The BTS Spark Mindset Map

The Mindset Map is the intellectual heart of everything BTS Spark does. It brings together 30 leadership mindsets, the shifts that decades of research and over 150,000 coaching conversations show make the biggest difference to how leaders lead. Organised across four domains, it is the foundation for every program, every coaching journey and every development pathway BTS Spark designs.

Relate

How leaders show up with the people around them, building trust, giving feedback, navigating conflict, listening deeply and creating the conditions where others feel seen, heard and empowered.

Be

The inner foundations of leadership: resilience, wellbeing, confidence, authenticity, courage and a clear sense of personal purpose. The mindsets that allow leaders to sustain themselves and show up at their best.

Think

How leaders analyse, decide and challenge: accountability, curiosity, disciplined experimentation and the willingness to question the way things are done rather than default to what is known.

Inspire

How leaders set direction and bring others with them: visioning, compelling communication, shared purpose, values-led leadership and the ability to lead with clarity when the future is uncertain.

What is a mindset shift?

Most leadership development focuses on skills and knowledge. BTS Spark starts with mindset, because what a leader believes about themselves, others and the world shapes every decision, every conversation and every moment of leadership they have. A mindset shift is not about adding a new technique on top of an old way of thinking. It is about changing the underlying belief that drives the behaviour. That is what creates lasting change.

The research behind the map

The Mindset Map was built on a substantial evidence base:

• Insights from over 100,000 leaders annually
• 150,000 coaching conversations analysed to identify the shifts that drive the most lasting change
• Over 30 years of modelling and simulating leaders' real-world contexts
• Decades of assessment data spanning leaders from frontline to senior executive level

The result is not a theoretical framework. It is a practical map of the mindset shifts that research shows make a genuine difference, and a foundation flexible enough to be co-designed around any leader's context, career stage or challenge.

How it works in practice

No two leaders need the same development. The Mindset Map gives BTS Spark coaches and facilitators a shared language and a flexible foundation for designing programs that fit, drawing on the mindsets most relevant to each leader, team or organisation rather than delivering a fixed curriculum. Whether the starting point is a single coaching journey or a system-wide program, the map ensures every piece of development is grounded in the same evidence base and connected to the same bigger picture of what great leadership looks like.

Interested in exploring how the Mindset Map could shape a development journey for you or your leaders? Get in touch and let's start a conversation.