ISSUE 16 – SEPTEMBER 2017
FOCUS BRINGING YOU THE INSIGHTS YOU NEED TO DRIVE YOUR AGENDA
The price of success is less than the price of failure READ >
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Developing human capital for the 21st century P5
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Public sector engages with levy to boost management skills P10
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The value of wellbeing P7
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Henley Finland prospers from post graduate boom P9
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Do you have what it takes to be a digital winner? P11
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The Leadership lab offers a new level of collaboration P12
WELCOME
WELCOME TO FOCUS@HENLEY – THE LATEST INSIGHTS, NEWS AND VIEWS ON STRATEGY, MANAGEMENT, LEADERSHIP AND LEARNING DEVELOPMENT Welcome to Issue 16 of Focus, Henley Business School’s magazine, in which we bring you a selection of the latest updates, news and views on strategy, management, leadership, coaching and much more. Among the topics featured in this issue are: • how the new data protection regulation could affect you • the latest research on the benefits of employee wellbeing and resilience • how executive education is taking off in Finland • why the public sector is embracing the new apprenticeship levy • what it takes to be a winner in the digital world We really do value your thoughts and comments, so please send us your feedback and help us to ensure that Focus@Henley continues to be both relevant and compelling. We look forward to hearing from you. Claire Hewitt, Head of Learning Design Editor +44 (0)1491 418 767 exec@henley.ac.uk www.henley.ac.uk
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DATA PROTECTION
THE PRICE OF SUCCESS IS LESS THAN THE PRICE OF FAILURE
ARDI KOLAH LLM EXECUTIVE FELLOW AND PROGRAMME DIRECTOR
For further information on the GDPR Transition Programme, click here
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enjamin Franklin once said that ‘It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.’
In many respects, one of the biggest tests organisations will face regarding reputation will be compliance with Directive 2016/679, also known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). From 25 May 2018, the GDPR will be fully enforceable across all 28 EU member states. With less than 200 working days to go, many executives have just realised they are standing on a burning platform: an infringement of the GDPR can carry the highest dissuasive penalty under European law – 4% of global turnover of the preceding 12 months or €20m, whichever is greater. A new data protection act, likely to be passed in the UK soon, will ensure that we align our data protection laws with Europe, even once we have left the EU.
So why the need for change? It comes down to whether we can trust organisations with our personal data; the track record doesn’t look good. Only this month (July 2017), a rogue employee at BUPA stole 547,000 policyholder records, including names, dates of birth, nationalities and insurance numbers, which could all be used in scam activities. This follows the highly publicised ransomware attack
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in May when 47 NHS Trusts in England reported problems at hospitals and a further 13 NHS organisations in Scotland were affected. Similarly, around half of the 40,000 Tesco Bank customers who had their accounts unlawfully accessed found that money had been removed from them. And it’s not only customers or patients that fall victim. Last year, the personal data of 300,000 employees at Sports Direct were hacked.
The 2017 Cost of Data Breach Study, published by the Ponemon Institute LLC and based on research of 419 companies across 13 countries, makes compelling reading for those searching for a business case – should they need one – to accelerate plans in time for full enforcement of the GDPR. The report calculated that the average internal cost of investigating and dealing with a personal data breach
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and the aftermath of losing customers – but excluding any sanctions, fines or compensation claims – was £108 per record. And those companies surveyed were 28% more likely to suffer another personal data breach in the next 24 months. To put this into context, the internal cost to BUPA, based on the calculations of the Ponemon Institute, would be a whopping £59m – and you can multiply this by at least a factor of 5 to cover sanctions, fines and compensation.
What should you do? Data controllers and processors need to be put into place to ensure compliance. In the words of Elizabeth Denham, the UK Information Commissioner: ‘The new legislation creates an onus on companies to understand the risks that they create for others, and to mitigate those risks. It’s about moving away from seeing the law as a tick-box exercise and instead to work on a framework that can be used to build a culture of privacy that pervades an entire organisation.’ Specific skills and training are likely to be needed, as well as improvements to assurance, monitoring, PR and crisis management response practices. But by making these changes, you can turn this threat into a genuine opportunity to create, build and enhance trust amongst your employees, customers and prospects.
