'L' is for Learning and Leadership

Welcome back to the 'A - Z of Purpose Led Performance' - this issue is going to focus two important areas. Learning and leadership. I will explore an amazing small company that created a learning culture that led to people that started in junior roles progressing to be CEOs and other amazing career success. By my count over 10 of the first 100 employees have gone on to be CEOs!

Leadership is so fundamental to both organisational purpose and performance. It is so vital in my view that we have released a sister newsletter. 'Purpose Led Leaders', spotlights amazing purpose led leaders. If you are interested in exploring leadership and developing your own leadership skills I would definitely recommend you subscribe and take a read.

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Learning

Is there a relationship between learning, career development and performance? Does a learning culture lead to better organisational performance? Does a performance culture create an environment of that supports continual learning and development?

In previous editions of I have written about one of my early employers, Ingeus, an amazing purpose driven company. In ten years (2002 - 2012) they grew from ￡4m to ￡120m (from 40 people to 1,800 people) and became the number one player in their market. They were purpose-driven, performance focused and very successful commercially.

One thing really stood out about Ingeus and its success in that period was its approach to developing internal talent. Over 90% of management roles were internal promotions - that is a staggering statistic when you consider their growth.

Here are the things that Ingeus did that created a culture of learning that powered the performance of the business and the growth and development of so many of its people:

• Trust and autonomy: In its early years Ingeus had a radical approach of placing high levels of trust and giving high levels of autonomy in people at all levels.

"We recruit really bright people. We don't tell them what to do. We let them figure out the best way of doing things and capture that learning." ( Richard Johnson , UK CEO of Ingeus 2002 - 2007)

• Real-life learning: Learning was practical and real, not abstract and theoretical. You were given responsibility quickly and expected to figure things out.
• Promoted people quickly based on their performance and their potential: Ingeus tore up the rule-book when it came to promotions - they valued performance and potential over experience. I was constantly pushed outside of my comfort zone into a learning zone.
• Aligned purpose, ambition, culture and talent: Purpose inspired people within Ingeus to strive for constant improvement. Performance was driven by purpose and this translated into ambitious goals. That ambition shaped our culture into a learning culture. We had to constantly improve and break new ground to achieve our goals. The talent of our people enabled us to meet our ambitious goals. Talent was developed (not recruited) because there was an environment which encouraged development and opportunities for growth.

Talent = Potential + Environment + Opportunities

Leadership

There is not single best way to lead or model that leaders should follow. The most successful leaders lead in a way that is consistent and reflective of who they are and their unique sets of characteristics and skills. This is what we want to showcase in our 'Purpose Led Leaders' newsletter. Below we share some of the diverse thinking and leadership philosophies that have emerged in the first four editions.

Pablo Lloyd:

“I may be wrong…I remind myself of that because that is how we learn. After decades as a leader, my curiosity is making a big comeback. I am probably more confident to share doubt with people around me and realise the act of learning is a motivator for most of us. It is certainly at the heart of my leadership.”?

Pablo passionately believes that it is a leader’s responsibility to major in learning, and that this should be seen, heard and felt by the people you lead. But how??

• Ask questions, positively
• Encourage and celebrate those who do the same
• Focus on the benefits of challenging in a positive way

Heidi Stewart

"As a leader I don’t want to exclude people because of their history. I am much more interested in what they can do in the future.”

Heidi is passionate that everyone can achieve what success looks like to them, given the right environment. Learning is life long and doesn't always fit set educational moulds.

Chris Woods

“Leaders build leaders. Leaders don’t build yes men, leaders should be challenged.”

Chris' clear vision is implemented by a key facet of his leadership style: building a group of leaders who all know where they are going together, and are not afraid to challenge the status quo.

Peter Beeby

“It is better to?make a decision and do it rather than do nothing at all and pretend it is all okay.”

You only learn as a leader if you are prepared to challenge yourself to be the one who does the difficult things and has the difficult conversations.

The difference is the leader that faces these situations head on rather than avoiding them.

Unexpected CEO Factories

Many of the learnings and experiences from my time at Ingeus and the leadership are reflected in a Harvard Business Review article, 'Unexpected Companies Produce Some of the Best CEOs.' (Jan 2020, Elena Lytkina Botelho and Sanja Kos ). The article highlights that some surprising and less well known companies (Stealth CEO factories) are creating some of the most successful CEOs in the world and highlighted the following key factors.

1. Give leaders broad responsibility
2. Encourage leaders to think like CEOs early in their careers
3. Challenge strong performers early with big opportunities
4. CEO commitment to developing leadership talent is crucial

The article also reflects some of the leadership advice and tips given by our four featured leaders.

Thank you for subscribing to and reading the 'A-Z of Purpose Led Performance' - if you find value in it we would love to hear form you and would also love for you to recommend it to others. Best wishes, Chris