Stay Hungry: Steve Jobs’ Golden Rules

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Many have paid tribute to Steve Jobs over the last few days.  Yet when I look back it is really only in the
last few years that his name has been in the general public domain. I give below Steve’s 10 rules for success.

STAY HUNGRY, STAY FOOLISH

► When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “if today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

► Design is not just what it looks like. DESIGN IS HOW IT WORKS.

► If you haven’t found it yet, KEEP LOOKING! Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationships, it just gets beter and better as the years roll on.

► YOU CAN’T JUST ASK CUSTOMERS WHAT THEY WANT AND THEN TRY TO GIVE THAT TO THEM. BY THE TIME YOU GET IT BUILT, THEY’LL WANT SOMETHING NEW.

► You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something -
your gut, destiny, life, karm, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

►MY MODEL FOR BUSINESS IS THE BEATLES. They were four guys that kept each other’s negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of parts.

► I’M CONVINCED THAT ABOUT HALF OF WHAT SEPARATES THE SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS FROM THE NON-SUCCESSFUL ONES IS PURE PERSERVERANCE.

► YOUR TIME IS LIMITED, SO DON’T WASTE IT LIVING SOMEONE ELSE’S LIFE. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions
drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

► Being the richest man IN THE CEMETERY doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful, THAT’S WHAT MATTERS TO ME.

I recently blogged Bill Gates 10 rules  – two men in the same industry, but what a difference.

But what is it that makes them different?… love to hear your thoughts.

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The Ant and the Lion

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Every day, a small ant arrives at work very early and starts work immediately. She produces a lot and she is happy.
The Ant
The Chief, a lion, was surprised to see that the ant was working without supervision. He thought if the ant can produce so much without supervision, wouldn’t she produce even more if she had a supervisor!

So he recruited a cockroach who had extensive experience as  a supervisor and who was famous for writing excellent reports. The cockroach’s first decision was to set up a clocking in attendance system. He also needed a secretary to help him write and type his reports and he recruited a spider, who managed the archives and monitored all phone calls.

The lion was delighted with the cockroach’s reports and asked him to produce graphs to describe production rates and to analyse trends, so that he could use them for presentations at Board meetings. So the cockroach had to buy a new computer and a laser printer and recruit a fly to manage the IT department.

The ant, who had once been so productive and relaxed, hated this new plethora of paperwork and meetings which used up most of her time…!

The lion came to the conclusion that it was high time to nominate a person in charge of the department where the ant worked. The position was given to the cicada, whose first decision was to buy a carpet and an ergonomic chair for his office. The new person in charge, the cicada, also needed a computer and a personal assistant who he brought from his previous department, to help him prepare a Work and Budget Control Strategic Optimisation Plan…

The Department where the ant works is now a sad place, where nobody laughs anymore and everybody has become upset… It was at that time that the cicada convinced the boss, the lion, of the absolute necessity to start a climatic study of the environment. Having reviewed the charges for running the ant’s department, the lion found that the production was much less than before. So he recruited the owl, a prestigious and renowned consultant to carry out an audit and suggest solutions. The owl spent three months in the department and came up with an enormous report, in several volumes, that concluded: “The department is overstaffed …”

Guess who the lion fires first?

The ant, of course, because she “showed lack of motivation and had a negative attitude”.

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Bill Gates Rules!

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Recent talk of a lost generation of young people had me thinking- according to recent surveys young people will find it hard to secure jobs and attain happiness in the future. And yet wherever I go in the UK I am served in shops, restaurants, my hotel room is cleaned by young people who were clearly not born or brought up in this country.

I recently spoke to a young man who was cleaning hotel rooms he had an MBA and whilst he was not content to be a cleaner he felt that it gave him the opportunity of getting his foot on the next rung on the employment ladder.

Our conversation drew me to thinking about the following – particularly rule 5.

