What is CALDET?
The outcome of considerable work analysing and breaking down work from academia, industry analysis and contemporary research has shown that the CALDET principles are at the heart of effective leadership. The principle can be adopted during transactional and transformational leadership approaches, with every style being able to exploit our methodology from situational autocracy through to democratic. The CALDET principle is what we believe should be at the core of every leader's skillset. How you approach, manage and deliver in every leadership event should be through our CALDET principle. Let's examine this in more detail:
The outcome of considerable work analysing and breaking down work from academia, industry analysis and contemporary research has shown that the CALDET principles are at the heart of effective leadership. The principle can be adopted during transactional and transformational leadership approaches, with every style being able to exploit our methodology from situational autocracy through to democratic. The CALDET principle is what we believe should be at the core of every leader's skillset. How you approach, manage and deliver in every leadership event should be through our CALDET principle. Let's examine this in more detail:

Communication
We have already covered communication in an earlier Insight article, however to summarise and reflect on those words, we need to remember the following:
We have already covered communication in an earlier Insight article, however to summarise and reflect on those words, we need to remember the following:
- Style Agility. According to modern research, different communication style is cited as the most frequent cause of poor inter-team communication. These differences lead to increased stress, lack of clarity on priorities and other significant issues.
Identifying your leadership style is essential to understanding how you’re perceived by your team, colleagues, peers, and higher managers in your interactions with them. - Active Listening. Knowing when to talk and when to listen is a fundamental standard of influential leaders. Your team will respond better when they know you value their input by asking their opinions, seeking innovative methods to achieve the task and getting them to deliver feedback.
- Clarity. When communicating with your team, be specific. Define the desired results of the work strand or initiatives you ask of them. What does done look like? How do they know when they have achieved or satisfied the outcome? If goals fail to be met consistently, the first step is to examine your communication method.
- Transparency. In a recent survey, more than a third of senior managers, executives and employees said they “hardly ever know” what’s happening in their organisations. Transparency goes a long way to breaking down the communication walls and ensuring your staff and team understand the bigger picture.
- Empathy. Empathy has been rated as the single top leadership skill required to deliver success in the modern world. Being adept at understanding your team member’s emotions and affective experiences, the more they will feel valued, and productivity will increase
- Body Language. An overwhelming proportion of communication is transmitted through non-verbal cues. Understanding how to carry yourself, react, and convey the right message is delivered through body position.
- Implementing Feedback. The ability to grow as a leader, build trust amongst your team and peers, and develop team members stems from receiving feedback after a work event. Critically, implementing the feedback you receive maintains confidence that you, as their leader, can follow through.
- Open-Ended Questions. You need to become well-versed in asking open-ended questions to understand your team’s motivation, thoughts, and goals. One common acronym in use across the business world and within leadership development circles is TED.

Analysis
Once you and your team have communicated requirements, needs, wants and resources, you need to analyse the situation. Applying critical thought, imparting realistic expectations and providing suitable resources to your team will enable success. Failure to think critically, either through second or third-order analysis will result in decreased float for projects, increased resource use, drag, waste and importantly - decreased team morale. Your team look to you to provide a solid foundation plan to work from; even if this plan meets constraints and difficulties, you must restart your analysis, whether based in a foundational or specific approach. You are the captain steering the ship, your crew must have confidence in your criticality for your plan to be realised.
Once you and your team have communicated requirements, needs, wants and resources, you need to analyse the situation. Applying critical thought, imparting realistic expectations and providing suitable resources to your team will enable success. Failure to think critically, either through second or third-order analysis will result in decreased float for projects, increased resource use, drag, waste and importantly - decreased team morale. Your team look to you to provide a solid foundation plan to work from; even if this plan meets constraints and difficulties, you must restart your analysis, whether based in a foundational or specific approach. You are the captain steering the ship, your crew must have confidence in your criticality for your plan to be realised.

