The Best Advice I Ever Received – full transcripts

The Best Advice I Ever Received – full transcripts Dick Randell Dick is an international business consultant who assists senior executives to develop their strategic direction, resolve business issues, and improve organisational effectiveness. He has worked with clients for over 20 years in sales, marketing, operations and finance, developing customer/supplier relationships, as well as trans-cultural and cross-functional team leadership. He regularly provides personal coaching. Client experience includes 3M, BUPA, ExxonMobil, Nokia, NatWest, PepsiCo, Symantec and public sector organisations, including inter-governmental. Dick works in various European countries, and previously in Africa, China, Middle and Far East, Russia, and USA. He was an Executive Consultant with Ernst & Young, a Supervising Consultant with Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers) and also held executive or line management positions within NCR, Willis Faber and the CBI. “I was given some excellent advice in the Navy, just before we commenced a major action in the face of armed insurrection and also international political storm. It was apparent that almost everyone was quite nervous about this whole operation, but during a 'pep talk' given to the ship's company by the Admiral, he specifically asked us to ensure "first things first". He went on to say this meant we needed to concentrate our efforts together on two or three essentials and focus on these to achieve the desired end results. He added that this required a high degree of planning before starting the operation and we were carrying out orders, reminding us this was what our political 'masters' required of us. Many years later in the business consulting practice, I was privileged to work closely together with Peter Drucker and John Humble. (At that time, mid 1980's, both had been nominated as two of the "24 Makers of Modern Management" by Business Magazine.) Both Peter and John referred to this earlier advice, Peter saying it is a critical part of being an effective executive, adding that "All leaders know they have many and varied tasks to achieve effectively, but their ultimate test is business performance with shareholders and customers approval. Therefore they should concentrate their own time and the organisation on doing 'first things first' " and John saying "many leaders try to take on far too many goals and objectives, but not always review and reduce these to the absolutely essential, which should always be linked with what the Customers needs and requirements are". The advice has helped me personally to concentrate my efforts on the highest priorities, regularly assessing and changing these depending upon the circumstances. This has been not only in my family life, but also when having to make major decisions on fundamental changes, such as helping to grow profitability, undertaking huge cost reduction and redundancies programmes, merging two company operations or liquidating companies too” Graham Johnson Graham is the Director of Leadership Development at Straight Talking, a niche Leadership Consultancy that focuses on Developing Leadership, Leaders and Teams. As a founding partner in Straight Talking he has successfully directed a variety of leadership related projects for global organisations across a range of sectors including Energy, Finance, Pharmaceuticals, Retail and Public Services. Specialising in supporting Executive teams to create, implement and embed Leadership Brands, Graham also helps leaders at all levels to confidently adopt distributed leadership practices through tailored development programmes, empowers teams to move beyond local boundaries to achieve shared and networked visions and provides leadership mentoring for senior managers who wish to find more effective pathways through their personal leadership labyrinths. Prior to establishing a career as an independent consultant Graham worked within the Financial Services sector in a range of consultancy, managerial and developmental roles. He is in the final stages of an MA in Leadership Studies at Exeter University, holds a Diploma in Management and is a qualified practitioner of Extended DISC and Strength Deployment Inventory. His current interest lies in the development of Straight Talking’s new Synergetic Leadership System, the applications and impacts of Reflective Writing within leadership mentoring and using Appreciative Inquiry to generate emergent strategies. “I am the Director of Leadership Development at Straight Talking (uk) Limited, a specialist consultancy focused on „developing leadership, leaders and teams‟. Some years ago I was fortunate to meet and become good friends with a guy called Frank Gilbert who gave me this piece of invaluable advice: ‘Be Selfish with Time and Generous with People’ At the time I was at the beginning of my leadership career and managed a team of around 35 staff and this advice helped me to control my expanding diary so that I was much more focused on the needs, hopes and aspirations of each member of my team. My listening skills dramatically improved and in time I became more effective through the use of coaching and informal mentoring so that the relatively short amount of time that I was often able to spend with them was more productive for all concerned. This has become ever more important as my time, and that of the leaders that I work with along their development pathways, has become more and more stretched, demanded, fragmented and precious. What Frank gave me was a reminder that managing your own diary and schedules didn‟t mean being unapproachable or even separate from the people whom you are trying to support, guide and lead. Being „selfish with time and