The following is an urban myth that has been circulating for some time and has recently resurfaced. It has been attributed to Bill Gates as some advice he dished out when speaking at a high school. It is also attributed to educator Charles Sykes in his book “Dumbing Down our Kids”.

Whatever or whoever it is still pretty cool …….  politically correct teaching has created a full generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept sets them up for failure in the real world.

RULE 1
Life is not fair – get used to it.

RULE 2
The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

RULE 3
You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice president with a car phone, until you earn both.

RULE 4
If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn’t have tenure.

RULE 5
Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping they called it Opportunity.

RULE 6
If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

RULE 7
Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

RULE 8
Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

RULE 9
Life is not divided into terms. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.

RULE 10
Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

RULE 11
Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

Add to this that nearly 50% of parents who were asked called for the return of corporal punishment in schools and two-thirds of pupils want strong leadership in the classroom is it maybe time that we returned to ‘the old standards’ in education?

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It’s a trainer’s life on the road

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When I bought my last car it had 24,000 miles on the clock, 30 months later it has approaching 124, 000. Now I am sure there will be someone out there who claims to drive further but even so it’s not bad by any standards.

I only mention it because one of my favourite drives is up the A1 to Scotland, one passes through some magnificent countryside and if time is on one’s side there are some fantastic views. As one draws into the ‘Inspiring Capital’ the view changes, on the right Princess Street on the left towering over the City is the famous Castle – in this instance being dwarfed by the grandstands specially erected for the tattoo.

On this particular night the last week in August the City buzzing more than normal – its Festival time! Amongst the crowds walking along one can recognise performers if not from their dress, from instruments being carried. In the writers case its ‘Fringe’ time,  2751 performances in a four week period. The book giving details of all going on itself runs to 360 pages and looks more like a telephone directory than a performance brochure.

And so our week begins training courses by day, performances by night – but who, where and when – the timetable begins about 11am and runs till 2 or 3 in the morning. The average performance lasting about an hour but sometimes a little longer. The venues range from luxuriant Gothic buildings to what in the cold light of day is nothing more than a big shed. The seating ranges from just plain uncomfortable to bum numbing- sometimes one is grateful that the performance is only an hour.

Does one go straight for the big names – ‘er off the telly; ‘im off the radio or does one look for something different? Our first taste was ‘The Pink Sinatra’ real name Scott Free – a great singer in the Sinatra style – but with a slight twist, our man wore a pink leather suit, pink trilby and walked with a wiggle. Worth every penny. It was then a quick taxi ride along Princess Street and up the Mount to see headliner Andy Parsons (the bald one off Mock the Week). He is a bit like Marmite – an hour was enough – then out into the night air to try and find a restaurant open, if all else fails look for an Indian! And then to bed.

8.00am the next morning bright as a button (not!) back in the training room. The hotel is busy so spotting my people as they arrive in the hotel lobby is not easy, but eventually we round them all up and we are off!

A 4:45 finish and it’s a quick wash & brush up down into the hotel restaurant and dinner before going back on the fringe trail. Tonight is exciting – its them magicians off the telly. Barry & Stuart – two young guys who are very good with tonight’s performance having a twist. The theatre is packed and we are each handed a pair of 3D type glasses. The magic starts before our stars appear (I’m not telling!). Their act is very audience participatory and has does not stop for breath, the hour passes quickly and we finally spill out into the bar area to kill some time before queuing for the second performance – The Tell!  Yep it’s just as it says on the can. They take the now smaller audience step by step through their routine, but with a difference – they show how the tricks are done. If I told you, you would not believe me, so I am not going to. All I can say is ‘its magic – really’.

Our third day was a little easier, no delivery so on the morning catch up on Emails etc. With lunchtime treat – lunch with The Hamiltons – that’s Christine & Neil. She is a living Ray O’Sunshine, never stops talking, interrupts and calls everyone ‘dahling’ I think Neil deserves a medal living with her!

