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Pact 6 of 6 · Power & Responsibility

Privileges Pact

Agenda PDF unavailable

The agreement about how seniority, access, and advantage are used — leadership as stewardship rather than entitlement.

Overview

The Privileges Pact names something senior teams rarely discuss: the advantages that come with the role, and whether they are used in service of the collective or for self-protection.

Standards erode quietly. What a team once held itself to can slip without anyone deciding to let it. This pact asks whether commitments have been maintained under pressure.

Leadership as stewardship means the leader's behaviour genuinely enables the team, explicit leadership commitments exist, and decisions that benefit an individual at the cost of the whole get named.

Signs of strength

  • •Conscious, service-oriented use of positional advantage
  • •Leader's behaviour enables team performance
  • •Standards maintained rather than quietly eroded
  • •Self-serving decisions named and addressed

Signs of strain

  • •Different rules for the most senior
  • •Standards that have slipped without discussion
  • •Leadership experienced as entitlement
  • •Silence when a decision benefits one at the cost of many

Questions worth asking

  • “What advantage does my role give me, and how do I use it?”
  • “Which standards have quietly eroded?”
  • “What has the leader committed to, and is it honoured under pressure?”

Workshop agenda

Half day (3 hours)

This agenda is currently being updated and is not available to run or download. It's shown here for reference only.

Outcome: A written leadership charter, restored standards, and a mechanism for naming self-serving decisions.

  1. 0:00

    Frame & data walk-through

    Review Privileges Pact scores, with attention to differences between leader and team perception.

  2. 0:25

    Naming privilege

    Each member names the advantages their role carries and one way they have used them for self-protection.

  3. 1:00

    Standards audit

    List the standards this team once held. Mark maintained, slipped, or abandoned. Decide which to restore.

  4. 1:30

    Break

    15 minutes.

  5. 1:45

    Leader's charter

    The leader drafts explicit commitments about how they will lead. The team stress-tests them against real pressure scenarios.

  6. 2:25

    The naming mechanism

    Agree how the team calls a decision that benefits one at the cost of the whole.

  7. 2:50

    Commitments & close

    Publish the charter, confirm restored standards, and set the review date.

Materials

Standards audit sheet · Leadership charter template · Pressure scenario cards

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