RTPI Young Planners

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RTPI YOUNG PLANNERS’ CONFERENCE

How to be a leader

By Laura Edgar

What is a leader and how can you seeking a promotion and starting a be one? Th ree young planners new role. considered this in a session at the “I think when left to think about RTPI’s Young Planners’ Virtual my career development alone, the Conference 2020. lack of self-confi dence I think comes

Attending her fi nal Young Planners’ in again, and I’ve too often focused Conference, Lucy Seymour-Bowdery on addressing my weaknesses, but MRTPI, team leader, developer my mentors have also helped me to contributions at the Ministry of recognise and build on the strengths Housing, Communities and Local that I have.” Government (MHCLG) cited an Audrey Tom Carpen, infrastructure Hepburn quote (see right). It sums up, and energy planning associate at she said, how she has felt in the early Barton Willmore and currently on years of her career. secondment to the “And to be honest, I “EXPERIENCE IS THE MHCLG’s national still do sometimes, BEST TEACHER, BUT NO infrastructure team, even now.” ONE SAYS IT MUST BE believes trusting

Seymour-Bowdery YOUR OWN PERSONAL young people and has since realised that EXPERIENCE” people early in it was this that held OLAFIYIN TAIWO their career with her back rather than responsibility and her ability. It turns out leadership is “essential that leaders are not if we’re going to necessarily extroverts. handle complexity”. Th e main quality for Explaining what he Seymour-Bowdery in means by complexity, an inspirational leader is being your he said: “It is clearly a very “authentic self”. challenging time at the moment and

“I think with authenticity comes it’s certainly not business as usual. empathy in others, and the ability for Th e top three examples for me are the people to connect with you, which I pandemic, climate change, and our think also links really well to inclusive exit from the European Union – these leadership,” she told the audience. really are shaping how we live, where

Mentoring, she emphasised, is we live and how we invest in places, important – having one and being in terms of economic investment, one. It’s a “more personal form social and environmental. For me of leadership and I feel that I’ve that’s the context that planning is benefi ted greatly from both having working within, and there are others a mentor and also being a mentor as well.” myself”. Having a mentor was Collaboration is key to addressing valuable for Seymour-Bowdery when such challenges. “I always think of a

I lack selfconfi dence. I don't know whether I shall ever get it. Perhaps it is better to be unsure of your self, as I am. But it is very tiring.

Audrey Hepburn

peloton as a good analogy for how you can think about leadership because you can play a diff erent role in that peloton at any time. Th ere will be diff erent skills that are required, but you can really fi nd your way through and do it really eff ectively in that way. So it’s always worth bearing in mind who’s in your peloton when you’re taking on a complex problem, whose peloton are you in, and who can you support. Th at’s something that certainly I’ll always come back to, and it’s very diffi cult to go it alone.”

For Olafi yin Taiwo MRTPI, convener at the Commonwealth Association of Planners (CAP) Young Planners Network, leadership is about infl uence and the diff erent opportunities to infl uence, whether that is in the workplace, within professional bodies

Th e young planner leadership checklist

or in local communities.

Th is year, the network launched Headway – a mentoring programme targeted at young planners in the early stages of their careers. Its purpose is to support them and address the capacity gap in planning within the Commonwealth. Th ere were barriers that needed facing as they went about the programme, including diff erent planning systems and diff erent time zones. Work included running and judging an essay competition, which received 24 entries from 11 countries.

Th e programme, and other work done this year, has been a success because, Taiwo explained, of the leadership qualities of young planners. Th ese are: n Vision – setting clear-cut objectives. n Commitment – “Th ese young leaders have been committed to ensuring that they participate in all meetings regardless of the time of the day in their own country. And that has contributed to a lot of achievements.” n Collaboration – Th is is “very critical because these present-day challenges cut across borders, cut across sectors, cut across disciplines, and whilst planning is critical to resolving these challenges, planning in isolation will be detrimental to all communities and environment”.

Concluding, Taiwo reiterated the importance of having vision, this time for one’s career and, while noting the cliché, highlighted that you are the leader of your own career – “start creating the opportunity within Be your authentic self

Have a mentor and be a mentor

Collaboration – know who’s in your peloton, your team, and how you can support it. Also, planning in isolation will be detrimental. Instead collaborate across sectors and borders.

Vision

Commitment

“MY MENTORS HAVE ALSO HELPED ME TO RECOGNISE AND BUILD ON THE STRENGTHS THAT I HAVE” LUCY SEYMOURBOWDERY

yourself to lead”. Experience, she added, “is the best teacher, but no one says it must be your own personal experience”.

“It is sometimes very costly to learn from personal experiences when there are others who are willing to share their experiences and provide support so you don’t fall into the same errors they made,” she concluded.