Whilst we qued to get in we were joined by Julian Fellowes (the writer of Downton Abbey) and his very glamorous wife. In order to fill the hour the Hamiltons had various guests from the ‘Fringe’ world each punting their own show. Apparently they are really popular and have been coming for some years but stopped in 2009 only to be dragged back for 2011.

Lunch was outdoors in a large quadrangle area of the University which itself serves as a campus for fringe performances. With an hour or so to kill before our next performance, we took a walk down the Royal Mile to have a look at the buskers, street performers and generally take in the atmosphere. You name it and they were there ‘glee’ groups from the USA, musicals from Australia, performers from all corners of the globe.

Our next port of call was a ’Night Out with Tommy Cooper’ well an hour and half actually. All the old tricks with gags that are even older. A brilliant night out – laugh, if not at the act then at the audience – isn’t laughter infectious?

A quick meal and then to the highlight of the trip, not the fringe but the tattoo.  We’ve all seen it on the telly, but one has to see it once in reality. Lots of soldiers, lots of marching (some dancing) and lots of bands. An audience from around the world – hanging on every action and movement. As I say one has to see it just once in the flesh – now I have.

Regrets, we were not there long enough, we didn’t see ‘er of the radio or ‘im of the telly, but there is always next year!

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Establishing Credibility Through Integrity

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Many people in leadership roles have collected a toolkit of leadership techniques, most of which have their merits, but many of which are hard to apply effectively. Warriors who try to suppress their innate tendency to lead from the front may become frustrated with trying to take the back seat, and feel they are failing to add value. But if they have been taught to “empower” people, and not to get too involved, they try valiantly to put into practice something that they cannot truly believe in, and consequently help no-one, not even themselves.

Similarly, Adventurers who try to ‘grow up’ and become serious, responsible father-figures can become excessively authoritarian as they over-compensate for the fact that they are operating outside of their Home Base. Knowing that people often look for more guidance than they want themselves, they can end up smothering people.

Sages, responding to feedback that they fail to fight for what is right, can become quixotic, taking on battles that they ought to avoid. The ‘fighting’ Sage, unaccustomed to the implicit ‘Queensbury Rules’ of the organisation can astonish and dismay people with their flailing around. They can be very bad tacticians, having had little experience of how to win in open conflict.

Guardians who feel they ought to give people more rope can become untrustworthy and rash. Many of their subordinates begin to feel betrayed and abandoned by the very person who, hitherto, had been their rock.

Much of what is taught and has been written about leadership, especially in recent years are ‘proven’ leadership methods, promoted as ‘the answer’, without recognition that any approach to leadership, for it to be an effective tool, has to be harmonious with a leader’s character.

What makes you a good leader is learning how to lead in the way you were born to lead. In this sense, leaders are born, not made. Character comes first, leadership strategy second. Before you take on any leadership technique, ask yourself how well it fits with your character.

One of the most dangerous mistakes a leader can make is to try to be all things to all people. This may be based on the good intention to be a rounded individual. But in a leadership position, this can so easily come across as inconsistency. Successful leaders know themselves and develop strategies that are both consistent and in tune with their core characters, and appropriate to their context.

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Leadership and Management

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Leadership is not management. People can learn how to be good managers by adopting a number of managerial techniques. Management is predicated on authority, and even poor managers can get things done simply because they have that authority over the people they manage. Being a good manager means being good at what you do.

However, leadership depends upon others’ willingness to follow, and is not about being good at what you do, but being good at who you are.

In leadership, it is not what you do or say that is important, but whether those who would follow believe in you. If leader X, a person I trust, value and fundamentally believe in, asks me to do something, the chances are that I will do it willingly. But if leader Y, a person whom I believe to be untrustworthy, self-centred and lacking in integrity asks me to do exactly the same thing, I’ll find every way I can to avoid doing it.

Leaders need to be adaptable and well rounded. But they also need to have a core strategy, a firm and consistent framework upon which to build their unique leadership styles.

