Learn about the Qualities of Practice

What are Qualities of Practice?

In simple terms, Qualities of Practice (QoP) are a wide range of qualities identified as critical to successful leadership practice. Developed by the EB Centre through research over ten years ago, and then tried and tested with national and global leaders at all levels, these lived qualities repeatedly reveal themselves as the seeds that give rise to behaviour, mindsets, actions and interactions.

Our research showed that when qualities are out of balance, leadership becomes diminished, less effective, and problematic. Where ‘balance’ is dynamic, varying from one situation to the next, a lived experience full of potential.

The QoP process is dialogic, inquiring, reflective, (not prescriptive). Insights and learning unfold in a self-discovery journey that is embedded in everyday reality. These learning principles are the same whether you decide to pick up the printed Guide and pack of cards, or go for the online learning.

The process is simple, the learning deep, powerful and long lasting.

See FAQ’s below for more information about the Qualities of Practice and the processes that make learning a deep and rich experience.

The Qualities of Practice learning processes help you see more clearly:

  • How you show up differently in different situations

  • Your habitual self and how you can make more intentional choices

  • When you are ’out of balance’ and how to re-balance with a ‘both-and’ mindset

  • How some qualities become eclipsed, and then how to illuminate these qualities

  • How different people evoke different qualities in you

  • Your perception of others

  • What happens in times of conflict and challenging situations

  • How to overcome relational difficulties

All of this enables you to engage more powerfully in your leadership, with key people around you, in different situations, in-the-moment.

If this piques your interest hop over to a taster session here

“This blew away my expectations and far exceeded previous leadership training.”
MD, Finance

What the Qualities of Practice process does

We (Mary, Rosie and Sue, the Founders of EB concepts and designers of learning) challenged ourselves to put together a sentence of up to 16 words, that would ‘commercially’ describe what the QoP process does.

This is what we came up with:

Use the QoP learning processes to ……

“Instigate purposeful action, respond fluidly to change, choose the leadership qualities that will support your success.”

The QoP process ……

“Builds awareness and confidence in meeting dynamic leadership challenges in a balanced, agile, relational way.” 

“Illuminates situational leadership practices, providing stimulus to expand impact and effectiveness in an agile, balanced way.”

The QoP process is ……

“A simple learning experience that achieves deep, meaningful and sustainable learning through everyday situations.”

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Qualities of Practice help us see the dynamic shifts and changes in our behaviour, in different settings and with different people, rather than being type cast. When we see our patterns in the qualities we can also see qualities in ourselves waiting to be developed. In that way the Qualities of Practice are not prescriptive, but discovery-based, positive, opportunities for growth.

  • Early research found that the deep principles behind the concept are the same across cultures. Albeit that patterns and mindsets are different and linguistic translations vary. So we designed a discovery-based process that completely respects cultural differences.

    When we put the question to clients from different cultures and with a different first language, the response has predominantly been 'don't change it, it works'. And definitely not to translate the language on the cards as that provides richness for dialogue and inquiry (which is a core principle of the EB learning approach).

  • When people do the exercises and see the full range of cards they often work out the difference. When we ask them, common responses include: doing (green)-being (purple), task-people, yin-yang. All are right.

    The deep principles that sit behind the concept connect to Carl Jung's idea of Masculinised and Feminised archetypes - that is, (typical) patterns that are deep within us all. These are not specifically to man-woman although our social world has led to stereotyping that might suggest this. We see women in leader roles who show up in highly masculinised ways, as much as seeing men very comfortable showing up with more feminised qualities. It is our socialised prejudices that often get in the way of each of us becoming masterful at both and appreciating a broader range of qualities in ourselves and in others.

  • We have found over and over again that people's experiences, behaviours and mindsets that 'explain' a quality, vary widely. There is no right and wrong, instead a kaleidoscope of variations, shades of difference, subtle distinctions where deep learning sits. Providing a lexicon to describe the qualities would act against the depth of learning that is achieved by voicing, listening to and appreciating these differences.

  • Yes, you can. We have been using the EB approach for developing teams for a number of years and we are now pulling together the learning and wisdom from this work into a new online learning package that leaders can run with their teams. This will become available in 2025.

    Meanwhile, your team members could benefit from all working through Solo 1 individually and sharing their learning with each other.

    If you would like to talk to us about how to use the Qualities of Practice with your team, do get in touch we'd be happy to jump on a call with you.

    If you would like us to keep you posted when the Teams version is released please email us.