As we passed the tenth anniversary of Global Leadership Foundation last week, it was appropriate that Malcolm and I found ourselves working with a group of leaders on Tetepare in the Solomon Islands.

Our work on Tetepare is at the heart of what we aspired to achieve when we established the Foundation on April 30, 2003 – that is to develop, strengthen and transform leaders in community, wherever they are.

Over this last month we have also been invited by two organisations in the Solomon Islands to support their Board members. We have worked with one board through a significant decision-making process that will have a major impact on their organisation’s future. We are assisting the members of another board to strengthen their understanding of governance, and to help them build the skills and capabilities they need in their roles.

This may not appear to be much different to what we do on a day to day basis, nor sound particularly ‘transformative’. However, in the context of these board members and their environment, we believe that the steps they are taking are very likely to have significant effects not only on their organisations but also for them as leaders.

The people we are working with in both of these organisations genuinely want to make a difference in their own communities, and support their organisations in transitioning to some very new ways of working. But they face a number of challenges that are definitely not what we would typically be confronted with in Western society.

One of the greatest obstacles these board members face is something most of us take for granted: effective communication over a distance. Communication between the members of any board is important as the directors follow through on decisions made in a meeting, ensuring that agreements are translated into real action and change.

Now, imagine 15 executive board members located in 15 different villages spread across the Western Solomon region. A small minority have access to mobile phones and some have two-way radio links. Others must travel to another village where messages can be collected, or go to the Friday market in Munda to pick up information. Those with mobiles might have very limited internet access; for most in the Western Solomons the internet is not yet part of their world.

These leaders also face another significant challenge managing the gap between what their communities might ‘want’ – in terms of material goods, employment, resources and money making opportunities – and what is actually possible to achieve. At the same time there is often an expectation from the leaders’ extended families that they will be ‘cared for’ first, through whatever they are able to obtain by way of their position. This makes it difficult to provide sound governance and undertake ‘transparent’ actions when they sit in their executive and board roles.

When we sit with these leaders around their board tables, we begin to see how the issues and problems perceived by ourselves and others in our own world of work pale into insignificance compared to what these leaders face.

What is amazing to experience in this process is the true willingness, despite the obstacles, of these leaders to continue to support their organisations and the people in them to be all they can be.

One of the most powerful aspects of this work is the opportunity for the leaders to be able to share with each other what they are thinking, to talk through possibilities and to agree on next steps and a plan to go forward. We hear and recognise their appreciation at being able to do this. It will always be tricky for these board members to get things done, however there is something about the solidarity of their decision making that keeps things bubbling away. It may take time (there is plenty of that in the Solomons) but they are definitely making changes.

The more we work with leaders – whether in an open-sided building in the Solomons or a glass-walled board room high above a city, or anywhere in between – the more we strengthen our belief in the value of leadership transformation, whatever the context.

The last decade has been enormously inspirational for Malcolm and I, and we very much look forward to continuing this work in the future.

Gayle