Of course, for all leaders, there will be times when it feels right to fight for what they believe in; they have people around them they can involve in decision-making; a sense of organizational community needs to be created and maintained; while everyone should have a degree of freedom to express their individuality to some degree.

Each of these is an issue of judgement. At what point is it appropriate to fight for what you believe in? How far should people be allowed to go in influencing a leader’s decisions? How involved in the community should people be? How much freedom should individuals be given?

There are no right answers to these questions. Leadership is demonstrated in the exercise of discretion – making consistent, coherent and credible judgements on issues of significance to others, but issues which have to be resolved according to what you, as a leader, believe to be right.  As a leader, you are expected to make decisions and stick to your beliefs on matters like these.

Not everyone will agree with your decisions and judgements, but trying to satisfy everybody, and to be all things to all people can end up with adopting a leadership style that has no substance, no consistency, and therefore, no credibility. Effective leaders know that you don’t have always to be right to succeed. But you do have to be believed in.

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Bureaucracy Rules – Are we surprised?

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According to a parliamentary report published at the end of July this year, Probation Officers spend only 25 per cent of their time in direct contact with offenders because they have so much paperwork to deal with. Ministers are said to be surprised and dismayed: “It seems to us staggering that up to three quarters of officers’ time might be spent on work that does not involve direct engagement with offenders,” the Select Committee report said.

What surprises me is that it takes a Commons Justice Select Committee report to bring this kind of situation to light. The Probation service may be an extreme example of bureaucracy like this, but it is not unique. The report said that the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) has developed a “tight grip” on the Probation Service, involving micromanagement that undermines work capable of turning round the lives of offenders. Targets have been set, but very few bear any relation to reducing re-offending, the report said.

Look at all sorts of public services (and some private sector organizations, too), and you will find similar micromanagement and target setting getting in the way of the work people are there to do.

We all know this is crazy, so why is it happening?

We believe it is a symptom of the victory of management over leadership that pervades so many of our organizations. You can manage paperwork, but you can’t lead it. You can lead people, but “managing” them is easier, especially when that management is all about the hard data that targets, forms, and paperwork are designed to produce.

Left to their own devices, Probation Officers, like so many other professionals, would spend more time with the people they are there to work with, and would devise initiatives, probably locally at first, that could enhance the value and efficiency of their services. But left to their own devices, one or two may take advantage of the system. What motivates so much of the bureaucracy that pervades our highly regulated organizations is the reality that, without bureaucracy, some people will misbehave. To try to eliminate this risk, managers create the ‘tick-box’ culture that ensures that everyone is following the rules.

If we really want to cut out inefficiency in our organizations, now that it is clear that Probation Officers spend less than 25% of their time actually doing the jobs they are there to do, does this give us a clue as to where to start?

If we are advocating that significant reductions in bureaucracy are the route to more effectiveness and efficiency, what will replace the checks and balances that the bureaucracy was designed to provide? How are organizations to manage the risk that people will ‘take advantage’ of their freedom? By engendering a culture of leadership to replace a culture of bureaucracy.

If management is about working within the system, leadership is about discretion: taking decisions beyond the rules of the system. This is not the same as breaking the rules. It is about seeing opportunities to do things differently and thereby producing better outcomes. Nor is it, necessarily, anarchy, with everyone doing things their own way without considering the consequences, although it could become so. What prevents it from becoming so is the development of effective leadership. And this does not mean just at the senior levels; it means tapping into the leadership potential throughout any organisation, at all levels of the hierarchy.

Developing the leadership capabilities of individual organisations is not the same as putting everyone through a management development course. Courses like these engender conformity and adherence to the rules. True leadership development focuses upon individuals and their potential, enabling individuals, through self- and –other awareness to work collaboratively towards sound judgements about those aspects of their work where they have discretion. And, where appropriate, to broaden the scope of that discretion.

That is what the report on the Probation Service is, perhaps rather belatedly, recommending. At last!

Developing leadership capability throughout an entire organisation might seem an expensive investment. But compared to the wastage and inefficiency that typifies so many organisations (the Probation service is not unique), it represents a drop in the ocean.

