Henley Focus September 16 by Henley Business School

ISSUE 12 – SEP 2016

FOCUS BE EXCEPTIONAL. THE HENLEY WAY.

BRINGING YOU THE INSIGHTS YOU NEED TO DRIVE YOUR AGENDA

How a culture of trust opened doors for Alibaba in China P3

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At the forefront of the digital revolution, but it’s not for everyone P9

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‘High theory, high impact’ resonates with Henley’s entrepreneurs P6

Henley Regatta 2016 – taking leadership forward P4

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What makes a great leader? Malaysia: south east Asia’s You need 5 Qs P7 gateway to Henley P8

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Mining the data on our Leadership coaching – built environment delivers needed more now real value P10 than ever P12

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Seven important creative-thinking skills P14

WELCOME

FOCUS@HENLEY – YOUR ESSENTIAL DIGEST OF THE LATEST NEWS AND VIEWS ON LEARNING DEVELOPMENT, MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP Hello, and welcome to Henley Business School’s online FOCUS magazine, in which we highlight some of the latest news, views and insights into strategy and HR, management and leadership, coaching and much more. Amongst the topics featured in this issue are: – Insights from the latest research into what makes great leadership learning – How technological developments are enhancing Henley’s blended learning approach – How Henley Malaysia is providing a stepping stone for Asian students – Buildings and towns have feelings too! A look at the work of the Henley Centre for Intelligent Places – The five Qs of leadership, and why you must have all of them As ever, your thoughts and comments are genuinely welcomed, so please do send us your feedback and help us to ensure that Focus@Henley continues to be relevant and worthwhile. We look forward to hearing from you. Claire Hewitt, Editor of Focus@Henley magazine Head of Learning Design +44 (0) 1491 418767 exec@henley.ac.uk www.henley.ac.uk

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EVENT REPORT

HOW A CULTURE OF TRUST OPENED DOORS FOR ALIBABA IN CHINA Henley Engaging Business Event, London. For more about Engaging Business events, click here

n 2001, Savio Kwan began a journey that would eventually create an

empire worth $200billion, employing 20,000 people. Savio recounted his story to a captivated audience at Henley Business School’s Engaging Business event, hosted by international law firm Hogan Lovells in London. It was the story of how Alibaba, the Chinese online trading platform, achieved an extraordinary change in fortune.

Savio recalled how he was drafted in to address crippling $2million-a-month losses at the 150-employee company. Without drastic action, the company looked likely to collapse within five months. Expenditure was slashed, and Savio and his team set about re-engineering the company in radical ways. Within a month, monthly losses were reduced by 75%. But it became clear that they also had to set out a positive roadmap for growth.

Targeting the masses, and a new set of values Business-to-business advertising traditionally focused on the top end of the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) market, leaving 80% of SMEs feeling disenfranchised. The Alibaba platform, however, was affordable for everyone. ‘We disrupted the conventional model’, recounted Savio. ‘We dared to be different.’

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Their focus was to put the customer first in everything they did, building on a foundation of passion, integrity and honouring one’s job. These ‘rules of engagement’ governed the company’s ethos and operations. ‘We needed to instil a culture of quality, innovation and value,’ said Savio. ‘We needed everyone to buy into the ethos that today’s top performing behaviour would be tomorrow’s minimum standard.’ The improvement in the company’s performance was spectacular, and its exponential growth attracted new investment, which was put to very good use.

Further expansion, and seeing off the external threat Following the successful introduction of the Alibaba College, the model established by eBay served as an inspiration for their next venture – Taobao. Despite an acrimonious battle between the two giants, during which eBay put its local operation in the hands of an inexperienced European manager, Taobao stood by its values – based the brand’s values on those of wushu, a martial art similar to kung fu – and forced its rival out of the market. Every employee was encouraged to adopt a traditional wushu warrior nickname, and a philosophy that emphasised the righting of wrongs, and helping the weak to be strong. They were encouraged to act in a playful manner, but with an unerring loyalty to the team and the customer. The client base grew to over 400 million registered users and achieved an 80% market share, with double-digit annual growth and high margins. Following this, they introduced Alipay – a simple payment system – and active users soon ran into several hundreds of millions. ‘Trust is difficult to create and easy to lose, but if it is value-driven and if participation is universal, it will deliver rewards’, concluded Savio. And based on what Alibaba achieved in just 15 years, it’s a philosophy that is difficult to dispute.