generous with people‟ means organising yourself and others so that when you are with the people who matter, you can give them your FULL attention so that they rightly feel valued and appreciated. So many ineffective leaders find themselves being dragged under by workloads that on the surface appear to follow these „wise words‟ yet in reality follow the opposite route and being „generous with time and selfish with people‟ is no way for modern leadership to flourish” Group Captain John Jupp Group Captain John Jupp is married with four daughters. He spent his early career flying F4 Phantom jet fighters through the Cold War including a short stint in the Falkland Islands. Later on he converted to the Tornado F3 fighter and flew the aircraft in many parts of the world on exercise and operations including over Bosnia and Iraq. During his flying career he became a Qualified Weapons Instructor and Instrument Rating Examiner and commanded 111(Fighter) Squadron. When not flying, the appointments he held included air accident investigation, responsibility for the avionics area of the Typhoon procurement project, responsibility for all Tornado F3 operations and the readiness of the Tornado F3 aircraft fleet, and deployment and recovery of all RAF operations. He was appointed to set up and command the RAF Leadership Centre in September 2003. “I had been much influenced by my weapons instructor on my first squadron when I had been learning to fly operationally for the first time. We were all very war-like and keen to win. Some years later I was moving up the promotion ladder and doing my first ground tour in the staff when I met the man again. He had left the Royal Air Force and was working for a civilian company and he said to me that the one thing we, and he when he was still serving, just did not understand was a win-win solution. He was right; my military mind said that if you beat someone in a fight, there was a winner and a loser. I had to ask him to explain. He showed me that, while there was always a need for the military to have the win-lose mentality for war, in getting along within our own organisations and those that we supported and supported us we could do so much more by seeking to find a solution where both parties were winners. It is something that I have used to great effect ever since” Richard Fenning Richard Fenning is the CEO of Control Risks Group. Control Risks is one of the world’s leading business risk consultancies advising corporations and governments on a wide range of political, integrity and security risks. The company is headquartered in London with 19 offices around the world. Before becoming CEO, Richard was Chief Operating Officer from 2000 to 2005, head of the firm’s New York office from 1997 to 2000 and Business Development Director since 1993. Before joining Control Risks, he worked in the accounting and management consulting profession principally with Price Waterhouse Consultants. This period included three years with Price Waterhouse in Tokyo. Richard has an honours degree in Modern History from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. Richard writes: 1. I read an article by Lucy Kellaway in the FT a few years ago. She wrote that she thought there were only two reasonable measures of whether you should either work for a company or invest in it. They were: 1. would you like your children to grow up to be like the senior people in the company, and 2. how well does the company look after somebody if they suffer some kind of personal tragedy like an unexpected bereavement. I think of these two things every day and find them very motivating and instructive. 2. A lot of my time is spent interviewing people. My father advised me once to check the backs of interviewees‟ shoes to see whether they had polished them. If they had, they were thorough; if they hadn‟t, they were slapdash. He was a decorator and I run a consulting company, but I always check. In addition, I am reluctant to hire anyone who doesn‟t say thank you when they are served a coffee at the beginning of an interview. It‟s surprising how many don‟t. 3. My children go to a lovely school in Sussex. The school motto is: “work hard, be kind and dare to be different”. I think of that most days too. DameTamsyn Imison Formerly Headteacher Hampstead School 1984-2000; On SHA Council & Executive, Chair SHA ICT & EO Committees 1994-1999; Member of National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education; Vice-Chair National Judging Panel Teaching Awards 2000-4; University of London Careers Board 1997-03; Appraiser for GPDST & LEAs; Presentations & published work on Leadership, ICT, Creativity, Schools of the Future, Post 16, Women Leaders; Consultant for SHA MAPS; London Leadership Centre; Cornwall College; Trustee of Campaign for Learning, Lifelong Learning Foundation “The piece of outstanding advice I had in life came from my father Joe Trenaman – ‘listen to and learn from others with respect’ He did not say this to me but I observed that he always practiced it. In the Second World War he had spent most of his time successfully teaching young illiterate soldiers to read and write. He worked for many years with the Howard League of Criminal Reform and was a prison visitor. In his research on Adult Learning he always sought out the best people to help him such as Lord Bullock, Professor Sir Isaiah Berlin, Professor Gilbert Ryle and Asa Briggs who in his Foreword for my father‟s last book - „Communication and Comprehension‟ 1967 Longmans, sadly published posthumously, said: „Joe had the warmest interest in individual people and the most sustaining integrity’. In 1984 I was appointed by the ILEA to be Headteacher at Hampstead Comprehensive School in Cricklewood North London. The Chief Inspector Denis Felsenstein gave me a window of six weeks, away from my previous post, before taking up my appointment. I was able to do as I liked with this and I chose to sit at the feet of a group of nationally outstanding Headteachers for a day each and to listen and watch how they operated in their schools. What I observed was that their mode of operation was much the same as my father‟s. The Headteachers I selected included Isobel Shepherdson at Kidbrooke, Bob Moon at Peers School Oxford, Mary Metcalfe at Haggerston School, Beryl Hussein at Thomas Thallis, Daphne Gould at Mulberry School, Valerie Jenkins at Haverstock School, June Fisher at Catford Girls School, John Phillips at Furzedown School and Bob Spooner in Leeds.