APRIL - 2023HR TECH OUTLOOK8In MyOpinionI studied to become a PE teacher at university, and I remember one of my lecturers was a guy called Barry Davis. He was a champion Aussie rules player and coach and would often pepper his lectures, as sportsmen often do, with tales of his elite playing and coaching career. I have a vivid recollection of him telling us about one particular team he coached, describing in detail how he used to motivate his players. For one player he needed to get in his face to pump him up, talking loudly at him, another needed to listen to his Walkman in a quiet space (it was the 80s!). He took another guy, who had a mischievous sense of humour aside and shared how he was going to surprise the opposition with a cheeky tactic. I taught PE for a few years, but then moved into corporate training, now of course called L&D. Overtime I became responsible for leadership development at various companies from Apple, to Expedia, 3 & EE. Of course, I fell into the ubiquitous trap of creating a leadership development programme, usually involving some sort of "expert", some offsites, some classroom training, and in recent times, some digital learning. These programmes usually involved activities around how to inspire and motivate a team, a model for everything from objective setting to giving feedback, oh and the famous role-play.Overtime things were introduced like DISC & Insights where we taught people how to categorise a person by their colour, so it made managing them easier. Or did it? Worse still was the outdoor adventure activities, where apparently walking up a mountain made you a better leader. I was made to go on one of these once and it did absolutely nothing for my leadership ability, nor my temperament!I also made the mistake of starting these programmes aiming them at middle management, or mid-senior level. The top teams all had exec coaches and convinced me (or I convinced myself), that they had nailed leadership, due to their position, so I shouldn't bother them with this sort of stuff. Silly me.Now, there's nothing wrong with all of the above, there were learning outcomes, objectives, evaluation etc, but I think I have found a much better way. A Barry Davis way.I started my role at St James's Place two years ago. I was determined this time, to ensure our programme actually developed exceptional leaders. Here is the journey we have been on step by step.Partnering with Exceptional Leadership Limited, the very first thing we worked on was deciding what our leadership principles were. What did we truly believe as a team and as an organisation. Here is what we believe: 1. Leadership is a way of life, not a position in the hierarchy. Whether we are leading ourselves, our teams or SJP, we must all think of ourselves as leaders.2. Leadership is our actions, not our words. As Leaders we are responsible for the success of our business. Results emanate from ambitious goal setting, resolute focus, and personal accountability.3. Leaders must understand themselves deeply before meaningful and sustained development can occur. This is not the person we see, but the person others see.A FUTURISTIC LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT Di Macdonald, Director of L&D, St. James's Place Wealth ManagementBy
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