Think about where your next pot of development investment is about to be made. Will it go towards developing the good judgement that typifies effective discretionary leadership? Or will it be spent on making sure that your people toe the line, follow the rules, and tick the right boxes?

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Jigsaw@work Shortlisted for Business Innovation Award

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We’re delighted to announce that we have been shortlisted for the Innovation category for the Wakefield District Business Awards 2011!

We pride ourselves on being an innovative company, not only in our approach to learning and development, but also with our product, expansion to the team and company development.

As a practical 64 piece jigsaw, The Jigsaw Discovery Tool has been recognised as an innovative tool that helps learners to discover their personality type and in turn how their own, and the behaviours of others, impacts on performance, communication and the success of an organisation.

Our learning tool is also used throughout the world and, through master licensors, is part of many learning and development programmes.  The Jigsaw Discovery Tool is even available in Arabic, not just as a translation but as a full interpretation.

Jigsaw@work’s favourite characters, Mr Huey Blue, Ray O’Sunshine, Eva Reddy and Carey & the Harmonizers, also demonstrate our unique and innovative approach to helping individuals recognise personality types and styles.  The characters help make learning relevant and really bring the different scenarios to life, better still they bring some fun to the working day.

We have a strong digital presence, (which you can see through the use of our Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn pages, as well as this website!) and the expansion to our team with a dedicated Social Media Marketing Assistant, which all reinforces our commitment and innovative approach to learning.

The Award Ceremony will be held on the 30th June and celebrates the notable achievements of companies in the Wakefield area, so fingers crossed!

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The ASTD Conference 2011 kicks off in style

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It was a very untypical Monday morning, sat in a room with 1000 people, the lights go down, the music starts and the best dance act from ‘America’s Got Talent’ appears on stage.  This was the start of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) Conference, 2011.  The Americans certainly know how to put on a show and this was no exception.  However, despite the glitz and glamour of the first few minutes, the two key note speakers for the conference opening ‘General Session’ made important points.  Tony Bingham highlighted the importance of ‘MLearning’’ and Marcus Buckingham told us all how to ‘StandOut’.

Tony Bingham started, the ASTD President and Chief Executive gave a low key and subtle performance but his message certainly carried weight.  For those in the audience who didn’t quite understand the term ‘MLearning’, it was soon to be revealed the CEO was talking about ‘Mobile’ Learning.  He talked of the importance of using mobile phone technology to aid training and development, to use it as an add-on to conventional learning techniques and to compliment the key messages that have been understood.  MLearning, we soon learnt, was not a replacement to conventional methods, rather a tool to compliment.  However a tool, if not used, would certainly diminish the effect of our beloved traditional techniques.

When Bingham started to talk phone statistics, everyone understood the impact and potential of MLearning.  It seemed crystal clear that to choose not to incorporate MLearning in your organisation’s development portfolio, would be to do so at your peril. In 2010, 1.6 billion mobile phones were sold, 279 million of those were smart phones.  In the same year 19.5 million tablets were sold and that figure is calculated to rise to a staggering 208 million by 2014, just three years.  The world population he impressively told us, as of the date May 18th 2011, is 6.9 billion and over three quarters of that population has a mobile phone.  In Russia, each person has an average of 1.5 phones each!

Apparently out of the companies featured at the ASTD conference, only 10% were involved in MLearning.  I breathed a huge sigh of relief that we were one of them.  Our clients and customers can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.  More importantly however is that each of the characters of our Jigsaw@work tool have their very own Twitter account.  Described by one conference delegate who visited our stand, ‘it’s like real-time coaching’, we couldn’t have put it better ourselves.

However, Bingham didn’t leave those who were not inaugurated into the MLearning Hall of Fame disappointed.  He gave everyone a guide on how to become involved in the technological revolution.  Here are the steps he suggested:

  1. Start!
  2. Identify a pilot
  3. Think of the platform
  4. Build capability
  5. Engage I.T.
  6. Set targets and evaluate
  7. Have fun!