EVENT REPORT

HENLEY REGATTA 2016 – TAKING LEADERSHIP FORWARD Henley Regatta Event, July 2016

he annual Henley Royal Regatta is always a special occasion. There’s a

buzz in the air, mixed with the aroma of strawberries and champagne, putting it up there with the most quintessentially English days in the social calendar.

Among those enjoying the event this year were some of the UK’s top managers and leaders, who were informed and entertained at the world-renowned Henley Business School, before taking a cruise along the Regatta course. Steve Ludlow, Henley’s Head of Executive Education, opened the event by reflecting on the changes and uncertainty in the economy – globally and nationally – and the Learning & Development industry’s ongoing challenge to measure return on investment. ‘It is clear, though, that transforming thinking can’t be achieved through short, online learning packages’, concluded Steve, ‘so here at Henley, the future is very much geared to a blended approach, but is always based on robust research.’

The latest research: Tomorrow’s leadership – today’s leadership development Picking up on Steve’s words, Peter Hawkins, Professor of Leadership, then summarised the latest output from a robust piece of in-depth research

amongst a cross-section of business leaders globally. The starting point for Peter’s research was the question of how the leadership needed for tomorrow’s organisations will differ from today’s, and what needs to be done to prepare future leaders? Peter’s findings were based upon research among CEOs, HRDs and millennial future leaders, as well as desk research and various publications, all across many sectors and countries. The top issues identified included:

•

the ability to lead and coach a team, with shared ownership and collaborative working

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an unprecedented pace of change

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‘Uberisation’ (i.e. digitalisation, and the ability of web-based companies such as Uber, Airbnb and Netflix to disintermediate the value chain)

the need to empathise with – and challenge – the people within the organisation and its ecosystem

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the ability to understand the changing attitudes of the workforce (of which over half are now under 35)

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finding and retaining talent

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greater interdependence and the need to develop partnerships across the organisation’s ecosystem

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addressing the increasingly complex needs of stakeholders

So what is needed from leadership? Based on the responses, Peter concluded that the following are needed: •

Diversity – of experience, perception and thinking

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the agility of leaders to reinvent themselves to suit changing circumstances

Future leaders were urged to ‘get out more… and visit different worlds’, ‘find good mentors and coaches’ and ‘experiment more’, and based on all this, Peter has developed a set of emerging new principles for leadership development comprising: •

customised and flexed learning for the organisation and individuals

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connecting organisational and learning development to create individual, team and organisational learning

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developing leadership, not just leaders

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A sumptuous buffet lunch rounded off the event, after which, the river beckoned, and the sun even shone, albeit briefly!

Post-event feedback Following the event, delegates were asked for their feedback. The following comments were typical of their enthusiasm: ‘I found the research contributors’ panel fascinating, with lots of really refreshing perspectives. It’s given me so much to think about.’

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‘challenge-based learning’ that is about future paced real challenges in cross-functional teams, involving stakeholders stakeholder involvement in designing, delivering and sharing the leadership development

Panel discussion A panel comprising research contributors Lord Victor Adebowale (CEO of Turning Point), Becky Pearce (Investment Relations Manager at Unilever) and Laura Ferguson (Head of People Engagement and Change at BG) gave their own perspectives in response to a range of questions including: •

the biggest challenges they face in the coming 5 –10 years

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reverse mentoring and ‘outside-in’ mentoring

Focus@Henley

•

the need for broader cultural awareness

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the gap between the rewards we offer to effective management compared to effective leadership

Parallel sessions exploring the implications of the research The morning continued with three interactive, parallel sessions:

‘A tremendous morning, full of practical insights and possibilities, and a wonderful afternoon of hospitality.’

