Ivy House London
Creating the Leaders of Tomorrow

Pursuing money at all costs, working long hours, and never admitting vulnerability has led to a global leadership crisis and record levels of anxiety and depression. If we want this situation to change, then we need to change how and when we educate, and develop each new generation.

According to Elke Edwards—a renowned leadership development coach, writer, and keynote speaker—organisations need to look at new ways of preparing their workforces for their career and life. In her recent book—Extraordinary: A Bigger, Better, and More Meaningful Life—she discussed the need for democratising leadership development programmes beyond only the senior C-suite executives and making them available to the millennials and Gen-Z workforces. This holds the key to unlocking the true potential of an employee. “There is a set of skills and knowledge which, when mastered, make a game-changing difference to the kind of leader an individual becomes,” underlines Elke. Notably, this realisation drove Elke to lay the cornerstone of Ivy House London, a leadership development firm that “turns the traditional leadership development on its head.”

Where leadership is a life skill…

At Ivy House, this means making three crucial and essential changes. As Elke explains, the first is changing what and how we teach people. “We need to go far deeper with the learning; letting go of the split between work and home, and we need to deliver it in a way that actually works. That is what changes the result. Secondly, the learning needs to start with self-leadership; we have no right to lead others unless we can lead ourselves. And finally, we need to start it sooner. We need to make this learning available to people early in their careers when it can really make a difference to every aspect of their lives. “If we want a better world, we need better leaders. And if we want better leaders, then we need to start a lot sooner,” believes Elke, the founder and creative director of Ivy House.

To this end, Ivy House delivers leadership development programmes that get to the heart of who a person is, and the kind of leader they were born to be. This can be done by helping people understand:

• Who they are - What their value system is, what beliefs they have, and how they shape their actions.

• How their mind works – why they think and behave as they do, and how to create change at a deeper level

• What their natural talents are, where they interact with their passions, and, therefore, what puts them inflow.

• How to become a courageous learner – taking 100 percent ownership for the impact they have as well as how to they create intentional relationships.

• What it means to be a truly human leader – how to create environments where they, and their teams, are able to thrive and do their best work.

All of this is done through either open or in-house programmes. For the open programmes, high potentials and emerging leaders from a range of leading global organisations come together to experience this transformational learning and create the most incredible networks.
They have a master programme that lasts six months and a Life Leader Programme that lasts eight weeks, offering a holistic yet affordable programme for talent throughout a client’s organisation. Currently, both programmes are delivered virtually and will return to a blended approach when possible.

At the same time, her company also offers tailored programmes for clients looking to create a tribe of skilled change-makers within their organisation according to niche business needs. Elke highlights, “Our focus is all about bringing the very best personal and professional development to people earlier on in their career.” And Ivy House doesn’t stop at preparing young professionals for their jobs and lives; the company brings the same offering to students in schools, which, according to Elke, is a crucial time to develop these essential life and leadership skills. Developed by a team of leading executive coaches, in partnership with forward-thinking teachers, the Ivy House Award paves the way for schools to deliver meaningful character development programmes with expert content, tools, and necessary learning support.

Talking about the leadership development programme they created for the global insurer—Aviva, Elke said, “Whilst they had a strong suite of leadership programmes in place they were keen to truly engage and ignite their emerging talent, which they saw as a huge area of potential within their business.” Ivy House helped them develop an Emerging Leader Programme (ELP) that truly released the potential of their future leaders. The initiative runs for six months every year, where millennials and Gen-Z employees apply for a place on the programme – which is now seen as the hottest ticket in town. The programme has four 2-day masterclasses at its core, includes team projects and one-to-one coaching for all participants. Delegates are supported by internal sponsors and mentors, and given three different shadowing opportunities. On top of this, each delegate is able to work alongside a member of Aviva’s senior management team for a week. All of this is supported by a wealth of online tools, materials, podcasts, and membership of the Ivy House Alumni. The result? After completing the programme, almost 25 percent of Aviva’s employees successfully climbed the career ladder within 12 weeks of the programme finishing. And, by the end of a year, 75 percent of the participants were promoted. Having such a well-thought-out leadership development plan in its HR policy, has made Aviva one of the most sought after recruiters in the space today.

This holistic approach to leadership development has made Ivy House busier than ever now during the ongoing pandemic. The founder believes that “COVID-19 has exposed the lack of true leadership competence in businesses.” To help address and mitigate this, Ivy House has redesigned all its programmes so they can be delivered virtually, and this has enabled them to access even more clients globally, who previously weren’t able to fly to London for the programmes. On top of this, they have made a number of resources freely available and run a series of free events for L&D practitioners who want to know more about this game-changing approach to leadership development. Elke concludes, “The world is changing, and we have to meet this change by better preparing our brightest talents to become the kind of purpose-driven, value-led leaders we need.”