Everyone applauded a presentation that gave real context to the conference.

Next up was Marcus Buckingham, a Brit who now lives in the States and who has an enthusiastic following.  He is the author of several bestsellers including ‘First, Break all the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently’, ‘The Truth about You: Your Secret to Success’ and ‘Go Put Your Strengths to Work: Six Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance’.  His new book is called ‘StandOut’.

Buckingham went on to establish that now is the time, more than ever before to focus on strengths.  When considering performance in the workplace, 55% of people focused on developing weaknesses whilst only 45% harnessed strengths.  He said people are ‘more frightened of our weaknesses than honouring strengths’.  As long as we ‘direct’ the strength, rather than use it inappropriately, we will develop and improve.  The trick is not to develop a great idea from one person and then apply it to everyone else, but to recognise everyone’s uniqueness so that each person identifies their best idea that will work best for them.  If each person can put their best foot forward, then they will get the best result.  There is no perfect profile, be authentic.  It’s just about, as Buckingham reminded us ‘making the most of who you are’.

Buckingham took us on a journey to demonstrate how we should harness the strengths of each and if we do, if we encourage people to be the best they can be, the results will speak for themselves.  Although it may seem obvious to most people to focus on strengths, it was a point worth repeating.  Maybe we have become so focused on ‘developmental areas’ that we are missing a trick.

A round of applause and cheers brought the first ‘General Session’ to a close but started the conference with energy and vitality.  The delegates leapt to their feet, made their way to the exhibition hall, and kept the energy going whilst attending educational seminars, visiting exhibiting stands and author sessions, for the next three days.

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Are your leadership development programmes delivering value for money?

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Many organisations are delivering leadership development programmes that are at best poor value for money, and at worst, a drain on financial resources and individuals. Failures in leadership lie at the heart of many newsworthy recent and current crises, even though a great deal of money is being spent on programmes that purport to develop leadership. With so much investment, why is good leadership so elusive?

There are many reasons why leadership development fails in its aims, but there are some very common causes:

Six common causes of failure in leadership development

  1. Believing there’s a blueprint for good leadership
  2. Development based on leadership competency models
  3. Inherent contradictions within the development curriculum
  4. Trying to train leaders
  5. Providing tools and techniques for ‘leadership’
  6. Delivering management development and calling it leadership development

If any or all of the above are features of your leadership development offering, you may, unwittingly, be doing more harm than good.

How do we know?

We have a team that is fully committed to leadership development, led by the former Director of the Management Development Unit at Cranfield School of Management who steered the School into the top 4 providers of tailored in-company Executive Development in the world. During this period, the team created an internal Faculty Development Programme that significantly enhanced the design and delivery skills of the School’s development professionals.

Typically, these seasoned professionals said of this programme that it gave them,  “The chance to rethink first principles and address ‘live’ teaching issues.  The course has answered some questions about the reasons some things have not worked.”

Since becoming independent in 2001, we have been involved in consulting on leadership development with clients such as Citigroup, The European Investment Fund, Barclays Capital, Sara Lee, Darlington Borough Council, AMEC and many more. Our work has taken us across Europe, and into North and South America, the Far East, and Australia.

Our experience has enabled us both to publish on learning and leadership, and to identify why some leadership development is powerful and effective, whilst some is well-meaning but ineffective.

Leadership development audit

We have over 20 years’ experience in auditing and enhancing leadership development programmes for our clients. Our leadership development audit service is now being offered to you as a flexible package.

The audit comprises a number of elements from which you can select as appropriate for your own context.

Review

The initial stage is a review of your current leadership development portfolio. We explore with you its aims, content, style, design and outcomes, including all feedback you have already collected. In many instances, this stage can already highlight issues to be addressed. An experienced, objective and dispassionate review of any programme can produce significant benefit for you, the internal reputation of L&D, and your organisation.