Henley Business School was ranked

•

Executive Fellows John Morton and Ian Williams presided over a group discussing L&D

in the UK

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Claire Hewitt, Head of Learning Design, and Executive Fellow Vicky Rhodes facilitated a discussion on operationalising strategy

For personal development and educational experience

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Associate Faculty Keith Daniell and Executive Fellow Sabehia Mohamed explored the implications for organisational development

(FTA Global MBA Rankings 2015)

CENTRE UPDATES

‘HIGH THEORY, HIGH IMPACT’ RESONATES WITH HENLEY’S ENTREPRENEURS

Professor Andrew Godley

For details of the Henley Centre for Entrepreneurship, click here

‘W

hat that means’, says Professor Andrew Godley, Director of the

Henley Centre for Entrepreneurship, ‘is that we want every student who leaves here to feel that they can do whatever they want to do.’

Established in 2007, the Centre aims to teach the theory of entrepreneurship alongside the real experience of world-leading practitioners who have seen it and done it. Ten years on, it offers 25 modules that contribute to undergraduate, postgraduate and MBA programmes, and runs events that have been attended by over 2,500 local SMEs. ‘The Henley approach is quite different from other entrepreneurship programmes in that we focus on the real practicalities of entrepreneurship, such as market testing, cost control and revenue generation, because the reality is that whatever business you’re in, you have to sell stuff. ‘And having such a substantial outreach into a vibrant local business community means we can place our students with companies for fieldwork, research or internships. There are so many new opportunities in the Thames Valley area, with incubator spaces for start-up businesses, funding and mentoring programmes, and a new science park opening in 2017. Reading is a buzzing place with such a diverse student community. And that’s incredibly stimulating for a young entrepreneur.’ It’s a sentiment reinforced by the Centre’s Business Development Lead, Jurek Sikorski:

‘We provide a unique and groundbreaking programme, in which our BA students can actually launch their own business and get academic credit for it. And they receive support all the way through, from initiatives such as the Henley Business Angels network, the Henley Crowdfunding Platform and the Henley Entrepreneur Mentor Programme.’

leading firms around the world, but we are now living in a golden era in terms of how universities contribute to entrepreneurism. The programmes Henley offers give students an experience they simply can’t get anywhere else in Europe.’

The students also benefit from a vibrant calendar of events co-ordinated by the university’s Entrepreneurship Society, including workshops, a start-up weekend and the IDEAFEST competition, with a £1,000 prize for the most innovative business idea. As Andrew says: ‘For 40 years, we’ve been at the forefront of research into entrepreneurship, which has been used by governments, policymakers and

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POINT OF VIEW

WHAT MAKES A GREAT LEADER? YOU NEED 5 Qs Professor Andrew Kakabadse

For details of Henley’s Leadership programmes, click here

he rules are changing, says Andrew Kakabadse, Professor of Governance and Leadership at Henley Business School, and if you don’t have all five Qs, you may well be left behind.

Andrew Kakabadse has spent a lifetime working with senior business leaders and researching how they behave, and he’s convinced that many of our longheld beliefs and assumptions are simply out of date. ‘In a mature market, it is very difficult to measure or maintain a competitive advantage’, he says. ‘It’s a constant challenge to engage with your audiences and stakeholders, and come up with compelling propositions.’ So what attributes does a leader need in such a market? ‘I believe that it’s changed significantly during the past decade, and it’s a combination of elements I call the five Qs. ‘The need for cognitive intelligence (IQ) is well documented, and no-one would argue that a leader needs to be able to harness resources, particularly where there are multiple agendas. ‘And an advanced emotional intelligence (EQ) is clearly needed to develop teams to achieve their potential, through managing your own emotions as well as those of others within your team.

