Five things I learned about leadership on a Leaders’ Quest

What can you learn from spending five days having conversations with people who are not obviously like you, and who know and do things you may not understand or care about? Quite a lot, as I found out when I went on a leadership journey organized by Leaders’ Quest. I have been home, physically, for two days, but in my mind I am still on the road. I need more time to digest what I saw and heard. Meanwhile, here are five things I learned:

1 How milking with Paul beats sitting with Mary

‘Sitting with Mary’ used to be how one learned to do a job. You sat, you listened, you observed, and you asked questions. And sometimes you got to practice, too. Last week I was given the chance to ‘milk with Paul’. Cows are very large animals, they poo and pee a lot, and they don’t like strangers in their milking parlour. This means you need highly developed skills and awareness to have someone shadow you when you are milking 187 cows in a confined space. Paul, the cowman, who looked after me, demonstrated phenomenal technical, spatial, communication, time and risk management skills. I learned a lot about how to lead from Paul.

2 Collaborative Inquiry not Interrogation

The conversations that worked best for me were the ones where the people we met had questions for us, too. Let me try to explain. If you tell me what you do, and then I tell you what I do, then we both know, what we both know. Whereas, if there is time, and the conditions are right for dialogue, new questions will emerge, and quite possibly we will discover valuable learning points together.  Firing questions at people may result in a diminished learning for all, because the thing you think you need to know, may not be as valuable as the knowledge or experience your interlocutor was going to share with you. If only you had let them.

3 Ditch your titles

We are conditioned to recognize people by their role, and job title. When you meet someone for the first time, hearing a job title may help to understand who you are speaking to: Banker, Consultant, Entrepreneur, Ex-Offender, Husband, Finance Director, Mother, Piano Tuner, Student. Husband, Mother, and Newly Redundant don’t work so well. If you want someone to remember who you are, it is essential to say something about yourself that will help them understand what you do, and, hopefully, arouse their curiousity.

4 Leadership and Learning

‘Leadership and Learning are indispendible to each other’, as John F Kennedy has said. For me, the people we met who were consciously learning from their challenges and opportunities, tended to be the most inspiring leaders. I’m thinking of a manager at a social enterprise who knew everyone by name, a school student in a new Academy, a probation officer who always took the difficult path, a banker who wanted to be a painter, Jimmy Mizen’s family, a piano tuner whose home is London, and who has no home.

5 The Kindness of Strangers

Perfect strangers can be exceptionally kind. Again, and again, we met people doing difficult things, who were patient, open, thoughtful, generous, compassionate, funny, and respectful to us, and to each other. With leaders like these, seizing the opportunity to tell them how great they are at what they do, was a privilege and a pleasure.

The Pixar Pitch and Other Sales Tips from Dan Pink

If you need to brush up your selling and influencing skills, Dan Pink’s new book ‘To Sell is Human’ has some practical suggestions. Though I would not recommend all of them to all of my friends. Because selling is very personal, and you have to be yourself to engage people. As I found out. But I’ll tell you about that later. 

I sold young ladies for a living

Having recently gone freelance, I need to sell myself constantly. I used to make a living out of selling other people. I sold young ladies quite successfully. About one a week, on average. I was a recruitment consultant. Right now, I am trying to sell a new careers development workshop for recent graduates who want to work in sustainability. The drive for a green growth, coupled, sadly, with high youth unemployment, makes me suspect there is a need for a course that will help young people to help themselves find jobs. 

Don't sell what interests you

I’ve got a plan to deliver a course that will be an inspiring and memorable experience. But as Dan Pink says, I need to communicate not what interests me about the course, but what will attract potential participants. Forming a lifelong long network of people who want to work in sustainability is, to me, the key to future happiness and prosperity. Whereas the participants probably just want to know that handing over two hundred pounds will make a difference to their job prospects. What I am thinking about now is the need to have a clear message for potential participants. What is the goal of the course? What will they learn, and how will this help them find a job in sustainability? 

The PIxar Pitch

One of the tools that Dan Pink offers is ‘The Pixar Pitch’. Emma Coats, a former Pixar story artist, has created a six sentence template for an irresistible story: 

‘Once upon a time _____. Every day_____. One day_____. Because of that_____. Because of that_____. Until finally_____.’

And so it happened, that on a Holiday Monday, I tried to use Emma Coats' template to create a pitch for my workshop ‘Pathways to Sustainability Career’.

‘Once upon a time it was difficult to find a job in sustainability. Every day, young people applied for jobs, but it took a lot of time, and some gave up looking because of the rejections and the competition. One day, young people came together to learn more about jobs in sustainability, and what kind of skills and experience are needed. Because of that, young people wrote better applications and felt more energised and supported. Because of that, more young people got jobs in sustainability, and were able to influence change. Until finally, the network became so valuable both personally and professionally, that young people wondered why they had waited so long to get together.’

Questions work better than answers
Another of Dan Pink’s selling tips is that asking questions is a more effective way of engaging people than giving answers. Asking questions makes people think. So what do you think? Does my ‘PIxar PItch’ make you want to come on the course?

Selling is personal: be yourself
One more thing. I promised to tell you about my brush with inauthenticity when selling. I was trying to write a strap line for my website. I was so convinced by Dan Pink of the value of asking questions, that I turned my strapline into a question. I’m too embarrassed to share it with you. I sent my brilliant strap line to a friend who works in communications, and also to my web-designer, who happens to be American. I thought, being American, that she would like Dan Pink’s influencing style. Both my web designer and my friend came back with the same message: ‘Interesting idea! But it’s not you.’ They are, of course, quite right. But do read Dan Pink's book 'To Sell is Human'.

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www.kellowlearning.com