Observe

What is written is not always an accurate reflection of what is experienced. We have observed many hundreds of leadership development activities, sharing with participants not what is being presented, but what is being experienced. We see things through the eyes of the target audience, not those of the deliverers.

Interview

Interviewing key stakeholders in the development of leadership can be a powerful way of gaining insight into the wide variety of impressions they have both of leadership itself, and of the development on offer. We have experience in interviewing and engaging with senior leaders, HR and L&D professionals, participants, and providers, both internal and external.

Report and recommendations

Our audit report will provide recommendations on two fronts: recommendations for enhancement of management development activities, and recommendations for enhancement of leadership development. In many organisations, these are jumbled together, and send out contradictory messages for participants. Our expertise is in both management and leadership development, and we can show why and how these two need to be clearly differentiated.

Design

Designing for learning has been one of our key strengths for many years. We work with our clients on drawing up robust and effective learning design, taking into account not only the desired outcomes for any programme or activity, but also how the design will be experienced by people going through the programme.

Developing the developers

Designing, developing and delivering effective leadership development requires skills and capabilities that are different from those needed for training or for management development. Our Develop the Developers workshops transfer those appropriate skills and capabilities to your team, to enable you to build further on our audit service, and help ensure that your leadership development offerings continue to deliver value for money.

As the Head of Learning and Development at Barclays Capital said at the time of our Developing the Developers programme: “The programme is not meant simply to enhance our already highly developed skills. It is there to put us at the leading edge of Development and Performance Management. It will provide us with a set of tools, a methodology, and, moreover, a way of thinking about our business which will mean we can become a centre of excellence others will want to emulate.”

WHY NOT GET A TASTE OF HOW WE CAN HELP?

We are running a half-day leadership audit programme

The workshop will be enlightening, interactive and practical. We will explore case material of real development programmes, showing how they can inadvertently send out mixed messages.

In addition, we will invite you to send us your questions and issues on leadership development before the event, so that we can be sure we address what is important to you on the day.

If you would like to know more….

The workshop will cover, amongst other topics as requested:

  • How leadership is different from management. Leadership is not another term for senior management, but is fundamentally different from management, and depends for success on a leader’s character, integrity, and credibility, not upon his or her status or formal authority.
  • Why leadership development therefore needs to be fundamentally different from management development. Management development seeks to help managers acquire the skills, attitudes, and competences appropriate for his or her job and organisational context. Leadership development helps individuals develop their own, unique leadership qualities through deep exploration of their characters, values and strategies for leading.
  • Why the six common causes of failure do cause failure. Each of these causes of failure is built upon well-meaning attempts to deliver value. We will show how and why each of these is inappropriate and potentially harmful to the development of genuine leadership.
  • Practical learning design. We will share some of our experience of designing integrated, learner-centred and rigorous programmes both of management development and leadership development, and explain why they work.
  • Introduction to the Leadership Compass. Leadership manifests itself in many different and often apparently contradictory forms. The Leadership Compass enables developers to help guide different individuals in different directions, whilst enabling their organisations to capitalise upon the wide range of leadership capabilities represented within the Leadership compass.
  • Motivations – how these link leadership and learning. For a leader to be effective, he or she needs to understand his or her own deep motivations and drivers, and be able to recognise what drives others. We will briefly touch on how a deeper appreciation of differing motivations influences both leadership and leadership development.
  • What next? Following the half-day session, we will be offering a follow-up initial discussion of how what we have covered can be turned to your benefit in your organisation, through an initial visit or conference call focusing on your programme or programmes of both management and leadership development.

The workshop is to be held in Central London on Friday 1st June.

Coffee and Registration at 9.00am

Workshop commences at 9.30am

Workshop Finishes at 1.00pm with a light buffet lunch

There is a charge of £95.00+ VAT per person.

Places are limited, so please book early to avoid disappointment

Places can be booked by emailing Michelle.McArthur-Morgan.

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