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‘But I contend that there are others. A political intelligence (PQ) is a leader’s ability to navigate a way forward through diverse stakeholders’ agendas. And a resilience quotient (RQ) is absolutely necessary to cope with the pressures imposed by today’s complex business environment. It determines how self-aware you are, and how able you are to deal with negotiations, and survive across multiple contexts. ‘Finally, I would suggest that a moral quotient (MQ) is becoming increasingly vital, taking an ethical approach to the way you lead.

‘The world is constantly changing, and our model of what makes a great leader therefore has to be constantly reviewed and refined. But from what the current research is telling us, a balance of the five Qs appears to be the foundation for an effective and sustainable approach to leadership.’

Professor Andrew Kakabadse is Chairman of the Henley Directors’ Forum, Programme Director for Henley Business School’s Board Directors’ Programme and Co-Director for Data Protection Officer Programme.

‘But in many markets, especially in less developed countries, a combination of inequality and corrupt governments has seen the incidences of bribery reaching epidemic proportions, and it is increasingly difficult for middle management, in particular, to impose their emotional and moral intelligence. They are often stuck in the middle, facing an impossible task of satisfying both senior management and their clients without succumbing to a delegitimised supply chain. Ultimately, such scenarios are unsustainable, as they deliver less value. ‘These five Qs come together to inform every aspect of leadership, and each of them can, in different ways, be nurtured and practiced through learning and development.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATE

MALAYSIA: SOUTH-EAST ASIA’S GATEWAY TO HENLEY

Dr Susan Rose

Dr Susan Rose, Head of Henley Business School – Malaysia. For more about Henley in Malaysia, click here

‘E

of their efforts, as interest blossoms in the eight Henley programmes available.

So says Dr Susan Rose, Head of Henley

‘The University of Reading Malaysia worked closely with the Iskandar Investment Berhad (IIB) to create a wonderful environment here, complete with state-of-the-art learning spaces, superb student accommodation, restaurants, shops and sports facilities, which include a 12,000-seat stadium and an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

very day is a challenge, but it’s moving forward in the right way!’

Business School at the University of Reading Malaysia campus in Iskandar, Malaysia, which is coming to the end of its second full year.

This new branch of the university currently offers programmes in law, business, finance, real estate, psychology, and the built environment. The campus is located on the southern tip of Malaysia, just a short drive away from Singapore and within the education hub (‘Educity’) of the Iskandar economic region. With responsibility for developing, delivering and promoting its programmes, Susan and her team are now seeing the fruits

‘We’re here to develop professionals, and this location gives us access to Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and even China, so it’s a great jumping-off point for the whole ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region. But it works both ways, and because

the learning modules have the same structure as those being delivered in the UK – albeit with some localised content – students can move between the Malaysian campus and the UK campus to gain experience of another culture. This really enhances the learning experience, and we already have many students moving in both directions. ‘With 12 staff already in place, including faculty from Malaysia, the UK, Iran, Korea and Austria, the place has a truly international flavour. And we are actively reaching out to Henley alumni across the region to run events, organise work experience, internships and graduate recruitment programmes. ‘And even before students reach university, they can engage with us through our Foundation Programme. Earlier this year, 120 students joined the Foundation in Business programme, many of whom will continue on to Henley undergraduate programmes. Our aim is to create clear career paths for all our students. ‘We now have over 400 students enrolled on our current programmes across the campus’, says Susan, ‘but we have ambitious plans to build it up to 2,500. So there are still plenty more challenges to come!’

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DIGITAL

AT THE FOREFRONT OF THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION, BUT IT’S NOT THE ANSWER FOR EVERYONE

Dr Martin Bicknell

Dr Martin Bicknell, School Director of Teaching and Learning

r Martin Bicknell believes that the way higher education is delivered

will continue to change as digital tools develop. And no one will be surprised to learn that Henley will continue to lead from the front. But Martin is a little cautious about the hype surrounding the digital ‘revolution’.

