Building Tomorrow's Leadership Culture - From Competition to CollaborationFollowing a series of interviews with senior UK Business leaders and HR Directors, Full Potential Group is publishing a bi-weekly blog reflecting current trends in leadership and the skills business leaders will need to 'build tomorrow's leadership culture' and thrive in the current volatile business climate.In this second blog of the series, John Blakey, Non-Executive Director at Full Potential Group, speaks to Sue Waldock, Group HR Director at Rank Group PLC.
When it comes to the personal qualities of their future leaders, Sue uses the phrases “willing to lead but also willing to be led”, “open to new ideas”, “responsive to employee and customer needs” and “expert talent spotters.” At the heart of developing these qualities within the organisation, Sue is leading ‘Project PRIDE’ – People, Recruitment, Inclusive, Diverse, Engaged. PRIDE is a company-wide initiative that has the buy-in of the Board including Chairman and CEO Ian Burke. The aim of PRIDE is to refine and enhance the methods that Rank Group uses to attract, engage and develop staff to respond to changing employee expectations and habits. When mapping the Full Potential Group catalytic leadership model to the challenges facing leaders in Rank Group, Sue was immediately drawn to the 'heart brain'. She highlighted the heart brain attribute of courage which will be necessary if the company’s leaders are to face into tough decisions and have conversations that are honest yet not threatening. Ian is leading by example, having developed his skills in the 'heart brain' dramatically over the past two years, partly through the support of an external coach and partly through honest feedback from his team. In particular, Sue has noticed that Ian is much more aware of the emotional impact of the business environment on both himself and the employees. Regarding the 'infinite brain', Sue recognises that every organisation and every industry has a role to play in changing the world as well as making money. For Rank Group, this would be about creating space and fun and a social experience that connects people in local communities. This is not as yet a purpose that has been fully articulated by Rank's leaders but Sue sees the potential for this to happen in the coming years. Nevertheless, Sue clearly regards the 'heart brain' as the immediate priority for future investment, since to create an open, flexible, collaborative culture, leaders will need to let go of the emotional attachment to the old ways of doing things. Sue is passionate about collaborative leadership with one of her mantras being “you don't need to own a team to influence it” – this is difficult in a 74-year old organisation which has traditionally been constrained by gambling regulation. It is an emotional challenge more than an intellectual one. What stops people from collaborating more than they do? We all see the logic of this yet it is the emotional blocks that get in the way of us making this a reality in our organisations. For more information on the Full Potential Group multi-brain model referred to in the blog then please click here.
Want to learn more about how to use our latest thinking on Coaching and Leadership to drive organisational success - join one of our complimentary spring 2012 webinars - for full details click here. |
Organisations we have
partnered with:
"Very valuable workshop which I can see could / would really change the culture at my store and build the capability of all the team"
Tesco Stores Personnel Managers
