What I've learned recently...

Thanks for stumbling across my article again. Its been a while since I've rambled so I thought I'd share some experiences from the last few months. As well as experiences, I'm eager to share some discoveries and a jaw dropping moment! As always, I'll show you picture of my dog Wilf too!

Experiences

We've all had some cracking leaders over the years haven't we? The best leaders are people who see and hear you, they recognize your potential and work with you tirelessly to enable you to see it yourself too. They encourage, challenge, support and remain truthful. They trust you and you trust them back. Best of all, they have an ability to motivate you in a way that other managers/leaders just couldn't.

I've been lucky enough to have three leaders in my career who did all these things and I was privileged to be in the same room as them at an event recently. Working alongside them again, side by side as peers was special and has to be one of the best experiences of my year so far. Thank you Trevor Holden Rob Walker Terry Huggins (and no jokes about us looking like an aging boy band thanks!!)

Discoveries

Me and my team have delivered a whopping 6 Tri Sector Challenges this year. It all started with the London/South East event earlier in the year and finished with the East of England a couple of weeks ago. All in all we saw approx 400 of the sector's best aspiring senior leaders of the future in the process.

The challenge puts the delegates into a real life simulated environment, giving them a failing organization to manage and lead for the day in a safe and developmental space. This includes handling and managing politicians, managing the finances, building partnerships, working with the media and thinking strategically.

What I've discovered is that there are some trends across the country when it comes to the strengths and weaknesses our future leaders have. When it comes to strengths, the one common theme is hunger. Boy are our future stars hungry for opportunity! We've also identified a common strength which is partnership building and rapport building. They really get the importance of collaboration and working hard on building partnerships across all corners of our sectors.

So what about the weaknesses? Well it may not surprise you to learn that political awareness and financial management are the two areas that most teams struggle with. We all need to therefore make sure that these two topics make big appearances on any leadership development programme you'll be implementing next year (I can help you with that by the way).

We also discovered where the best talent in the country is; but that conversation isn't for this article! Drop me a line if you want to learn more (and you can keep a secret!)

Jaw Dropping Moment

Doing the job I love so much means that I get to travel the country a lot. This also means that I get to stay in quite a few hotels, and an experience I had checking into one made my jaw drop recently. Whilst stood at a Travelodge reception desk just a few weeks ago, another guest approached the reception team and the conversation went as follows;

Guest: "Can I ask a silly question?"

Receptionist "Of course" (she'd clearly heard them all before)

Guest: "Is it ok if I use the kettle in my room to boil a couple of eggs?"

Receptionist: "errrr, erm, I'm not sure" (this was clearly one she hadn't heard before)

Guest: "its a perfectly safe and acceptable thing to do I can assure you"

Receptionist: "err, no. No. You can't do that sir"

Guest: "Honestly, its safe, we did it in prison all the time and the guards didn't mind"

Its at this point that I headed to my room, lifting my jaw off the floor in the process. Moral of the story? There isn't one, but the next time you're in a hotel room, show your kettle some respect, you have no idea what its been through.

And Finally Wilf

He says hi by the way.