Martin originally worked in telecoms and media before embarking on several years in the distancelearning arena. Outside of his current role as Director of Teaching and Learning at Henley, he also chairs the University committee looking at the deployment of technology in education. ‘During my time,’ says Martin, ‘I’ve seen a great deal of hype about technology, and there’s still plenty of it floating around the education sector. And hype can be helpful; it creates energy and can itself be a force for change, but we have to take a balanced view. ‘Technology itself isn’t going to

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change education. Only educators and students will do that. But as an enabling mechanism, some technological advancements do give us greater flexibility in the way we teach and learn. ‘Henley, for example, has always had a strong international partner network, and sophisticated geographic conferencing technology can enable us to duplicate the classroom experience to a much greater degree than in the past, transcending time and place barriers. ‘Technology is also changing the way that education is being consumed, and we’ve always recognised that different groups of people want to learn in different ways; having these new tools means we can adapt our delivery to suit each group.’ In recent years, there has been an explosion in the provision of MOOCs (massive open online courses), which deliver free recorded learning sessions, and the University of Reading was an early adopter of this approach, which is delivered through the FutureLearn platform.

‘Although it doesn’t give viewers any qualifications – yet – MOOCs can be really engaging,’ says Martin, ‘and our 10-week programme on managing people has attracted nearly 60,000 participants from 130 countries. It clearly does have an evolving place, and is already providing a flow of students to our degree and Executive Education programmes, as well as bringing much-needed education to a wider audience. ‘This experience has also taught us to utilise the technology to its full potential and this will be used to benefit all our programmes. It’s a great example of how technology, if well deployed, can move the market forward.

And what else can we look forward to? ‘Degree apprenticeships, where we upskill the workforce, will become a big opportunity, and there are some exciting developments in our own MBA programme that will be announced shortly. ‘Distance learning used to be considered inferior to face-to-face learning, but our experience is that students achieve better results with a blended approach, allowing participants to learn where, when and how it suits them. Younger, digital natives, for example, tend to have a shorter attention span, so they can now digest content in smaller chunks, and even consume it in bed! It’s what suits them best, and therefore it works.’

MINING THE DATA ON OUR BUILT ENVIRONMENT DELIVERS REAL VALUE

CiP

HENLEY CENTRES

A R O U N D YO

For more information about the Centre for intelligent Places, click here

‘A

n intelligent place can be a business or a single building,

a rural village, a neighbourhood or an urban region, and they all face complex challenges. But in all cases, there is real scope to harness our expertise to develop sustainable, data-led, people-focused solutions.’

That’s the view of Dr Anupam Nanda, the Academic Director of the Centre for intelligent Places, which is bringing together the knowledge and experience of regional studies, urban planning, economics, finance, business and informatics within the University of Reading and Henley Business School to take a more integrated, holistic approach to solving community and business issues. ‘We need to think in a more multidisciplinary way’, says Anupam. ‘Towns and cities are in competition with one

another in the same way as businesses. The Centre brings together all the relevant subject areas, and we join the dots. ‘But whether we’re working with companies in the private or public sectors, with corporations or SMEs, with government officials or agencies, we always need to keep sight of their agenda, and base our objective analysis on rigorous research. ‘And we have to keep an open mind about the form that any solutions might take,’ he says. ‘For example, the best solution for a project in social dynamics might take the form of an app that combines enhanced information about local services to enable citizens to find the quickest

route from A to B, taking into account weather conditions, train times and the user’s own fitness level.’ Nigel Hartley, the Centre’s Director of Enterprise, believes that the Centre has never been more relevant. ‘The Centre launched last October, and is already proving to be an invaluable resource within industry and the public sector. We are currently investigating a wide range of urbanisation issues and our work enables communities of interest to make sense of how big data, the internet of things and data-led solutions can make a real difference in society as a whole. It’s about making important connections and delivering real intelligence across the entire value chain.