So if you haven’t already, it would be wise to make plans to: •
appoint a data protection officer (DPO) or team
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conduct a data protection impact assessment (DPIA) ‘lite’
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comply with industry codes of conduct
If you haven’t yet done so, you probably need to take some professional advice in order to ensure business continuity and to reduce the risks involved with processing any personal data you may hold. And if that sounds like an expensive exercise, just think of the costs of not doing it. For further information on Henley’s GDPR Transition Programme, click here
ARDI KOLAH LLM IS EXECUTIVE FELLOW AND PROGRAMME DIRECTOR OF HENLEY BUSINESS SCHOOL’S GDPR TRANSITION PROGRAMME AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, JOURNAL OF DATA PROTECTION & PRIVACY
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REGATTA DAY
DEVELOPING HUMAN CAPITAL FOR THE 21ST CENTURY See the full report from this year’s Henley Corporate Regatta Day event, click here For a copy of Professor Peter Hawkins’ Global Research Report, click here
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he theme of this year’s corporate Regatta Day event was ‘Developing Human Capital for the 21st Century’.
Steve Ludlow, Head of Executive Education, Henley Business School, briefly reflected on the many changes at Henley and in the wider world over the past year, and was pleased to look back on what has been a good year for Henley, with the numbers of undergraduate and postgraduate students increasing and executive education thriving.
Leading in the 4th Industrial Revolution The day’s first speaker, Partner and Global Talent Leader at EY, David Storey, assessed the capabilities leaders will need in the future, based on the current sense of disquiet and speed of change. ‘The advent of the steam engine enabled mechanisation and then automation. We progressed from the telegraph to the telephone and then to the internet. And commercially, the introduction of limited liability companies led to Taylorism and ultimately, to the rise of globalism and multinational corporations. ‘But what will come next? We’re already seeing the spread of artificial intelligence, 3D printing, drones and nanotechnology. We’re witnessing
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the mass destruction of jobs and a massive shift from maths to social skills. Technology has changed the way growth happens and roles are changing. ‘Employment will evolve and we have to understand that there will be those who lead robots, those who take instructions from robots and those who fix robots. ‘Critically, though,’ asserts David, ‘they must stay human in this digital world. The science of good relationships continues to be based firmly in repetitive reciprocal acts of kindness.’
What can we learn from experience? Leadership development: past, present and future ‘We know we need to change,’ said the next speaker, Professor of Leadership, Peter Hawkins, ‘but how? What are we doing to meet the greater demand, growing expectations and diminishing resources that the future is likely to impose on us?’
2. The technological and digital revolution 3. Disintermediation and ‘Uber-isation’ 4. The hollowing out of organisations and the growing complexity of the stakeholder world 5. Globalisation 6. Climate change 7. The need to learn and adapt faster. From the findings, Peter revealed his three key principles of future leadership development architecture: •
learning and development for just individuals to be replaced by fivelevel learning
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development based on yesterday’s leadership competencies to be replaced by more ‘future-back learning’
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no more linear 70:20:10 silos; but instead, more challengebased learning, bringing together strategy, HR, LD, OD and talent under the umbrella of a ‘future fit’ function.
For more information on Henley’s Executive Education programmes, please click here
Peter has recently conducted research with thousands of CEOs and leaders of tomorrow to discover exactly what is needed; he identified seven key areas in which change is required: 1. Unceasing and accelerating transformation
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A trio of speakers considered Best Practice in Human Capital Development, and how Henley is addressing the issues raised.
MARTIN BICKNELL DIRECTOR OF TEACHING AND LEARNING
Martin Bicknell, Director of Teaching and Learning at Henley Business School, believes that coaching, training and education need to be integrated, and that we have to lay the foundations for talent to grow and to disrupt itself. ‘At Henley we want to make people more curious, give them the confidence to take risks and make decisions, make choices based on a 360-degree perspective, and develop communities based on business collaborations.’
DR TIM SELLICK EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF DEGREE APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAMMES
Dr Tim Sellick described how organisations are utilising the apprenticeship levy to fund senior level capability. Helen Price, Programme Director, outlined a programme Henley is running for global engineering company FLSmidth, transforming the focus and mindset of 300 of their senior leaders. This programme is based around the concept of challenge led design and it follows the 70:20:10 principle. We recognise that the primary source of effective learning and development is in the workplace, not the classroom. We teach learners to understand how they learn, so they are able to optimise
HELEN PRICE ASSOCIATE CLIENT DIRECTOR, EXECUTIVE EDUCATION
their 20% and 70% spent outside the classroom. Our custom programmes are designed around the delivery of live projects, tasks and real business challenges, which are identified by our client’s senior team. The programme of learning is designed and re-modelled to support those leaders and learners to optimise their capability and performance in delivering those stretch - challenge projects. This approach brings the business into the classroom, synthesising the academic and the practical, so the learning extends way beyond the programme and the projects, into the heart of the organisation’s capability.