Legitimisation
Your analysis complete, you must provide reasoning behind your decisions. Half-hearted and ill-conceived plans will ultimately fail once they are delivered to your team. Have confidence in your plan and your team will too. Excelling in critical analysis is great, but if you cannot legitimise your actions and decisions, your team will falter immediately. Without a legitimate plan, your team will lose faith, productivity, morale and output.
Your analysis complete, you must provide reasoning behind your decisions. Half-hearted and ill-conceived plans will ultimately fail once they are delivered to your team. Have confidence in your plan and your team will too. Excelling in critical analysis is great, but if you cannot legitimise your actions and decisions, your team will falter immediately. Without a legitimate plan, your team will lose faith, productivity, morale and output.

Development
Your team have faith, they believe in your vision now you've legitimised your plan, so what next? Providing the environment that fosters innovation, creativity and professional development is key to ensuring each team member develops suitably. No one is expecting a first-year associate to deliver high-gain results in profits or cost savings; but give them the space and the confidence to work to the best of their abilities to deliver your vision and adapt their working methods to suit your plan.
Your team have faith, they believe in your vision now you've legitimised your plan, so what next? Providing the environment that fosters innovation, creativity and professional development is key to ensuring each team member develops suitably. No one is expecting a first-year associate to deliver high-gain results in profits or cost savings; but give them the space and the confidence to work to the best of their abilities to deliver your vision and adapt their working methods to suit your plan.

Engagement
Your team are working to deliver. They understand the deliverables, what done looks like, what constraints they can expect and what resources they have available. Left to their own, they may well deliver exceptional results, as many established teams do when working within a laissez-faire or democratic leader. But high-performance demands more. Ensuring your team are on-track, fully understand their brief and are contributing to the required standard means their leadership must account for their actions. Checks - not too close - by way of stage or gate boundaries will enable the maintenance of posture when working to a goal. Care must be taken to avoid micro-management, one of the enemies of leadership, itself reducing output, outcomes and efficiency. Creating the right balance of observation, intervention and guidance is something that must be developed over time, based in experiential events.
Your team are working to deliver. They understand the deliverables, what done looks like, what constraints they can expect and what resources they have available. Left to their own, they may well deliver exceptional results, as many established teams do when working within a laissez-faire or democratic leader. But high-performance demands more. Ensuring your team are on-track, fully understand their brief and are contributing to the required standard means their leadership must account for their actions. Checks - not too close - by way of stage or gate boundaries will enable the maintenance of posture when working to a goal. Care must be taken to avoid micro-management, one of the enemies of leadership, itself reducing output, outcomes and efficiency. Creating the right balance of observation, intervention and guidance is something that must be developed over time, based in experiential events.

Transformation
By now your team are engaged in their work, your vision providing the goals they aspire to deliver; everything is going to plan, your constraints have been minimised, resources accounted for and you're ahead of schedule. The last component of CALDET is to enable transformation:
Using the CALDET principle, you can engage, deliver, develop and transform - not only your results, but your team. An absolute essential component of being a leader is servant leadership - you are there for your team, not the other way round. There is a two-way reliance between output and outcome, and enabling results. Be a better you, enable a greater team, create more leaders.
By now your team are engaged in their work, your vision providing the goals they aspire to deliver; everything is going to plan, your constraints have been minimised, resources accounted for and you're ahead of schedule. The last component of CALDET is to enable transformation:
- Monitor. Monitor progress and provide interactive skills-based activity to ensure sustainment in the future.
- Enable. Provide the products and environment to ensure creative thinking and inspire innovation.
- Control. Control the work and tasks you provide to ensure each team member is stretched, cognitively and professional, to develop them more for future goals.
- Interact. Interaction with leaders is the pivotal factor in developing the fundamental skills required following stretch work. Communicating well with your team empowers, reduces stress and enables you to influence.
Using the CALDET principle, you can engage, deliver, develop and transform - not only your results, but your team. An absolute essential component of being a leader is servant leadership - you are there for your team, not the other way round. There is a two-way reliance between output and outcome, and enabling results. Be a better you, enable a greater team, create more leaders.