Continuing my leadership journey

Nearly three months into the new gig and I think I am getting the hang of things - although my teammates might disagree!

A key part of my learning has been joining one of ION’s leadership programmes. As I mentioned in my earlier blog, you can’t market what you don’t know so I joined the Leading Growth programme with the aim of learning more about the programme, therefore making it easier for me to talk about it to potential delegates. And it’s working. I am much more comfortable talking to people about our programme because I am experiencing it. I am one of them. How many people really understand what they are selling? How many people understand why people do or don’t buy their product/service and how their product/service makes people feel. If you don’t, give it a go.

The next chapter

Anyway, after two days on the Overnight Experiential (OE), next up was a masterclass looking at ‘Leading Self’.

A key element of being a successful leader is self-awareness. My understanding of my true self has changed over the years. A bolt from the blue a number of years ago made me see things very differently and my two kids have really helped cement my values.

I know what is important to me and the type of person I want to be. I also know the person I am not and the type of person I don’t want to be. I am a firm believer in authenticity. An old boss of mine (you know who you are!) will probably be chuckling away right now if he is reading this as he used to take the mick out of me for going on about authenticity all the time. However, I am a firm believer — don’t try to be something you are not because people will see through you. If people don’t like the person I am, then I am sorry but I am me.

I am a people person. I always, sometimes to my own detriment, put people first, and in work scenarios my first thought is always the impact on the people in my team/department rather than on the work or organisation. I care about people. My ‘mantra’ is work hard and be nice to people, courtesy of Anthony Burrill.

My wife always used to say that the Green Day song ‘Nice guys finish last’ should be my theme tune. It’s safe to say, marrying her, I certainly haven’t finished last.

DISC Profiling

In the lead up to the Masterclass, all delegates completed a questionnaire to identify their DISC Profile. I have done plenty of stuff like this before and I always find the results scary. Not in a bad way, but scary how spot on the findings tend to be and this was no different.

For anyone who doesn’t know, DISC Profiling involves answering a large number of questions, instinctively as opposed to selecting what you consider to be the ‘right’ answer. Then by magic (it’s not really magic!) it produces a report which identifies your DISC leadership style. The four styles are Dominance, Influence, Conscientiousness and Steadiness.

Everyone is a blend of all four styles, but most people tend to focus on one or two styles. As with other similar ‘tests’ I have done, there were no huge surprises. It is safe to say that ‘conscientiousness’ and ‘steadiness’ are not my strengths. I am sure many people who have worked with me over the years will agree with that. But what I may lack in these two factors is more than made up for, according to my report, in ‘Dominance’ and ‘Influence’ which not surprisingly dominate my leadership style.

What is also interesting is the ‘narrative’ provided around the analysis. Reading my ‘story’ was scary to be honest. It was like I had written a paper about myself. Below are just some of the recurring themes:

· High energy level (surely this is reducing now I have two kids?)

· Great need for excitement

· Sometimes listen without really hearing what’s being said

· Don’t bow to conformity

· Jump on opportunities to explore new avenues.

I think that sounds pretty spot on.

The power of peer-to-peer learning

Another key take-away for me has also been the power of peer-to-peer learning. The leadership development specialists are ace, but the way delegates are sharing with each other and learning from each other is fantastic to see. They have even started shadowing each other, with different delegates spending days, outside of the course, in each other’s businesses, learning from each other and their organisations way of doing things. Now if that isn’t added value I don’t know what is.

Next up is the Effective Leadership masterclass. I am looking forward to catching up with my fellow delegates, I miss them randomly, and will be writing about the next chapter in my leadership journey soon.

I need to write more

The thing I have learnt about this blogging process is that I need to do it more. David Hieatt inspired me to write more. Writing about the programme, reminds me how much I have learnt. Admittedly, I need to write sooner as I keep leaving it late, my next masterclass starts tomorrow (Wednesday), but getting things down on paper makes me think clearer and lets me understand myself better. Maybe not everything I write will be published, maybe I’ll just keep journals for myself. But I will keep writing. It makes me happy. And that’s all that matters really.

This blog was originally produced on Marketing Manager Adam Fairbanks Medium page - https://medium.com/@AdamF