Panel Q&A For the final session before the delegates enjoyed lunch at Henley and a river cruise along the Henley Royal Regatta course, the day’s speakers answered questions from the floor on a range of topics including: •
The use of collaborative learning in schools
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How we can develop kindness and empathy in the face of digitalisation
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The continuing importance of having great people, and great people to orchestrate them
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How to streamline organisational infrastructure
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How to identify the most appropriate standards and qualifications for apprenticeship training
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RESEARCH
THE VALUE OF EMPLOYEE WELLBEING AND RESILIENCE
NICK KEMSLEY EXECUTIVE FELLOW
For a copy of Professor Nick Kemsley’s latest research click here
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hen undertaking some recent research into the world of talent management, one of the things that stood out was the changing nature of the relationship between employee and employer.
Organisations were beginning to take much more of an interest in how employment impacted staff at a personal level, in terms of the physical and mental health of individuals. Consequently, we conducted personal interviews with HR and non-HR leaders to get under the skin of the topic, and to highlight common themes and differences. What soon emerged, was that an organisation’s relationship with an employee wellbeing agenda is very definitely a journey, with a number of well defined steps: 1. Keeping employees safe – although of obvious importance, this is unlikely to drive benefits beyond a reduction in injury and absence, and does little to proactively drive the employer value proposition (EVP). 2. Keeping employees productive – the motto here is that a healthy workforce is a productive workforce and considers the working environment, flexible working and health benefits. 3. Engaging employees and leaders – this stage is characterised by the need to develop insights around the business benefits of wellbeing for business leaders and a move into a more educational and enabling
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approach for employees, including nutrition and gyms. 4. Supporting the whole employee – here an organisation has moved from just physical wellbeing into mental wellbeing, opening up the challenge of culture, among others.
5. Creating a culture of employee wellbeing – this is where a number of factors build upon one another – from metrics through to the engagement of business leaders and employees, together with aligned processes and structures – creating a holistic offer. But what really differentiates here is that words are matched by actions; aligned messages and behaviours are role modelled from the very top. The importance of employee wellbeing is growing significantly, driven by a number of factors, from the rising cost of healthcare insurance to the increasing co-dependency between wellbeing and EVP in the light of changing career models. Nearly all organisations we spoke to were getting bogged down in attempting to transition from physical
to mental wellbeing. Where successes occurred, the common factors were an investment in line managers’ awareness and capability and a role-modelling of the right attitudes and behaviour by the organisations’ leadership. The learnings for HR start with measurement. Employee wellbeing is the kind of subject that emphasises HR’s long-standing capability gap around metrics and data analytics. The use of more insightful and relevant metrics helps HR to better articulate the case for a more proactive, holistic and extended application of employee wellbeing; this in turn helps to create the leadership engagement essential to the generation of real value in the arena. The research also shows that in the majority of organisations, action lags behind ambition by a significant degree, and that the evolution into wider lifestyle change and mental wellbeing areas is dogged with challenges. Those who have managed to make some headway have done so by engaging senior leadership and creating a positive perception of care and authenticity in the approach among the employee population. Measurement remains the Achilles’ heel of HR, with difficulties in moving from an intellectual to commercial articulation of the issue being a critical factor in success or failure to engage an organisation. If there was one factor to focus on going forwards, this would be a good one to target.
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To summarise the report’s findings; HR needs to play catch-up with employee wellbeing, and focus on six key areas:
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Practise what is preached: work with leaders and line managers to align reality with espoused values – this will involve upskilling and embedding wellbeing principles into policy and process. Ensure that positioning and Practicing communication is authentic and that actions what’s match words. preached
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Address cultural blockers: look across elements of organisational culture and develop a clear understanding of what supports or hinders the wellbeing agenda.
Build the deal: ensure that the EVP includes elements relating to wellbeing and that the organisation can deliver them.