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‘We try to combine the digital with the physical worlds and we embrace technology as an enabler, but it’s really about the user experience. We are discovering that businesses across the board are really interested in end-user behaviour patterns, but only now are they starting to assemble big data pools into some useable intelligence. We can demystify the behavioural patterns further through our research, and the use of our collaborative multi-disciplinary approach to solving problems. As a consequence we are now beginning to make real improvements to the way people live, work and study’.

Dr Anupam Nanda

Business Snippets

Nigel Hartley

Creating a culture of intrapreneurship Encouraging intrapreneurship – with every employee acting as if they are running their own business – is proving to be very effective in finding problems to solve and new markets to enter. Employees use their own initiative and run with it, and the organisation is the one that wins or loses, depending on the individual’s success, while the individual gets the experience of entrepreneurship without personal risk. A company culture that promotes internal entrepreneurial thinking starts with a leader who exemplifies it. Here are four tips for fostering intrapreneurship in your workplace. Be transparent. Trust your employees with important company information and include them in companywide decisions to make them feel like they’re more involved in

day-to-day business processes. And get feedback on the information you distribute. Reward proactive behaviour. Leaders and managers shouldn’t be controlling every detail of what their employees do. Instead, they should reward individuals who take charge and find ways to improve sales, efficiency, etc., on their own. Fix problems as they arise. Instill a sense of urgency in your employees, and teach them to fix all problems, large or small, as they arise. Encourage healthy competition. Intrapreneurial employees should have a healthy sense of competition with one another. As a leader, it’s your job to make sure they remember that their success is intertwined.

For the full article, click here

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EXECUTIVE COACHING

LEADERSHIP COACHING – NEEDED NOW, MORE THAN EVER Dr Patricia Bossons

By Dr Patricia Bossons, former Director of the Henley Centre for Coaching and Behavioural Change and co-author of a new book on the impact of neuroscience on leadership coaching For more information about the Centre, click here

he theme at this year’s Henley Coaching Conference focused on

understanding how coaching can make a real difference, including how we can evaluate it, and how we can make it even more powerful.

The Henley Centre for Coaching and Behavioural Change has come a long way since its inception in 2004, and Dr Patricia Bossons welcomed an eager audience to the day’s events. First to the podium was the keynote speaker, Adrian Furnham, Professor of Psychology at UCL, and he soon had the delegates enthralled with a fast-moving, stimulating and insightful session looking at what research is telling us about the factors that shape today’s leaders and leadership, including: • experience of failure • having been faced with a particularly

difficult time or task • having had a very good boss in the

that provide empirical evidence that coaching can make significant, measurable improvements. So the good news is that coaches can now approach clients with more compelling propositions and a renewed confidence.

The neuroscience of leadership and coaching The second session of the morning was presented by Patricia and her colleague Professor Patricia Riddell, who addressed the issue of how coaching works. As a professor of applied neuroscience at the University of Reading, Patricia Riddell explained how, through the latest research developments into neuroscience, we are starting to understand the physiology of how individuals operate under pressure or when they are suddenly thrust into leadership roles.

Professor Patricia Riddell The essence of the approach is based on the premise that decision-making involves comparison to reference points. So if something makes you happier or less happy than you expected to be, you’re more likely to learn from it.

past (from whom they learned how to be good) • having had a very bad boss in the

past (from whom they learned how not to be bad). So can coaching interventions make a positive difference, and if so, how? Adrian concluded by describing the results of studies into the effectiveness of coaching. By analysing a number of research programmes over several years and sectors, figures are emerging

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The reference values typically used can be divided into: •

ideal (or approach) – which measure against a created goal

•

ought (or avoid) – which seek to avoid shame, guilt or regret

Through physical experimentation, we are now also able to identify which parts of the brain control fear, security or pleasure. We can therefore use this to predict what reference points people use (approach or avoid), and apply appropriate, empathetic techniques to achieve better results.

