need for adaptive leadership—an approach that equips leaders to thrive in volatile, uncertain, and rapidly changing environments. At its core lies the concept of “deep change,” where leaders must transform themselves continuously to meet shifting organizational needs.

Adizes’ Leadership Model: Balancing Critical Roles

Ichak Adizes’ leadership model highlights the importance of balancing four key roles: Producer, Administrator, Entrepreneur, and Integrator. Each role serves a distinct purpose:

• Producer: Ensures productivity and the achievement of targets.
• Administrator: Focuses on structure, rules, and operational efficiency.
• Entrepreneur: Drives innovation, creativity, and growth.
• Integrator: Builds cohesion and collaboration within the team.

The Adizes model posits that an effective leader must balance these roles to ensure innovation and stability within an organization. When the balance tips too far toward one role, problems can arise—for instance, an overemphasis on production might lead to burnout while focusing solely on administration could stifle creativity. By recognizing the importance of these roles, leaders can work to create organizations that are both agile and well-grounded.

Common Ground: The Intersection of Quinn and Adizes

Both frameworks underscore the need for adaptability in leadership. Quinn’s “deep change” approach aligns with Adizes’ emphasis on entrepreneurial thinking, highlighting leaders’ need to evolve continuously. Recently, IBM successfully adopted a version of these frameworks while transforming from a hardware-focused company to a cloud and AI services leader. Today, organizations must adopt agility in their leadership approaches to successfully adjust to changing circumstances—whether responding to market shifts or adopting new business models.

Our assessments equip leaders to identify and move the right leaders fluidly between key roles as needed, ensuring they can drive innovation while maintaining operational efficiency. This integrative approach—bringing people together toward common goals, is vital for promoting a cohesive culture that supports growth and adaptability.

A common thread between the frameworks is the role of culture in leadership. Quinn champions fostering a learning culture where adaptability and continuous improvement are core values. Similarly, Adizes highlights the integrator’s role in creating cohesion and alignment across teams, ultimately driving organizational success. Our assessments also share a focus on cultural cohesion, which empowers leaders to inspire collective growth.

Our Approach to Leadership Development

While Quinn and Adizes have value, such assessments have been enhanced to meet leaders’ demands today. At N2Growth, we use the Five Lens and Pi assessments as the foundation for our leadership development and coaching program. These tools help leaders gain insights into their behaviors, motivations, and potential blind spots, providing a comprehensive understanding of leadership dynamics. The Five Lens assessment evaluates leadership through multiple perspectives, while the Pi assessment delves into personality traits and how they influence decision-making and team dynamics.

N2Growth assessments offer insights that help leaders identify their natural inclinations and understand how to balance these roles effectively within a team, ensuring a holistic leadership approach that meets the needs of today’s complex environments.

We guide leaders through a carefully tailored process that combines introspection, accountability, and transformational growth. For instance, a recent engagement involved working with a senior executive team at a global industrial manufacturing company, where our tailored approach helped them navigate significant organizational changes leading to M&A. Through a combination of introspective coaching and practical accountability measures, the team was able to increase cross-functional collaboration and drive strategic initiatives forward more effectively.

• Tailored Coaching: Our coaching sessions are uniquely designed to align with each leader’s specific challenges and ambitions. Whether it’s strategic thinking, fostering adaptability, managing organizational change, or enhancing team dynamics, we customize our approach to help leaders unlock their full potential.
• 360-Degree Feedback: To offer a comprehensive perspective on leadership effectiveness, N2Growth utilizes 360-degree feedback tools that provide valuable insights into a leader’s strengths and areas for development. This process gives leaders the awareness they need to adapt and grow in a meaningful way.
• Focus on Transformational Growth: We challenge our leaders to step outside their comfort zones, using the insights from the assessment to encourage adaptability, reflection, and continuous personal transformation, ultimately inspiring others to grow.
• Integrating Assessments: Our program emphasizes understanding and balancing key leadership roles as identified through our Five Lens assessment, ensuring leaders can deliver on both operational execution and long-term strategic vision while fostering team collaboration.
• Ongoing Development: Leadership is a journey, not a destination. Our approach includes ongoing support via follow-up coaching sessions, workshops, and strategic check-ins. This commitment ensures that leaders evolve, translating personal growth into long-term organizational value.

Leading in a Complex World

N2Growth’s current client assessment solutions offer a tailored approach to effective, balanced leadership in today’s environment. By leveraging these tools, leaders are equipped with the insights they need to navigate complex, ever-evolving business environments, encouraging innovation, maintaining productivity, and fostering an inclusive, collaborative culture.

At N2Growth, we help leaders apply these frameworks in real-world settings to develop a balanced approach that brings out the best in themselves and their teams. Our assessments offer a powerful blueprint for success for any leader striving to build a resilient, future-ready organization—cultivating the adaptability, balance, and cultural cohesion necessary to thrive today.