Deliver commercially relevant insights: measurement and creation of commercially relevant insights. Bring the elements together: look at employee wellbeing holistically and find a way to corral together elements that may be structurally disparate. Increase focus and rationale: aim to up the importance of wellbeing – in particular, mental wellbeing and, within this, stress.
Wellbeing is a business issue, but it is also one that HR must play a lead role in championing and supporting. If the function can make progress in closing the lead that the topic has gained on them, then this will be reflected in a
Addressing cultral blockers
Building the deal
Delivering relevant insights
Bringing the elements together
Increasing focus on rationale
HR’s input into building a wellbeing culture
better hit rate between the promises made to employees and the reality that employees actually experience in an organisation. This in turn will drive an improvement in business performance and, most importantly,
will help to manage the risks to employee health that can have an impact at not just the organisational level, but at the societal level beyond. This is the prize.
NICK KEMSLEY IS AN EXECUTIVE FELLOW OF HENLEY BUSINESS SCHOOL. NICK WAS A SENIOR HR LEADER, BEFORE SPENDING FIVE YEARS AS CO-DIRECTOR OF THE HENLEY CENTRE FOR HR EXCELLENCE.
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INTERNATIONAL
HENLEY FINLAND PROSPERS FROM POSTGRADUATE BOOM To find out more about Henley Finland, click here
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ostgraduate education has not been the norm in Finland, but things are changing according to Sabine Doms, Marketing Manager at Henley Finland. People are taking responsibility for their professional development in order to respond to the ever-changing demands of working life.
‘This spring, we had our biggest ever intake onto the MBA with 26 students, and a similar number of new students is expected to start in October this year. In the past year, we have also seen a significant uptake of executive education programmes in Finland and the number of corporate clients has doubled, so it’s a very exciting time,’ says Sabine. Henley has had a presence in Finland since 1986 and according to the latest Financial Times rankings, Henley is ranked #1 executive education provider located in the Nordic countries.
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On the right path ‘People who are ambitious and have a hunger for postgraduate learning will be the ones who tend to have more successful careers,’ says Henley Finland Director Annu Matula. ‘To speed up this development, we’d like to see more incentives to encourage people to get further professional education while working, as in other European countries, where postgraduate students are offered tax benefits, for example.’ The recent ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court of Finland to exempt the Henley MBA from VAT supports this change and makes high-quality postgraduate education more accessible to people in Finland. The most important factor for this ruling is that, compared with all other MBAs available in Finland, the Henley MBA offers a higher academic degree and so it now has the same status as other university degrees.
Henley’s influence grows The Henley alumni community in Finland, which currently consists of 627 members, continues to flourish, with monthly meetings and a variety of professional, cultural and social events.
The success of female students is a particular source of pride for Henley Finland. The latest list of the 100 most influential female executives in Finland, published annually by Talouselämä magazine – the ‘Finnish Economist’ – included several Henley alumni, including Marika Auramo, now Global Chief Operating Officer, Database and Data Management, at SAP in the US. The growing influence of Henley in Finland and the developing interest in executive education was clearly demonstrated last autumn when Helsinki hosted the Henley Leadership Forum, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of Henley’s presence in Finland. With over 200 participants and a list of renowned speakers that included, among others, Dr Gillian Tett (Financial Times) and Matthew Taylor (Royal Society of Arts), Henley Finland looks set for another year of growth.
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APPRENTICESHIP LEV Y
PUBLIC SECTOR ENGAGES WITH LEVY TO BOOST MANAGEMENT SKILLS
DR TIM SELLICK EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF DEGREE APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAMMES
For further information on the apprenticeship levy, click here
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ith the apprenticeship levy now being applied to all employers with an annual wage bill over £3m, organisations are starting to actively put in place their training plans, and none more so than those in the public sector, according to Henley’s Executive Director of Degree Apprenticeship Programmes, Dr Tim Sellick.
the establishment of a learning academy, which will be a catalyst for major change to the capability of the senior team within the Trust.
‘At a meta level, organisations are definitely more engaged now,’ says Tim, ‘but there’s an especially strong level of uptake of applied leadership programmes from the public sector, where there are statutory obligations to have 2.3% of the workforce involved as apprentices.’
