Business Link needed a presentation brochure summing up delegates' learnings and reflections from Columbus, a leadership development programme.
Foreword
'To know what you know, and know what you don’t know, is the characteristic of one who knows.'
Confucius
Welcome back to Columbus. The programme has been made possible by the involvement and commitment of leaders like you, and I’d like to thank you for taking the time to attend this event and read these words.
In just over a year, the programme has brought leaders from a huge range of Norfolk business together in a unique learning and development experience that some say has changed their lives forever.
We’ve created this booklet to encapsulate what Columbus has meant to those involved. It describes the kinds of changes we have achieved, the impact they have had so far and how their influence will continue into the future. We’ve also included the thoughts of a small selection of delegates, and I hope their views will reflect those of everyone who took part.
When Columbus first set foot in the New World, one journey was completed, but another was just beginning. His enterprise was the first chapter in a story of infinite possibilities and previously unimagined prosperity.
Columbus Horizons marks the end of our programme, but as its title suggests, it’s just the beginning of a longer journey for those involved. Learning is a lifelong voyage, and for those who aspire to manage and direct businesses, leadership is too. My sincere hope is that Columbus has set you on a productive, profitable and enjoyable course for the rest of your leadership life.
Tom Penney
Project Leader
Setting sail
The Columbus programme was launched in February 2005 at the Assembly Rooms in Norwich. Setting the tone for the programme, Professor Nigel Nicholson engaged and entertained us with a truly fascinating talk on the subject of leadership. He opened by asserting that leaders are the unsung heroes of the modern world, taking their organisations forward and adding real value to them. He made us realise that we sometimes hesitate to describe ourselves as leaders, even when our roles clearly indicate that we are. But leadership is simply being yourself while exercising authority. It’s not a particular way of thinking or acting that we have to learn, or a set of values that we have to live up to.
Nigel went on to observe that while some parts of leadership are about doing what comes naturally, there may be other areas where we have to raise our game. Remembering the adage ‘know thyself’, we can start to identify the areas where we need to improve and take control of our own destiny. Without self-knowledge, we’re at the mercy of our own shortcomings. But once we take the first step towards changing ourselves, we’ve started moving towards our business goals.
Using legendary band leader Duke Ellington as an example, Nigel put forward the idea of a ‘loose but tight’ leadership style that balances control over aims with the freedom for people to improvise. When people are held together by a belief in what they’re doing, they can find the confidence to be creative and release their own potential. Nigel’s snappy phrase ‘hands on, heart in, fingers out’ reminded us that the most effective leaders show deep involvement and commitment to the work of their organisations, while giving those who work there the space to contribute in their own ways.
Finally, Nigel pointed out the different factors that can affect leadership – S factors, or the situations in which we lead, Q factors, or our personal qualities, and P factors, or the actual processes that make up our leadership, such as organisation, coaching, influencing and empathising.
Nigel’s thought-provoking words made us all think about leadership in a new light, and reflect on what leadership meant to us – the leaders we’d known in the past and the leaders we’d become in our own right. We may have understood leadership as an area for learning and improvement for the first time, having previously regarded it either as something that other people did, or as something flowing from our own characters that we couldn’t really change. Almost certainly, we started to think more deeply about our own personal leadership style, our strengths and weaknesses and what might need to change.
Looking forward
Columbus was innovative and wide-ranging in its scope, and it’s possible that many of those present at the launch didn’t quite know what to expect. We all have different reasons for wanting to improve our leadership, and different ways in which we want to improve it. In business terms, we each have different priorities that flow from the stage of growth our companies are at, or the trading conditions in which they operate.
Richard Fannon has been the owner/manager of Stower Grange Hotel, a small country house hotel on the outskirts of Norwich, for the last five years. He previously worked in larger firms in the hospitality industry. ‘I was attracted by the chance to learn from people with up-to-date management thinking from outside my industry, and from outside the Norfolk area,’ he says. ‘The involvement of Ashridge Management College, to my mind, meant the learning would be state-of-the-art. Whatever they say has to be worth listening to. The opportunity to tap into the same learning centres used by large professional companies like banks and insurers was too good to miss.’
Ian Wilson is owner/manager of Byfords, a successful high-quality restaurant and delicatessen based in north Norfolk. ‘At the start I didn’t quite know what was ahead,’ he admits. ‘But the launch was classy and the programme seemed well-organised, and I felt that I wanted to be involved.’
Anna Gill is a Director at Michael Virden Engraved Glass, a Norfolk-based company producing high-quality engraved glass items for distribution throughout the UK. ‘When I first heard about Columbus, it seemed like a good opportunity to get some high-quality funded training,’ she says. ‘I was hoping to gain some new perspectives on various areas of management to help me move the business forward. We need to develop sales and marketing, and since there are a number of ways to do that, it’s down to me to decide how we’ll approach it and who will do what.’
Ron Pollin is owner/manager of Open Contact Marketing, which provides call-centre outsourcing and direct marketing services. The firm has seen revenues more than double in a single year through new contract wins and growth among its client businesses, presenting leadership unique challenges. ‘My expectations of Columbus were high, but non-specific,’ he says. ‘For me, it was about looking for ways to improve the quality of my own leadership, particularly at this time when we’re going through significant growth. My management team has had to grow, so I wanted to improve not only my own leadership but also the skills of my managers, in a kind of trickle-down effect from the top of the business.’
New perspectives
As the first masterclasses welcomed their delegates, the journey into learning began. Even before we started to learn, we had the opportunity to share our thoughts with our leadership peers. This was one of the key benefits of Columbus – not only the chance to learn, but the chance to gain insights from others who were walking the same path.
‘I was intrigued by the opportunity to meet with people from other businesses of all sizes and learn from them,’ confirms Richard Fannon. ‘As a small business owner, I miss the benefits of having a peer group, so Columbus helped me a lot in terms of looking at both problems and opportunities. Sitting around a table trying to solve an issue together made us realise that while we all thought we had the right answer, someone sitting next to us might have a better solution or a different way of looking at the problem. After a time, you tend to think about things in just one way, and it’s good to get a different view. I started to consider what better solutions there might be to my own problems.’
‘I definitely learned from my fellow delegates,’ agrees Ian Wilson. ‘In isolation, it’s easy to feel inferior or worry that you never get things right. When you sit in a room of people in a similar situation, you realise that everyone faces the same frustrations and there are no right answers.’
‘When you’re sole director and shareholder, as I am, there’s nobody else to talk to,’ comments Ron Pollin. ‘There are times when you don’t want to discuss the issues with your managers, or even with family members who work in the business.’
‘It was very useful to hear how other people had dealt with different situations, and consider how we could adapt that to our business,’ adds Anna Gill.
Columbus also offered the opportunity to mix with leaders drawn from a wide variety of trades and professions. ‘I’ve worked in the hospitality industry for thirty years, and I think it’s important to look at management styles from outside your own area,’ says Richard Fannon.
The Columbus masterclasses were all-day events, each focused on a different aspect of leadership. The all-day format meant that delegates had to make a significant time commitment, but most felt that the return on their investment made it worth while. ‘Having been in business for five years, it was good to take a step away from the day-to-day running of a hotel,’ says Richard Fannon. ‘I don’t take a full day away from my business to learn very often – I’d done it before when working in larger businesses, but small business is different. Being away from the coal face is very productive.’
‘Going into the first masterclass, I was sceptical because of the time away from the hands-on running of my business, which is crucial,’ agrees Ian Wilson. ‘But I came back with absolutely loads of information and a range of thoughts on how I could change things.’
