The High Ground of Leadership
Wise Advocate Enterprises
Every decision you make as a leader is a moment of choice
– an opportunity to strengthen your strategic thinking.
In our client workshops, you gain the skills of strategic leadership while working on your own most challenging problems.
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Tap into your own Wise Advocate: the inner voice leaders have relied on for centuries
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Reframe the deceptive messages of your organizational culture
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Generate narratives for your team and organization that lead to higher-performance futures
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Develop the High Ground — the strategic circuits — of your mind and brain
Our programs are based on years of research in neuroscience, management and executive coaching. They were developed by research psychiatrist Jeffrey M. Schwartz, M.D., master executive coach Josie Thomson, and management expert Art Kleiner.
About Us
Josie Thomson
Josie is a multi-award-winning executive coach based in Brisbane, Australia. She has pioneered the use of neuroscience principles with business leaders around the globe. She is a certified positive neuroplasticity and mindfulness facilitator and two-time cancer survivor. She has delivered keynote speeches on five continents and is the author of Enliven-U: A Little Book of Inspirations.
Art Kleiner
Art is a recognized expert on management thinking, thought leadership, organizational learning and scenario planning. He was editor of strategy+business and Peter Senge’s Fifth Discipline Fieldbook series. His books include The Age of Heretics, Who Really Matters, and The AI Dilemma (coauthored with Juliette Powell, appearing 2023). He teaches at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, and is editor-in-chief at Kleiner Powell International (KPI). He is a member of Marshall Goldsmith’s “100 coaches” group.
Jeffrey M. Schwartz, MD
Jeff is a research psychiatrist at UCLA School of Medicine and a leading neuroscientist. He coined the term “self- directed neuroplasticity.” His books include Brain Lock: Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior (1997) and You Are Not Your Brain: The 4-Step Solution for Changing Bad Habits, Ending Unhealthy Thinking, and Taking Control of Your Life (2011, coauthored with Rebecca Gladding). His YouTube videos have collectively logged more than half a million views. The theory and practice of these seminars are based in large part on his insights.
Solutions
Transform thinking
An intensive course in strategic leadership for leaders and emerging leaders delivered in your organization
This hands-on, experiential program is designed for teams facing difficult challenges.
The stakes are high, the best answer isn’t obvious, and your organization may not be ready.
This course rapidly develops the skills of strategic leadership.
Together and individually, you will:
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Work on the issues that are currently challenging you most
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Reframe the deceptive messages in your culture that hold you back
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Integrate short-term priorities with long-term plans and goals
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Learn how to recognize not just what people want, but what they are thinking
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Embed strategic and transactional leadership in every decision you make
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Develop your executive function: the capacity for applied mindfulness
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Generate narratives that lead to more productive futures for your team and organization
Comments from participants in other organizations:
“Helped to really think about different leadership styles and decision making practices in the workplace. I feel this course will help me be more effective.”
“Excellent interactive course.”
“I thought the material and the presenter were excellent.”
Customized solutions
In-depth consultation and programs designed for your leaders, teams, and organization
We deliver learning exercises tailored to your organizational priorities.
You will integrate neuroscience concepts with your existing learning & development strategies.
Your staff will become strategic leaders, addressing your current challenges and long-term plans and goals.
We help you reframe the deceptive messages in your culture.
We draw on extensive knowledge of management and strategy concepts, along with mind-and-brain leadership practices and applied neuroscience, to help you develop the next generation of leadership capability.
Licensing
Licensing for coaches, trainers, and trusted advisors
Wise Advocate Enterprises works with qualified coaches, consultants, and training organizations around the world.
We can help you incorporate the strategic leadership concepts into your own courses or practice, to help your clients master difficult challenges.
You can also be certified this way as a Wise Advocate associate, and can offer licensed seminars and other events with our material.
Our signature in-house course, “Transform Thinking,” is
certified by the International Coaching Federation (ICF)
for 20 credits in Coaching Education.
Testimonials
The workshop with [Art] Kleiner is giving me permission to think and talk about strategic leadership.... If we are to be good stewards of the resources we control, and the power that’s been delegated to us, we ought not squander our energies on that which doesn’t work.
Sarah Drummond, Founding Dean,
Andover Newton Seminary, Yale Divinity School,
”Reconsidering Strategic Thinking,” Medium
“When an organization commits to meaningful change, its leaders face very challenging choices every day. The Wise Advocate is about what happens in those moments and how the best leaders move their cultures forward.”
Jon R. Katzenbach, coauthor,
The Critical Few and The Wisdom of Teams
I have had the most amazing Neuroscience of Leadership workshop with Josie Thomson. It provided great insight into effective leadership, performance discussion and getting the best and most out of your staff. Josie is very engaging and her knowledge in this subject is extraordinary. You will not regret your investment.
Tamara B., HR Consultant, Department of Justice, Queensland
“To strike [the] balance between a wider perspective and the details, practice using your ‘Wise Advocate’ — a term described by Art Kleiner, Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz, and Josie Thomson…
These practices will help you answer critical questions in a transformation, such as: What is this organization here to do? What impact could we have if we reached our potential? What do we need to leave behind to make progress?”
David Lancefield and Christian Rangen,
”4 Actions Transformational Leaders Take,”
Harvard Business Review
“The Wise Advocate wants to help you avoid the terrible habits that keep you locked into habitual thinking… I’m talking about impulsive thoughts, terrible decision making and paying too much attention to horrible mental content that arises in memory…. Jeffrey Schwartz, Josie Thomson and Art Kleiner provide simple ways to overcome impulsive thinking and create greater leadership in your life and for others. ”
Anthony Metivier, Magnetic Memory Method podcast host
and CEO of Advanced Education Methodologies
“Josie, congratulations on a beautifully delivered workshop. You covered a complex topic in a way that I found highly engaging and memorable. What a gift you have given today to our emerging and current leaders.”
Ian Hall, Executive Leader, Urban Utilities, Australia