Engaging Royal Berkshire NHS Trust As one of the first raft of approved training providers, Henley has recently been selected to work with the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust on a Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship (CMDA) programme, which is aimed at developing experienced managers. According to Tim, ‘The CDMA structure allows us to identify strategic issues within the Trust’s operations and tailor elements of the programme to them. This ensures that we create real impact for the individuals and the organisation. ‘Although the Trust has not long been paying the levy, it took a strategic decision to use the full allowance, and this investment is being put towards
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‘Initial indications are that this is going to be a very innovative and popular programme, and the first cohort, which is limited to 50 places, was almost 50% oversubscribed.’
So what next for Henley? Tim Sellick is excited about the new suite of products being developed at Henley. ‘We’re looking into a range of possibilities,’ says Tim, ‘including level 5 programmes that align with our current executive education offerings and level 6 programme that sit alongside our flexible MBAs. We’ve already had significant interest from a number of organisations, especially from accounting firms and companies from the financial services and real estate sectors. This is going to be a game-changer for lots of organisations, and there are significant benefits for early adopters, so it’s shaping up to be a very busy year!’ For further information on the Apprenticeship Levy, please contact Dr Tim Sellick.
Rosalind Penny, Assistant Director of Organisational Development at the Trust, explained that choosing Henley was an easy decision. ‘Aside from the geographical proximity, Henley’s reputation as a transformational development provider put it up with a few potential shortlisted candidate organisations. Once we’d seen the focus and flexibility Henley’s CMDA programme gave us, it was a no-brainer, and we’re delighted to have entered into this contract, which we hope will be the starting point for an ongoing partnership.’
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DIGITAL
DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A DIGITAL WINNER?
TOM LOEFFERT HR DIRECTOR AT SAP
To find out more about The Henley Partnership, click here
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s HR Director at SAP, a multinational software corporation, Tom Loeffert has an understandable obsession with discovering what kind of person achieves outstanding success in the digital world. Unlike most, however, his findings are based on some significant research.
‘Our senior HR people attended Henley’s Advanced HR Business Partners programme, and subsequently the company joined The Henley Partnership, and it’s been very useful to share the research findings with our fellow members. ‘The future is already here,’ says Tom. ‘We are surrounded with drones, AI, virtual reality, machine learning and so on, and every company is a technology company. And yet only 1 in 5 businesses are really thriving in the digital economy. So we wanted to know what kind of leadership is now required, and we soon realised that a very different approach is needed. ‘We were able to use the SAP research – covering 2,050 employees and 2,050 executives, across 21 countries – to show that company executives believe that there is a significant gap in the capability of their leadership to: •
effectively manage talent
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inspire and empower employees
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lead a global workforce
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drive and manage change
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lead a diverse workforce (and the higher you go, the less diverse it is)
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On the other hand, it identified four key characteristics that digital winners need, namely:
encourage HR leaders to insist on looking beyond the traditional pool of candidates and avoid unconscious bias.
1. The ability to embrace digital technologies
‘We also have to change our whole mode of operating and communicating, and be far more open to new ideas. If you’re still sending offer letters to successful candidates, for them to sign, scan and return, it’s a sure sign that you need to re-think the way you operate. HR leaders need to be thought leaders.
2. The ability to streamline decision-making 3. The ability to flatten the organisational structure 4. The ability to build a digital workforce. It also showed that those people who could demonstrate these characteristics achieved more mature talent strategies and programmes, enabling them to hire and engage better talent, create a more diverse environment and implement more cohesive succession planning. In turn, this led to greater profit growth, more satisfied employees and higher employee retention levels. ‘Inclusion and diversity are so important,’ says Tom, ‘so we must
‘At SAP the organisational structure and design has itself changed to accommodate new ways of thinking and doing. Our bosses are agile, responsive and adaptable. Titles are less important than having the right people in place to engage with each customer. Hierarchies are being replaced by roles. ‘For companies to be sustainable in tomorrow’s world, leaders have to understand digital strategies, and the gap between needs and capability has to close, and close fast.’
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CENTRES
THE LEADERSHIP LAB OFFERS A NEW LEVEL OF COLLABORATION FOR TOP ORGANISATIONS
DR BERND VOGEL ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF LEADERSHIP, THE LEADERSHIP LAB
To find out more about The Leadership Lab, click here
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he brainchild of Dr Bernd Vogel, Henley’s Associate Professor of Leadership, The Leadership Lab is a unique new platform for a small number of likeminded and highly ambitious organisations to come together and collaborate, and it’s creating something of a buzz.