Relaunching the Henley Centre for Coaching and Behavioural Change The final session of the morning was led by Dr Dorota Bourne, who outlined the Centre’s role as a platform for communication, networking, learning and sharing. And Claire Hewitt, Henley’s Head of Learning Design, reminded the audience of the next annual conference (14 June 2017) and a number of full-day masterclasses, including Setting up a Coaching Business on 28 September.

Parallel sessions Following lunch, the audience members were able to choose between parallel presentations from MSc in Coaching & Behavioural Change graduands and guest researchers:

Session 2 •

Developing coaching practice – working with school principals Senior Lecturer Jenny Ferrier-Kerr travelled from the University of Waikato (NZ) to explain how she refined her approach to coaching, referring to the traditional Maori ways

•

Organisations that claim to have a coaching culture – so what? Gary Hilton explored the effectiveness of so-called coaching cultures in transactional advisory services

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An investigation into the role of coaching in successful healthcare leadership Britta Klinck revealed the outcomes of research into the impact of coaching among NHS leaders.

Professor Alison Hardingham

Feedback At the end of the event, audience members gave their feedback; the following comments were typical:

Psychodynamic influences in leadership coaching

‘The finest one-day event I have attended in my many years of business and coaching.

The final session of the conference was presented by Professor Alison Hardingham on the subject of psychodynamic psychotherapy, which, according to Alison, ‘encourages you to view every individual as a human being, not a role or position, and teaches us many lessons that can enhance coaching practice’. As a result, Alison spoke also of reinforcing her own commitment to active listening, neutrality and non-judgementalism.

Enormous insights, very enjoyable.’ ‘Great to hear the experts speak, learn from the collective knowledge and experience in the room, and be back at Henley Business School!’

The Neuroscience of Leadership Coaching by Patricia Bossons, Patricia Riddell & Denis Sartain was published in August 2015 by Bloomsbury.

Session 1 •

Leadership coaching in professional contexts Associate Professor Christian van Nieuwerburgh explored coaching cultures

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Leaders under pressure Andy Bird presented the results of his research into the inspiration, drivers, mindsets and triggers behind decision-making under pressure

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What is the impact of improved self-awareness on leaders? Melanie Symes looked at the pros – and some of the cons – of greater self-awareness, and how coaches can optimise their role

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LISTMANIA

SEVEN IMPORTANT CREATIVE-THINKING SKILLS Adapted from an article by Mike Brown in Brainzooming.

recently found myself jotting down examples of the most important

creative-thinking skills my team was exhibiting – ones that benefit both those who display them and those working with them too:

1 Suspending advocacy of your own idea to push for another person’s concept Demonstrating your willingness to champion another person’s idea can open the way to getting others to support your thinking, too. 2 Putting your own idea to the same test you apply to an idea from someone else It’s easy to be a hypocrite and apply all kinds of hurdles to other ideas while letting your own thinking slide by unchallenged in your own mind. 3 Combining two different ideas and making them better (not muddled) as one idea Compromising on creative ideas usually leads to something nobody likes, recognises, or thinks satisfies the original objective. Being able to dissect ideas and put the highlights together as something new, however, is a great skill to have. 4 Letting someone else take ‘ownership’ of your idea in order to build support for it This skill really tests whether you believe so strongly in an idea you’re willing to let someone else step up and take it on as their own idea to see it prevail.

5 Displaying the patience to wait for someone else to say what needs to be said so all you have to do is agree It’s tempting to jump in right away and make all the points you feel necessary in a creative discussion. At times though, patience and silence are called for, especially when someone else can do it more appropriately than you can.

7 Always looking for new creative skills to develop in yourself and those around you Creative meetings are a great opportunity to spot gaps in others as well as seeing your own creative shortcomings.

For the full article click here 6 Sticking to your guns amid challenges to a creative idea that makes solid strategic sense Don’t be afraid to make and remake your case if the idea you’re advocating is on the mark strategically.

Infographic by Diane Bleck – DoodleInstitute.com