– all of whom took the trouble to give me one day of their time and to allow me to observe them working with their colleagues and in their schools. They were also genuinely interested in me – an unknown, untried newly appointed Headteacher. They all, [bar one not mentioned above], had as their prime objective the wellbeing and development of the children entrusted to them and their colleagues. I remember John Phillips rushing out with a birthday card for one of his office staff – he said: „She makes such a difference to the whole school we could not manage without her!‟ All these successful Heads both took the time to listen to and to treat all those they were with, with great respect. They were what I would describe as „Lead learners‟. They expected that everyone around them could make a significant contribution to the school and to them personally. They were sharers who believed in collective learning and in the contributions of everyone to the learning process. I learnt an enormous amount from each of them and much of what they said came back to me in moments of challenge and reflection. They all tackled their leadership role in school in different ways such as: by developing an innovative curriculum, by articulating and standing firm to a clear core approach against many challenges from within and outside, by having very clear structures and procedures, by making sure that all staff appointed subscribed to the core process, by developing an intellectually stimulating and beautiful environment for the teachers as well as the children, by teaching and learning alongside their colleagues, by having their finger on the pulse and using in some cases Machiavellian strategies!, by developing a very strong leadership team and by caring not only for the children but for all of the staff. They were prepared to share their vulnerability and their disasters. But they all manifested a great respect for all their students and for all their colleagues who demonstrated the same approach. None of them felt they had arrived but knew they were on an important learning journey with their colleagues and their children. They all took time to listen with respect and to learn from those around them. They also had a very „light touch‟ and there was laughter and lots of good humour. At the end of six weeks I had had a better training and preparation for my own Headship than most even now in this time of formalised professional development. In my own time as a Headteacher from 1984 – 2000, I endeavoured to work on this „advice‟ and on the wisdom and skills I observed in these outstanding „Lead Learners‟. I slowly built groups of lead learner teams who were given the opportunity to make significant contributions to the core purpose of the school. The parents and students from the start had been my allies and particularly supported me during the terrible years of industrial action. I started an „Open Door‟ when on a regular evening each month all parents could come in to see me and discuss educational policy. I often had huge numbers attending. Listening to them I learnt lots about what was happening in the school and what their concerns were. This meant I was able to defend my staff in their battle over better pay and conditions and I was also able to quickly respond and improve the school particularly the physical environment even sanding down teacher‟s desks so they did not snag their stockings! Very early on, the students asked me to establish a Whole School Council which I did and their first success was reinstating the school dinners that had been stopped because of the industrial action! The students persuaded the teachers to do dinner duties! Later, the students played a very important role in appointing staff and determining policy including the classroom code. Once we had built student evaluation into the selection process we rarely made bad appointments By the time I left Hampstead we were recognised as an outstanding school because our mantra „Learning together, Achieving together‟ had become a reality with     95% staying on post sixteen 95% gaining the equivalent of 5 good passes at GCSE by the age of 17 92% of all staff actively involved in continuing their own formal learning All staff – including site, maintenance, cleaning, administrative and catering staff making significant contributions and feeling they owned the school. The OFSTED HMI review of secondary schools arising from the first inspection cycle quoted from our report including the following” ‘The school’s ethos reflects a strong commitment not only to high academic attainment, but also to the establishment of an environment in which staff and students are learning together and achieving together.’ Di Boston Diane Boston is a partner in BostonHunt who are people, management and organisational development specialists. "When I sat down to list useful advice I have been given over the years there were about half a dozen of them, but fascinatingly, they are all variants on the same theme, and that theme is one of being self reliant. Whether its my police officer father telling me to fight my own battles or my first female boss reminding me that women leaders don't need to behave like a man in order to compete with them. Then a therapist friend telling me to trust my intuition and my husband encouraging me to take the plunge to work for myself. All are about self-reliance. There is one more, which acts as a useful counterbalance, the one about it being better to be inside the tent looking out than outside looking in. Which I take to be about not forgetting that it's important to remember that you can take self reliance too far if you are not vigilant. In work with my business partner, Jackie Hunt, self reliance gives us the courage to look for new ways of working and problem solving whilst keeping the management development programmes we run in a safe space for participants. We find that clients like our ability to get inside the tent to understanding their business and its needs, helping us to develop useful and realistic training and development interventions." Jackie Ballard Jackie Ballard has been Director General of the RSPCA since November 2002. Prior to that she lived and studied in Iran for 9 months and Iran is still her abiding passion in life. She was the Member of Parliament for Taunton from 1997 to 2001 and previously had a career in both social work and education. She is a graduate of the London School of Economics and an alumna of Windsor Leadership Trust. “I find it difficult to look back over the years and pinpoint any one person who gave one piece of advice which has been my guidestar ever since, but it is easier to identify individuals whose leadership I have admired and learned from. At school I was a natural rebel and often in trouble. Almost forty years later I received an email through Friends Reunited from an old class mate who says she knew I was destined to go places from the day in the Lower Fourth form when I argued against the Divine Right of Kings. This, I suppose, has always been a sort of mantra for me – there is no divine right to rule or to lead, it has to be earned. When I was elected to Parliament I was one of the band of rebellious women MPs who insisted on being referred to in Hansard by our first and last name, without a Mrs or Ms and when I first came to the RSPCA I asked staff to call me „Jackie‟ not DG (which had been the custom previously). I want to earn respect for my actions and outcomes, not because of my title or position and the Leaders I have most admired over the years have been the same. With my political past, it is natural that most of my role models have come from political life – Mo Mowlam, Shirley Williams, Ann Widdecombe – none of them conventional or conforming but each of them respected for their achievements and for their humanity. Paddy Ashdown taught me never to blame a cause for the people who believe in it; advice which has been useful when I have been frustrated or angered by the actions or words of those whose causes I would instinctively support. Shirley Williams taught me that everyone has a story to tell and you should never feel too important or too busy to listen, you might learn something. Through politics I learned the art of the possible, that compromise is not necessarily a dirty word and that the most glorious edifice is built brick by brick. Living in Iran taught me patience – you can‟t always have what you want when you want it and often things really are better if you wait. That has been the most difficult lesson for me to learn in life. I am full of admiration for a man who I heard speaking at a fund-raising dinner last year. He had started a project when he was 60 years old which he knew would take at least 40 years to complete, so he would not see it finished in his lifetime. I wish I had that sort of patience and vision.” Michael Walton Dr Michael Walton is a Fellow of the Professional Network of the Centre; he has run his own consulting practice - now called ‘People in Organisations Ltd’ – since 1990. “I would like to offer one piece of advice and one observation both of which I received about 30 years ago - my how time flies! Both of which have been enormously helpful and which, where appropriate, I have offered to others since that time. The first is the advice given to me by an experienced Group HR Director of a group of engineering companies. At the time I was a rather naive Personnel Officer in a small light engineering company and it was my first appointment in this field. It was a tricky job because this subsidiary had been instructed by Head Office to install a new personnel department that they didn't want. I was later to find out that the General Manager had opposed this move for some time and had only relented because he had been told that unless he complied he would be replaced! Although I wasn't fully trained I got the job and set to work doing the best I could. I can't recall the details but it was during one of his visits that he mused how „the perfect is the enemy of the good‟. It helped me realise that I don‟t have to cover absolutely every thing, or be prepared for every eventuality to still do a very good, competent, acceptable and professional job. My second recollection comes from an academic Supervisor of mine who was fond of sharing aphorisms about the processes of research. I rather liked the following one that goes like this „it always takes about twice as long as you thought it would in the first place and there is always a muddle in the middle!‟ I have found this to be a very helpful and calming thought to bear in mind. During such states of muddle or confusion I try - mind you I don't always totally succeed - my best to relax into them and let the processes of resolution emerge”