‘Our starting point was that world-class business leaders really valued the time they spent learning at Henley, but the feedback suggested that a significant part of the experience was sharing knowledge and best practice with other programme participants,’ says Jessica Ecott, Manager of the Henley Centre for Leadership.
Breaking the mould ‘Unlike our other programmes, this is structured more like a consortium, in which the senior leaders of eight organisations come together for a one-and-a-half-day workshop each quarter over a two-year period. Each organisation will nominate up to a dozen leaders, of which five or six will attend each workshop and then act as ambassadors to disseminate the information around their host organisation. And because they will be non-competing organisations from a range of sectors, it will be a safe environment for sharing and learning from each other. We hope that each group will comprise commercial, not-for-profit and governmental organisations, to give an eclectic mix of perspectives.
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‘There will be tasks and assessments before the first workshop,’ says Jessica, ‘and our faculty will work with each participating organisation to identify specific issues to be addressed and targets to be achieved.’
The content is whatever you want it to be Bernd Vogel is keen that while Henley’s practitioners and academics will be adding in-depth research, analysis, insight and facilitation to the process, nothing should be imposed on the participants. ‘The group will be largely selfdetermining in terms of the workshop content, but we’ve started with a list of
suggested content, including inclusive leadership, digitalisation, resilience, innovation, diversity and the shaping of senior teams, and we expect it to evolve from there. The first and last workshops will be at Henley’s Greenlands campus, but it’s important for the process to see where other participants operate, so they will take turns in hosting sessions too. ‘It’s an alliance of equals,’ says Bernd. ‘But it won’t be for just any organisation. It’s designed for organisations that can commit to two years of sustained challenge and collaboration. But the outcomes will be extraordinary.’ If you have any questions, please contact Dr Bernd Vogel.
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COACHING CONFERENCE
ADAB, LOVE AND MINDFULNESS TAKE CENTRE STAGE AT HENLEY COACHING CONFERENCE For news of future events and more information about the Henley Centre for Coaching, click here
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ddressing the conference theme of ‘Coaching – Beyond Skills’, the 14th annual Henley Coaching Conference once again pushed the boundaries, as a diverse programme of expert speakers provided a stimulating range of new perspectives.
Addressing the needs of future generations Professor Peter Hawkins opened the conference by issuing a series of direct challenges to all coaches. ‘What is your intent every time you begin a coaching session?’ he asked; ‘because your grandchildren will want to know what we did to prepare them for greater demand, growing expectations and diminishing resources.’ Taking a longer, wider view of the future may seem at odds with the need to address the day-to-day issues faced by coachees, but citing the results from a two-year global survey of CEOs, HRDs and young business leaders, Peter outlined their views of the challenges we will face and the learning gaps that exist. ‘Coaching has to create shared value for multiple stakeholders, and align with the shift towards “future fit” departments rather than the silos of organisational development, consulting, leadership development and HR.
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PROFESSOR JOHN BOARD, DEAN OF HENLEY BUSINESS SCHOOL (LEFT), WITH GELONG THUBTEN , TIBETAN BUDDHIST MONK (CENTRE) AND DR JONATHAN PASSMORE, DIRECTOR OF THE HENLEY CENTRE FOR COACHING (RIGHT)
‘We need to deepen our emotional, intellectual, spiritual, physical and relational capacities to relate more broadly, connect more deeply and perceive systematically,’ said Peter, ‘and never stop perfecting our adab – an Islamic term for “an appropriate way of being”.’ Peter concluded that two practices are essential. ‘Firstly, we have to listen to the coachees’ underlying stories, with a wide-angled empathy and compassion. But we also have to move from dialogue to triangles, recognising that the third element in any relationship is the collective purpose.’
Looking at coaching from all angles Henley’s view of coaching is not only evidenced by the spectrum of research conducted at the world-renowned Henley Centre for Coaching, but is also driven by the work done by PhD students on the neuroscience of emotion and decision-making at the University of Reading, of which Henley is a part. This subject formed the basis of a case study delivered by Helen Bullock, Head of Professional Forums at the International Coach Federation. She described how neuroscience, combined with David Rock’s SCARF model, had enabled a recent case to be resolved.
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Delegates at the conference were then able to choose to attend two out of six workshop sessions, covering a diverse range of topics, including: ‘Ershad’ and coaching in Islamic cultures, emotional awareness in coaching and authentic identity coaching.
A Tibetan monk’s view of mindfulness as a coaching approach The minds of many of the delegates were brought to a calmer state by the afternoon keynote speaker, Gelong Thubten, a British-born Tibetan Buddhist monk, who gave a masterclass on the role of mindfulness in effective coaching practice.
GELONG THUBTEN, TIBETAN BUDDHIST MONK
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‘Contrary to some beliefs,’ said Thubten, ‘mindfulness is not a state of switching off, but of switching on. It is a technique that allows you to be calm, be in the present, and be more aware of your thoughts. ‘In the context of relationships, too, mindfulness makes us more creative and allows us to empathise, without being infected by the issue.’ ‘Mindfulness is like a muscle, which develops with training. We gradually build new neural pathways, and it becomes a way of being. Of course, there are still stressful situations, but mindfulness allows the positives to shine through.’
Rounding off the event, the speakers took part in a panel discussion on the day’s topics and responded to questions from the delegates. This was followed by the presentation of the inaugural Henley Coaching Awards, covering three categories: •
Contribution to Coaching Research and Practice
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Coaching Research Paper of the Year
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Coaching Book of the Year
For details of the winners, see the full report.
IOANNA IORDANOU, RACHEL HAWLEY AND CHRISTIANA IORDANOU, WINNERS OF THE HENLEY COACHING BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD
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PROFILE
LOOKING AT: DR DAVID PENDLETON Professor in Leadership
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Airways in Hong Kong and a two-year attachment to Innogy (now npower) where he was Director, People and Organisational Development.
orn in Lincolnshire and raised in Nottingham in a working class family, David knew from his early teens that he wanted to study psychology, although he suspected even then that he would never practise as a clinician.
Since 2000, his main interest has been in leadership and he has taught on this subject at several worldrenowned business schools. In 2011 he penned another influential and critically acclaimed book, Leadership: All You Need to Know, with Professor Adrian Furnham of University College London. The book, now in its second edition, ‘takes a team-based approach to leadership for the 21st century, in contrast to most other approaches which have their origins in the 19th and 20th centuries.’
‘I was the first person in my family to go to university,’ recalls David, ‘and while my parents had no specific ambitions for me, they were very loving and supportive, and had a great belief in education. It was as if they were waving me farewell as I sailed off into the future, believing that I was going to a better place, although not a place they knew.’ True to his ambition, he gained his psychology degree at the University of Nottingham and went on to attain a doctorate at Oxford, focusing his research on doctor–patient communication. ‘Psychology really intrigued me; the mix of science and art, encompassing both the softer, philosophical side with the harder, empirical method.’ In the 1970s, vocational training became compulsory for GPs and David found himself ideally placed to service a market that was, to a great degree, sceptical that patient communication skills could be taught. Having established his reputation as a trainer, he moved up to train the trainers, and co-wrote what many people still consider to be the definitive book on the subject, The Consultation: An Approach to Learning and Teaching (1984). The seven tasks he set out in
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DR DAVID PENDLETON
the book defined an effective medical consultation and the principles of feedback; the book became known for the Pendleton Rules, and is still recommended reading for Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) exam candidates. After two Fellowships, at the RCGP and The King’s Fund, David was headhunted into a business psychology consultancy and subsequently founded his own consultancy firm, The Edgecumbe Consulting Group, with his wife Dr Jenny King. David gained consulting experience in most organisational sectors and on four continents, and carried out two significant secondments during this time: a two-year stint at Cathay Pacific
David was recently invited to join the faculty team at Henley in a part-time, professorial role, and was delighted to accept. David’s approach is called the Primary Colours approach to leadership which, he says, links neatly with the Henley philosophy of executive education. Now based in Bristol, David also keeps himself busy with a range of other interests, including keeping fit and singing jazz. ‘Jazz is a great metaphor for leadership,’ he insists. ‘You have to have a common vision, but then it’s all down to teamwork and alignment, and the facilitative nature of structure. My latest CD is available now!’ For details of Henley’s Leadership programmes, click here
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Executive Education at Henley Business School For more information, please contact: Henley Business School Greenlands Henley-on-Thames Oxfordshire RG9 3AU
HenleyBusinessSchool Executive Education at Henley Business School @HenleyBSchool
17.XLD.163
exec@henley.ac.uk Tel +44 (0)1491 418 767 henley.ac.uk/exec
+Henleyacuk HenleyBSchool
EFMD
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www.henley.ac.uk/exec